Today in History, June 1st
On June 1, 1980, CNN launched as the first 24-hour TV news network. Plus Kentucky statehood and the death of Helen Keller.
Published
June 1 is best known for 1980, when Ted Turner’s CNN went on the air from Atlanta as the first 24-hour television news network. The date also marks Kentucky’s admission as the 15th state in 1792 and the death of Helen Keller in 1968.
The big story: CNN goes on the air (1980)
No one had ever tried to run a television channel that was nothing but news, all day and all night. Georgia businessman Ted Turner bet that people would watch news around the clock. His Cable News Network launched from Atlanta that day, billed as the world’s first 24-hour television news network. Its first big story was the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. The early years were rough. CNN lost money, and critics nicknamed it the “Chicken Noodle Network.” Turner kept at it, and in 1983 he bought out Satellite News Channel, his main cable rival, which was partly owned by ABC. The payoff came in 1991, when CNN’s live coverage of the Persian Gulf War drew audiences around the world. As cable spread through the 1990s, the always-on news cycle CNN pioneered became the norm.
More events on June 1
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1779 | Benedict Arnold’s court-martial on 13 counts of misconduct convened in Philadelphia. He was cleared of most charges but reprimanded by George Washington, which fed his anger. |
| 1792 | Kentucky was admitted to the Union as the 15th state. |
| 1941 | Crete fell to Germany after a huge airborne invasion. The last of about 20,000 surviving Allied troops had been evacuated to Egypt. |
| 1958 | With an uprising underway in Algiers, Charles de Gaulle appeared before the French National Assembly as prime minister designate. |
| 1968 | Helen Keller died in Connecticut at 87. Deaf and blind from 19 months old, she graduated from Radcliffe and lectured around the world. |
| 1974 | Cincinnati surgeon Henry Heimlich published his abdominal-thrust technique for choking victims in the journal Emergency Medicine. |
| 1990 | At a Washington summit, Presidents George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to end chemical weapons production and cut both arsenals by 80 percent. |
| 2002 | The Czech Republic’s “dark-sky law,” the world’s first national law limiting light pollution, took effect. |
| 2009 | General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It returned to the stock market in 2010 with one of the largest IPOs in U.S. history. |
Born on June 1
- 1801: Brigham Young, second president of the Mormon church, who chose the site of Salt Lake City, born in Whitingham, Vermont.
- 1926: Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles, one of the best-known film stars and sex symbols of the 1950s.
- 1937: Morgan Freeman, Academy Award–winning actor of Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption, born in Memphis, Tennessee.
Sources
- CNN launches, History.com
- On This Day: June 1, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- This Day in History: June 1, History.com
- Benedict Arnold is court-martialed, History.com
- Kentucky: History, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Helen Keller dies, History.com
- Superpowers to destroy chemical weapons, History.com
- Brigham Young, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Marilyn Monroe, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Morgan Freeman, Encyclopaedia Britannica
