.....was June 6th, 1944, D-Day, the beginning of history's biggest military invasion.
At the time, television was a limited and experimental plaything (despite some commercial TV station licenses having been granted by the FCC), so millions followed the minute-by-minute news on radio.
The first bulletins, quoting a German source, were broadcast at 12:37 A.M. Eastern time. It wouldn't be until just after 3:30 (almost there hours later) that the Allies confirm,ed the invasion by the reading of an official communique which was relayed across the Atlantic by shortwave radio and rebroadcast on the American networks, who then wiped-out hours upon hours of regular programs to carry news coverage of the invasion.
You can go to http://www.archive.org , type-in "D-Day broadcast" in the "Search" box, and you will have a list of links you can click-on to hear various broadcast recordings of radio news coverage, some of it going back to the first German claims and the long wait to find out if the Allies would confirm it. I have heard a lot of it over the years, and I can tell you that much of it is compelling listening.
At the time, television was a limited and experimental plaything (despite some commercial TV station licenses having been granted by the FCC), so millions followed the minute-by-minute news on radio.
The first bulletins, quoting a German source, were broadcast at 12:37 A.M. Eastern time. It wouldn't be until just after 3:30 (almost there hours later) that the Allies confirm,ed the invasion by the reading of an official communique which was relayed across the Atlantic by shortwave radio and rebroadcast on the American networks, who then wiped-out hours upon hours of regular programs to carry news coverage of the invasion.
You can go to http://www.archive.org , type-in "D-Day broadcast" in the "Search" box, and you will have a list of links you can click-on to hear various broadcast recordings of radio news coverage, some of it going back to the first German claims and the long wait to find out if the Allies would confirm it. I have heard a lot of it over the years, and I can tell you that much of it is compelling listening.
