Since when has Congress NOT had a foreign dignitary speak

The Marquis de Lafayette, the French general and Revolutionary War hero, was the first foreign dignitary to address the House of Representatives. Lafayette delivered a speech before a meeting in the House Chamber on December 10, 1824.

The first non-head of state to address a Joint Meeting of Congress was Polish Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa in 1989. Nelson Mandela, then Deputy President of the African National Congress addressed a Joint Session in 1990.

Including Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, who addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress on 18 September 2014, there have been 114 Joint Meeting addresses delivered by foreign leaders and dignitaries extending back to King David Kalakaua of Hawaii in 1874.

Including Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, 110 leaders or dignitaries have addressed Joint Meetings of Congress. (Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and Yitzak Rabin have addressed Congress multiple times.)

Twelve (12) women have addressed Joint Meetings of Congress. Queen Juliana of the Netherlands was the first (3 April 1952). Others who followed include: Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (21 April 1982), UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (20 February 1985), Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino (18 September 1986), Prime Minister of Pakistan (7 June 1989), Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (16 April 1991), Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (16 May 1991), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia (15 March 2006), Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia (7 June 2006), Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (3 November 2009), Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia (9 March 2011), and Park Geun Hye, President of the Republic of Korea (8 May 2013).

Two different families have had multiple generations of descendents address the Congress. Both Queen Juliana (1952), and her daughter Queen Beatrix (1982) have addressed Joint Sessions. Queen Wilhelmina (Juliana’s mother and Beatrix’s grandmother) addressed the Senate with the House as an invited guest in 1942. Both King Hussein I (1994) and King Hussein II (2007) have addressed Joint Sessions.

The years in which the greatest number of foreign leaders or dignitaries have addressed Joint Meetings of Congress: 1976 (5), 1985 (5), 1954 (4), 1959 (4), 1960 (4), 1989 (4), and 1994 (4).

France and Great Britain have the distinction of sending the most leaders or dignitaries to deliver joint meeting addresses before Congress, with eight Joint Meeting addresses by heads of state or dignitaries a piece. In descending order other countries leading the list of Joint Meeting addresses include: Israel (7), Mexico (7), Italy (6), Ireland (6), the Republic of Korea (6), Germany, including West Germany and unified Germany (5), India (4), Canada (3), Argentina (3), Australia (3), and the Philippines (3).

Winston Churchill made more addresses to Congress than any other individual. He addressed Joint Meetings in 1941, 1943, and 1952. Nelson Mandela of South Africa has addressed Congress twice, in 1990 and 1994. Yitzak Rabin of Israel also addressed Joint Meetings of Congress on two occasions, in 1976 and 1994.

The purpose of a Joint Meeting has usually been for Congress to hear an address from an important figure—generally a visiting foreign leader. This practice became a standard part of foreign leaders’ state visits to the United States after 1945. In the early Congresses, a Joint Session or a House Reception was often used for the address.

There are two known instances of unofficial addresses by foreign leaders to the House and Senate in the House Chamber. Referred to as a Joint Caucus of the House and Senate, President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica and President José Napoleón Duarte gave informal addresses on September 22, 1987, and October 15, 1987, respectively.

