ABC News anchor Peter Jennings was at the news desk for quite some time…as a Canadian-American journalist who served as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight for 22 years from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005….for despite dropping out of high school, he transformed himself into one of American television’s most prominent journalists….whereas, Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at the age of nine. He began his professional career with CJOH-TV in Ottawa during its early years, anchoring the local newscasts and hosting a teen dance show, Saturday Date, on Saturdays. In 1965….when ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. His inexperience was attacked by critics and others in television news….making for a difficult first stint in the anchor chair….so, Jennings became a foreign correspondent in 1968 by reporting from the Middle East.
He returned as one of World News Tonight‘s three anchors in 1978….and was promoted to the role of sole anchor in 1983….where Jennings became known for his marathon coverage of breaking news stories by staying on the air for 15 or more hours straight to anchor the live broadcast of events such as the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991….the Millennium celebrations in 2000…..and the September 11 attacks in 2001. In addition to anchoring, he was the host of many ABC News special reports and moderated several American presidential debates….for Jennings was always fascinated with the United States and became a naturalized United States citizen in 2003.
Along with Tom Brokaw at NBC and Dan Rather at CBS….Peter Jennings formed part of the “Big Three” news anchors…..who dominated American evening network news from the early 1980’s until his death in 2005…..which closely followed the retirements of Brokaw in 2004 and Rather in 2005….as this video is just another “thumbprint of history” that we have in our library.
