Attorney General Charles Bonaparte created a force of Special Agents composed of former detectives and Secret Service men who became the forerunners of the FBI. The federal government used the bureau as a tool to investigate criminals who evaded prosecution by passing over state lines, and within a few years the number of agents had grown to more than 300.

Originally a part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the Department of Labor was created as a separate entity by a law signed by President William Taft just hours before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. The bureaus and agencies specializing in labor were transferred to the new Department of Labor.

AT&T inaugurated the first telephone service clear across the continent, with a ceremonial call between New York and San Francisco. AT&T’s invention of the high vacuum tube amplifier, the first device to provide meaningful amplification of an electrical signal, made the achievement possible.

In August of 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act which established the National Park Service as a new federal bureau responsible for protecting the national parks and monuments. The National Park Service now manages 84 million acres across all U.S. states and territories and has served as a model for countries around the world.

AT&T designed and built the first air-ground two-way radio communications systems, so U.S. Army pilots could communicate with ground personnel. Few if any of these systems entered service before the war ended.

Former President William Howard Taft was sworn in as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, making him the only person to have served in both of these offices. He served as Chief Justice for eight years before his retirement in 1930.

AT&T, working with the British Postal Telephone Service, inaugurated the first telephone service across the Atlantic Ocean. The conversations traveled by radio waves, connecting with the wired telephone networks on each end.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the national anthem by a congressional resolution signed into law by President Herbert Hoover in 1913. In September of that same year, the song was played at a World Series game between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox and thereafter during each game of the series.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt named Frances Perkins to the position of Labor Secretary in 1933. She was the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States, and she became the longest-service Secretary of Labor and brought an unwavering commitment to social reform to the position.

Eight days after taking office, President Roosevelt delivered his first fireside chat. This series of evening radio addresses allowed President Roosevelt to speak directly to Americans about his policies, while also communicating self-assuredness during a time of uncertainty.

AT&T designed and built over half of all radar and sonar equipment used by U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. While much of the original research on radar was done elsewhere in the 1930s, the actual designs incorporated numerous AT&T improvements. Radar was used in airplanes and ships, as well as by land-based units. Major systems included several intercept radar systems, gun directors, sea search radar systems, and bombsight systems.

Following the establishment of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services), Grace Hopper enlisted in the US Navy Reserve in 1943. She graduated first in her class and was immediately assigned to the programming staff for the new Mark I computer at Harvard University.

AT&T designed and manufactured the first high-security telephone communications system, SIGSALY. At the time, all transoceanic calls crossed via radio waves, so calls could be intercepted by the enemy. SIGSALY scrambled the transmissions using an unbreakable one-time code. The Signal Corps installed SIGSALY systems for use by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and at military headquarters around the globe.

With the aim of preventing future wars, the United Nations was established in 1945 after the conclusion of World War II. Fifty countries came together to draft the UN charter, which stated a commitment to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, and promoting social progress, better living standards, and human rights.

Following World War II, the National Security Act of 1947 was passed to restructure much of the U.S.’s military and intelligence agencies, leading to the creation of the Department of Defense. In September 1947, the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense.

The CIA was also created as part of the National Security Act of 1947. President Harry Truman appointed the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Group, Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, to be the first Director of the CIA. One third of the CIA’s personnel at the time were OSS veterans.

Three physicists at AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories invented the transistor, the first solid state amplifier and switch. They shared the Nobel Prize for their work. The transistor is the foundational device of all modern electronics.

First named the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in April 1953, the Department of Health and Human Services was created under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The first Secretary of the department was Oveta Culp Hobby, who was a former Commander of the Women's Army Corps in World War II and was editor and publisher of the Houston Post.

In 1959, the U.S. admitted two new states to the Union, Alaska and Hawaii. Both territories of the U.S. for decades prior to this, these new states completed their long journeys to statehood in the same year, becoming the last two admitted to the Union.

AT&T designed and by 1963 implemented the communications system at NORAD (North American Air Defense) Command headquarters, connecting the complex in Colorado with the U.S. and Canadian telecom networks in a linkage designed to withstand nuclear attack. NORAD incorporated the late-1950s SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) networked computer system for which AT&T devised and provided the modems, teleprinters and communication infrastructure.

In February of 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, a trip that was made possible by the work of Katherine Johnson. This NASA research mathematician verified the calculations made by early electronic computers for the successful launch.

Working with NASA, AT&T designed, built, and launched the world’s first active communications satellite. A wildly successful experiment, among other things it allowed for the first live transoceanic video transmission.

