Although CNN didn’t launch until June 1980, I’ve tried to collect material from earlier presidential cycles. Hopefully, these items will add perspective to the post-1976 material. The items were obtained from numerous sources, including other collectors, auction sites, antique shops and online sites. With so many years to choose from, this section should grow significantly in the future.
Herbert Hoover sits for the first public mechanical television transmission in America on April 7, 1927
Franklin Roosevelt becomes the first sitting president to deliver an address on television at the opening of the World’s Fair in 1939
President Harry Truman delivers the first State of the Union address on January 6, 1947
Richard Nixon with dog Checkers, who he discussed in his famous “Checkers speech”
Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy at the first ever televised presidential debate in 1960
Walter Cronkite interviewing President John F. Kennedy for a segment to promote the first half-hour long National Network News broadcast
