TODAY IN HISTORY

 

CNN launches

On June 1, 1980, CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. 

CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 90 million American households and over 370 million households and hotel rooms internationally 

CNN was the brainchild of Robert “Ted” Turner, a colorful, outspoken businessman dubbed the “Mouth of the South.” Turner was born on November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and as a child moved with his family to Georgia, where his father ran a successful billboard advertising company. After his father died by suicide in 1963, Turner took over the business and expanded it. In 1970, he bought a failing Atlanta TV station that broadcast old movies and network reruns and within a few years Turner had transformed it into a “superstation,” a concept he pioneered, in which the station was beamed by satellite into homes across the country. Turner later bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and aired their games on his network, TBS (Turner Broadcasting System). In 1977, Turner gained international fame when he sailed his yacht to victory in the prestigious America’s Cup race.

In its first years of operation, CNN lost money and was ridiculed as the Chicken Noodle Network. However, Turner continued to invest in building up the network’s news bureaus around the world and in 1983, he bought Satellite News Channel, owned in part by ABC, and thereby eliminated CNN’s main competitor. CNN eventually came to be known for covering live events around the world as they happened, often beating the major networks to the punch. The network gained significant traction with its live coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the network’s audience grew along with the increasing popularity of cable television during the 1990s and well into the new millennium.

COLD WAR

1990

George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev agree to end production of chemical weapons

At a superpowers summit meeting in Washington, D.C., U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a historic agreement to end production of chemical weapons and begin the destruction of both nations’ sizable reserves of them. 

WOMEN’S HISTORY

1968

Writer and lecturer Helen Keller dies

On June 1, 1968, Helen Keller dies in Easton, Connecticut, at the age of 87. Blind and deaf from infancy, Keller became a world-renowned writer and lecturer. Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, on a farm near Tuscumbia, Alabama. 

WORLD WAR II

1941

Crete falls to German forces

During World War II, Crete, the last Allied stronghold in Greece, is captured by German forces at high cost to both sides. In late 1940, the Greek army, reinforced by the British air force, decisively repulsed an Italian invasion of their nation. In April 1941, these triumphs turned to defeat when Nazi leader Adolf Hitler turned his undefeated German Wehrmacht against the country.

INVENTIONS & SCIENCE

1934

Nissan Motor Company founded

On June 1, 1934, the Tokyo-based Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha (Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in English) takes on a new name: Nissan Motor Company. Jidosha-Seizo Kabushiki-Kaisha had been established in December 1933. 

WORLD WAR II

1942

News of Holocaust death camp killings becomes public for first time

On June 1, 1942, a Warsaw underground newspaper, the Liberty Brigade, makes public the news of the gassing of tens of thousands of Jews at Chelmno, a Nazi-operated death camp in Poland—almost seven months after extermination of prisoners began. 

U.S. PRESIDENTS

1900

Future President Hoover caught in Boxer Rebellion

On June 1, 1900, future President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou are caught in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion in China. After marrying in Monterey, California, on February 10, 1899, Herbert and Lou Hoover left on a honeymoon cruise to China, where Hoover was to start a new  job as a mining consultant to the Chinese emperor with the consulting group Bewick, Moreing and Co. 

WESTWARD EXPANSION

1871

Old West outlaw John Wesley Hardin arrives in Abilene

John Wesley Hardin, one of the deadliest men in the history of the Old West, arrives in Abilene, Kansas, where he briefly becomes friends with Marshal Wild Bill Hickok. Hardin revealed a tendency toward violent rages at an early age. 

ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY

1967

The Beatles release “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

Bob Dylan’s instant reaction to the recently completed album Paul McCartney brought by his London hotel room for a quick listen in the spring of 1967 may not sound like the most thoughtful analysis ever offered, but it still hit the nail on the head. 

ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY

1926

Marilyn Monroe born

Norma Jeane Mortenson—who will become better known around the world as the glamorous actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe—is born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. She was later given her mother’s name, and baptized Norma Jeane Baker. 

CRIME

2004

Opening statements begin in Scott Peterson murder trial

On June 1, 2004, opening statements begin in the trial of Scott Peterson, accused of murdering his wife Laci and the couple’s unborn son. On Christmas Eve 2002, the pregnant Laci had disappeared from Modesto, California.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1779

Benedict Arnold is court-martialed

The court-martial of Benedict Arnold convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After a relatively clean record in the early days of the American Revolution, Arnold was charged with 13 counts of misbehavior, including misusing government wagons and illegally buying and selling goods. Although his notorious betrayal was still many months away, Arnold’s resentment over this order and the perceived mistreatment by the American Army would fuel his traitorous decision.