NBC News TV Station is formed February 21, 1940 in New York City.
CBS - WCBW becomes a commercial station and is the first to have a dedicated TV news broadcast, at 2:30pm and 7:30pm, scripted and read by Richard Hubbell.
Voice Of America (VOA) is formed. This international shortwave radio station is a way for other countries to find out about American news and culture. It is also a conduit for propaganda for democratic forces fighting communism following WWII. It will go on to use radio, television and the internet in the coming years to promote the US government’s agenda around the world.
ABC news is created. Following an FCC order, NBC separates itself into NBC Blue and NBC Red. The Blue network was later sold and renamed the American Broadcasting Corporation.
ABC News TV Station launches on June 15, 1945 in Manhattan, NY, with half-hour nightly news broadcasts.
World War II (WWII) was a global war that lasted from 1939 to September 2, 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances known as the Allies and the Axis. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, causing 70 to 85 million fatalities, approximately 3 percent of the world’s population. The vast majority of those who died in history’s deadliest war were civilians, including more than 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust--the genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations. It is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world. The UN was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future wars; it officially came into existence on October 24, 1945--just a month after WWII’s end.
CBS broadcasts a series on the US atomic bomb tests in the Bikini Atoll. CBS turned the event into a 9-part series on the implications of atomic weapons for world order and the dangers to humanity.
The Cold War was a global conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR), lasting from 1947 to 1991. The Cold War was a rivalry--and ultimately a struggle for world dominance--that developed after World War II between the two countries and their respective allies. It's called the Cold War because no actual military engagement took place between the United States and the USSR. Instead, it was waged mostly on political, economic, and propaganda fronts, and fighting took place in proxy wars conducted in "third-world" countries. The United States and USSR clashed over their economic and political philosophies. As a capitalist, democratic nation, the U.S. sought to promote free elections and free markets. As a communist, totalitarian state, the USSR sought to ensure the security of its borders and the political dominance of the Communist party.
First presidential address is broadcast on television from the White House by President Harry S. Truman, who speaks about food conservation and the world food crisis. Most American households still do not have access to television in the 1940s, but the medium is growing rapidly. Ten years later, two thirds of US households will have a television.