Date	Addresses by Foreign Heads-of-State and Dignitaries¹
September 18, 2014	Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 8, 2013	Park Geun Hye, President of Republic of Korea addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
October 13, 2011	Lee Myung-bak, President of Republic of Korea addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 24, 2011	Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 9, 2011	Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 20, 2010	Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, President of Mexico addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 3, 2009	Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 4, 2009	Gordon Brown, Prime Minster of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 30, 2008	Bertie Ahern, Prime Minister of Ireland addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 7, 2007	Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 7, 2007	King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 26, 2006	Dr. Nouri Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 7, 2006	Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 24, 2006	Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 15, 2006	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 1, 2006	Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 19, 2005	Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 6, 2005	Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 23, 2004	Ayad Allawi, Interim Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 15, 2004	Hamid Karzai, Prime Minister of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 4, 2004	Jose Maria Aznar, President of the Government of Spain addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 17, 2003	Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 12, 2002	John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress. The scheduled address by Prime Minister John Howard of Australia to a Joint Meeting of Congress on September 12, 2001, was cancelled.
September 6, 2001	Vicente Fox, President of Mexico addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 14, 2000	Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 15, 1998	Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 10, 1998	Kim Dae-jung, President of South Korea, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 27, 1997	Eduardo Frei, President of Chile, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 11, 1996	John Bruton, Prime Minister of Ireland, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 10, 1996	Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 1, 1996	Jacques Chirac, President of France, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
December 12, 1995	Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 26, 1995	Kim Yong-sam, President of South Korea, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
October 6, 1994	Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 26, 1994	Hussein I, King of Jordan, and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 18, 1994	Narasimba Rao, Prime Minister of India, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 17, 1992	Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 30, 1992	Richard von Weizsäcker, President of Germany, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 14, 1991	Carlos Saul Menem, President of Argentina, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 16, 1991	Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 16, 1991	Violeta B. de Chamorro, President of Nicaragua, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 26, 1990	Nelson Mandela, Deputy President of the African National Congress, South Africa, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 7, 1990	Giulio Andreotti, President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 21, 1990	Vaclav Hável, President of Czechoslovakia, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 15, 1989	Lech Walesa, chairman of Solidarnoœæ labor union, Poland, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 18, 1989	Roh Tae Woo, President of South Korea, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
October 4, 1989	Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of Mexico, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 7, 1989	Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 23, 1988	Robert Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 27, 1988	Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 10, 1987	Chaim Herzog, President of Israel, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 18, 1986	Corazon C. Aquino, President of the Philippines, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 11, 1986	Jose Sarney, President of Brazil, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
October 9, 1985	Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 13, 1985	Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 20, 1985	Raul Alfonsin, President Argentina, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress
March 6, 1985	Bettino Craxi, President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 20, 1985	Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 16, 1984	Miguel de la Madrid, President of Mexico, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 22, 1984	François Mitterand, President of France, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 15, 1984	Dr. Garett FitzGerald, Prime Minister of Ireland, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
October 5, 1983	Karl Carstens, President of West Germany, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 21, 1982	Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 22, 1977	Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau of Canada addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 23, 1976	President William R. Tolbert, Jr., of Liberia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 2, 1976	Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 18, 1976	President Valery Giscard d’Estaing of France addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 17, 1976	Prime Minister Liam Cosgrave of Ireland addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
January 28, 1976	Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 5, 1975	President Anwar El Sadat of Egypt addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 17, 1975	President Walter Scheel of West Germany addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 15, 1972	President Luis Echeverria Alvarez of Mexico addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 3, 1970	President Rafael Caldera of Venezuela addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 25, 1970	President Georges Pompidou of France addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
October 27, 1967	President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz of Mexico addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 15, 1966	President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 28, 1964	President Eamon de Valera of Ireland addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
January 15, 1964	President Antonio Segni of Italy addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 12, 1962	Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 4, 1962	President Joao Goulart of Brazil addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 21, 1961	President Manuel Prado of Peru addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 12, 1961	President Mohammad Ayub Khan of Pakistan addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 4, 1961	President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 29, 1960	Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 28, 1960	Mahendra, King of Nepal addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 25, 1960	President Charles de Gaulle of France addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 6, 1960	President Alberto Lleras-Camargo of Columbia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 12, 1959	Baudouin, King of the Belgians, addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 18, 1959	President Sean T. O’Kelly of Ireland addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
March 11, 1959	President Jose Maria Lemus of El Salvador addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
January 21, 1959	President Arturo Frondizi of Argentina addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 18, 1958	President Carlos F. Garcia of the Philippines addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 5, 1958	President Theodor Heuss of West Germany addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 9, 1957	President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 17, 1956	President Sukarno of Indonesia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
February 29, 1956	President Giovanni Gronchi of Italy addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
January 27, 1955	President Paul E. Magliore of Haiti addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
July 28, 1954	President Syngman Rhee of South Korea addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 28, 1954	Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 4, 1954	Governor General Vincent Massey of Canada addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
January 29, 1954	President Celal Bayar of Turkey addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 3, 1952	Queen Juliana of the Netherlands addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
January 17, 1952	Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
September 24, 1951	Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi of Italy addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
June 21, 1951	President Galo Plaza of Ecuador addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 2, 1951	President Vincent Auriol of France addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 19, 1949	President Gaspar Dutra of Brazil addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
April 19, 1948	Ambassador Guillermo Belt of Cuba addressed a Joint Session of Congress held to memorialize the 50th anniversary of Cuban independence.
May 1, 1947	President Miguel Aleman of Mexico addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
November 13, 1945	Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 19, 1943	Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
December 26, 1941	Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress.
May 20, 1934	Ambassador Andre’ de Laboulaye of France addressed a Joint Session of Congress held to memorialize the centennial anniversary of the death of Lafayette.
December 18, 1874	A Joint Meeting of Congress is held to receive King Kalakaua of Hawaii.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.