King George VI in U.S

On this day in 1939, with war clouds looming over the European horizon, King George VI was the first British monarch to visit the United States. The king and his wife Queen Elizabeth, entered the country for a stay of five days, when he crossed the US-Canadian border in Niagara Falls, NY

President Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged to visit the royal couple to increase popular support for U.S. aid to Britain and Nazi Germany has become a threat to European stability. Less than three months later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Large crowds thronged the streets of Washington, DC, to welcome the king and queen after their train arrived at Union Station from June 08. In the afternoon a reception at the British embassy was followed by an official dinner and music night at the White House.

In his second day in the capital, the royal couple visited the city before boarding the presidential yacht and sail the Potomac River at Mount Vernon. Also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

After a stopover in New York to visit the British pavilion at Expo, the king and queen joined the president and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt for an informal dinner at his home in Hyde Park, New York, overlooking the river Hudson. The next day, to the chagrin of the president's mother, Sara Roosevelt, the king and queen were served hot dogs, strawberry shortcake with an informal picnic on Sunday.

"They [Roosevelt] is a beautiful and united family," wrote the Queen in a letter to Queen Mary, the mother-in-law, and thus how people live when they get their English country house.