memorable state of the unions in the past. welcome back. we begin this hour with the breaking news in turkey and syria where tens of thousands of emergency workers continuing the frantic search for survivors from the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake responsible for killing more than 5,000 people already. more than 23,000 people have been injured. turkey s president erdogan saying that ten cities within his country are disaster zones and declaing a three-month state of emergency. countries pledge their support. matt bradley is in turkey. turkish officials say they have made 8,000 rescues. what are you seeing there today? reporter: yeah, we have not seen anyone taken out alive from this building, one of 6,000 here in turkey that the government says have been completely levelled by those twin earthquakes, some of the most devastating, most powerful this region has ever seen. this neighborhood is reeling from this event, even though this appears to be one of the only buildi
ahead of the president s address tonight, steve kornacki is looking at some of the unique state of the union moments from past years and including how the tradition of presidents inviting guests began. joining us now nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki. steve, take us back to how this tradition started. i was there for this one. this is quite a story. we all know how this goes, right? it will probably happen tonight at some point during the speech, the president will recognize somebody sitting up in the gallery, maybe an everyday american, maybe a prominent person, but somebody whose story dove tails with the president s message, with the president s agenda, with the policy proposal, or maybe just designed to sort of lift the national spirit a little bit. where that began, what it all goes back to was january of 1982, ronald reagan s state of the union address, just two weeks before this state of the union address, there had been a tragedy, an air florida jetline