AT&T planned, designed and then managed the domestic portion of AUTOVON (Automatic Voice Network), the first switched network to connect U.S. military facilities around the world. It offered both regular and encrypted voice and data transmission.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development was created by the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 as a cabinet-level agency as part of the “Great Society” program of President Lyndon B. Johnson. This act initiated a leased housing program to make privately owned housing available to low-income families.

Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to increase the number of people registered to vote in certain areas where there was a previous record of discrimination. The act outlawed these discriminatory voting practices adopted after the Civil War in many southern states.

President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Department of Transportation in 1967, per the suggestion of Najeeb Halaby, administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency. The post was established with the purpose of creating, developing, and coordinating policies to provide an efficient and economical national transportation system.

"Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins embarked on the Apollo 11 mission to complete the national goal set by President John F. Kennedy eight years prior to land humans on the moon. The astronauts successfully completed this historic mission and returned to Earth in eight days.

Working on a DEC PDP-7 minicomputer, researchers at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories created the UNIX computer operating system, the first operating system designed to be hardware independent. UNIX derivatives eventually became the underlying language of the Internet, and operating systems for much of the world’s computing and smartphone systems.

In February 1975, Alice Rivlin was sworn in as CBO’s first Director by Speaker of the House Carl Albert. Under her leadership, CBO started to provide the Congress with objective and independent estimates of proposed legislation’s costs and effects and projections of economic and budgetary outcomes under current law.

In 1976, Elliot Richardson was appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Gerald Ford. At the time he was serving as Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and prior to that, he served as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Secretary of Defense, and Attorney General.

The energy crisis of the 1970s demonstrated the need for unified energy planning within the federal government. Created by the Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, the DOE provided a framework for a comprehensive national energy plan by coordinating federal energy functions.

Under President Jimmy Carter, Dwight Ink headed the Personnel Management Project on Civil Service Reform. He was a key designer in what is called the most important reform of the federal civil service since its founding.

In October 1979, Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act, which combined offices from several federal agencies. President Jimmy Carter wanted to allow the federal government to “meet its responsibilities in education more effectively, more efficiently, and more responsively.”

In 1981, Susan Solomon began her work at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration investigating the potential connection between CFCs and the ozone hole. Her work at NOAA lasted for most of her career, ending with her departure in 2011.

AT&T launched America’s first commercial cellular system in Chicago. It was the end-result of an idea conceived by an AT&T researcher in 1947 and developed into a practical system by other company researchers in the 1970s.

After working at the NIH for 16 years, Anthony Fauci became the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In this role, he has been responsible for an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research on infectious and immune-mediated illnesses.

In 1989, the Veterans Administration became the cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department's mission is to serve American veterans and their families with dignity and compassion and to be their principal advocate in ensuring that they receive the care, support, and recognition earned in service to this nation.

Dr. Robert Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 until 1993. He is the only career officer in CIA's history to rise from entry-level employee to Director.

In July 1996, Hubert T. Bell began his duties as the new Inspector General of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Bell’s 54 years of federal service includes 29 years in the Secret Service followed by 22 years as the inspector general of the NRC.

Appointed by President George W. Bush, Colin Powell was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be Secretary of State. He served for four years and was the first African American to hold the position.

Norman Mineta who served as Secretary of Transportation in President George W. Bush’s cabin. Following President Bush's re-election, Mineta was invited to continue in the position, which he did until resigning in June 2006, making him the longest-serving Secretary of Transportation.

The Department of Homeland Security was established in 2002, combining 22 different federal departments and agencies into a unified, integrated Cabinet agency. The department has its origins in the nation’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In 2004, Constance Berry Newman was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs by President Bush. She had a central role in several aspects of U.S.-Africa policy, specifically with Sudan's Darfur region.

AT&T was selected by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to build and manage the first broadband network dedicated to America’s police, firefighters and emergency medical services (EMS). The FirstNet network will cover all 50 states, 5 U.S. territories and the District of Columbia, including rural communities and tribal lands in those states and territories.

In 2018, Donna Shalala was elected to the House of Representatives in Florida’s 27th Congressional District. She previously served as the 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and as President of the University of Miami before running for Congress.

On September 19, 2019, Government Executive Media Group held the first annual Government Hall of Fame Gala at the National Cathedral. During the evening, 20 people were inducted into the inaugural class of the Government Hall of Fame.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Government Executive Media Group took the second annual Government Hall of Fame Gala celebration online. Through a series of exciting virtual events, 13 additional people who dedicated their lives to public service were inducted into the 2020 class of the Government Hall of Fame.