Here are four events that happened on this date and a trivia question.
August 11, 1924
Calvin Coolidge becomes the first U.S. president to appear in a sound newsreel.
August 11, 1929
Babe Ruth hits his 500th home run. The story appears on the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s front page the next day.
August 11, 1948
If you were watching the ABC television network on August 11, 1948, you might have seen their first regular newscast. They called it “News and Views.” H.R. Baukhage and Jim Gibbons served as the program’s anchors. Here is a partial list of ABC evening news network anchors (1948-2014):
H.R. Baukhage and Jim Gibbons, (“News and Views”)
August 11, 1948 — April 1951
Anchor unknown (“After the Deadlines”)
April 1951 — October 1952
Anchor unknown (“All Star News”)
October 9, 1952 — October 1953
John Charles Daly, October 12, 1953 — December 1960
ABC tried various anchor formats during the period,
December 1960 — March 1962. Program anchors included: former NBC anchor John Cameron Swayze, Bill Shadel, Edward P. Morgan, Bill Lawrence, Howard K. Smith, Bill Sheehan and Fendall Yerxa
Ron Cochran, March 1962 — January 1965
Peter Jennings, February 1, 1965 — December 29, 1967
Bob Young, January 1968 — May 1968
Frank Reynolds, May 27, 1968 — May 1969
Frank Reynolds and Howard K. Smith, May 26, 1969 — December 1970
Harry Reasoner and co-anchor Howard K. Smith, December 1970 — 1975
Harry Reasoner and commentator Howard K. Smith, 1975 — October 1976
Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters, October 4, 1976 — July 1978
Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings, Max Robinson
July 10, 1978 — September 1983
Peter Jennings, September 1983 — 2005
(He died of lung cancer on August 7, 2005)
Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff, January 3, 2006 — May 2006
Charles Gibson, May 29, 2006 — December 18, 2009
Diane Sawyer, December 21, 2009 — September 2014
September 2, 2014 —
David Muir, anchor and managing editor of “World News”
and
George Stephanopoulos, chief anchor of ABC News
See Also:
“Diane Sawyer to Step Down as ‘World News’ Anchor“
ABC News, June 25, 2014
(Video: “Peter Jennings 1960s Highlights)
August 11, 2012
Pulitzer Prize finalist story published:
“Rebels carve out large enclave in north Syria”
International Reporting Category (2013)
“Staff of the Associated Press for its brave portrayal of the chaotic civil war in Syria, using text stories as well as multimedia tools to provide on-the-ground accounts as well as wider context, often at personal peril to the journalists.”
Media History Trivia Question
“Journalism is literature in a hurry.” Who said that? (Answer)
