The Daily Nightly began on May 31, 2005. As Brian wrote in his first post it aims to provide a narrative of the broadcast day and a window into the editorial process at NBC Nightly News. Brian weighs in every weekday and NBC News correspondents and producers post regularly.
Brian Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor in the history of NBC Nightly News on December 2, 2004. Read his full biography.
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On Dec. 13, 2003, the U.S. military caught up with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein who had been in hiding since the beginning of the U.S. invasion. Here, NBC's Richard Engel remembers his tour of Saddam's "spider hole" and the tiny farmhouse where he lived in squalor.
I looked down into the hole through its tiny entrance, a square no bigger than a placemat. It felt like I was looking into an underground cave that had been accidentally discovered by a child who slipped in and was now trapped. I was on my knees, peering into the opening, my head below ground. It was dark, musty and damp, and the air didn’t circulate. It seemed like the kind of a place where spiders would live.
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On Dec. 4, 1992, President George Bush announced that he was sending troops into Somalia on a humanitarian relief effort. Here, NBC News Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski recalls that announcement and the ensuing conflict that resulted in the now infamous "Black Hawk Down" battle.
In the final weeks of 1992, I like most White House correspondents, was focused on the transition to President-elect Bill Clinton who had just defeated President George Bush. The last thing on our minds was the possibility that the lame-duck President Bush would order U.S. military forces into a high-risk mission overseas. Somalia? It sent most of us reporters scrambling for a world atlas.
On Dec. 4, President Bush delivered an oval office address to the nation in which he announced Operation Restore Hope, a mission designed to ensure that vital relief reached more than 1 million starving refugees caught in the middle of a violent civil war in the East African nation of Somalia. 80 percent of desperately-needed food and medical relief was stolen by armed militias. 500,000 Somali civilians had already been killed or starved to death. It was a human disaster.
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On. Nov. 28, 1994, the notorious necrophiliac and cannibalistic murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered by another inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wis.
Dahmer was found guilty in 1991 of 15 counts of murder and sentenced to 15 life terms - one of the harshest sentences ever imposed in Wisconsin's legal history. Dahmer met his fate along with inmate Jesse Anderson at the hands of Christopher Scarver, who beat both of the men to death while they were on unsupervised work detail.
Dahmer's remains were cremated and, because of an argument between his parents, were divided in half between his birth mother Joyce, and his father and stepmother, Lionel and Shari.
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On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. It is difficult if not impossible to offer new information on this historic incident -- a behind-the-scenes glimpse of one the most notorious assassinations in modern history. Yet, in spite of the depth and breadth of knowledge surrounding Kennedy's death, the intrigue remains.
Perhaps it is due to conspiracy theories that still abound; perhaps it is the pondering over the years about what could have been had Kennedy survived. More than four decades later, one thing is certain: Kennedy's assassination was a defining moment -- a tragedy experienced on a scale, and received at a speed, previously unknown.
Here, NBC News Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss offers his reflections upon the assassination and the days that followed, and discusses how Kennedy's murder became not just an infamous moment in history, but a turning point for the way news is delivered and consumed:
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Our blog series looking at past news events will not appear today as it normally does on Mondays. Instead, we will offer a special Real to Reel package on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Our piece will reflect on the assassination and how it changed news reporting.
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As you step off the elevators on the third floor of 30 Rockefeller, the home of Nightly News, you can't help but see the large, glass display case that fills the center of the foyer.
Inside are numerous photos, pages of notes, a flak jacket, cameras, a helmet and other items that once belonged to NBC correspondents, cameramen and crew -- those who lost their lives while covering the news.
Among these items is a memorial for cameraman Bob Brown, 36, and Correspondent Don Harris, 42 -- both of whom were murder victims in Jonestown, Guyana, on Nov. 18, 1978.
Those old enough to remember what became one of, if not the most notorious mass murder-suicide in history, likely remembers that these two NBC staffers were gunned down along with California Congressman Leo Ryan. Brown and Harris were covering Ryan's trip to Jonestown to investigate troubling reports from the "People's Temple." They were killed on an airstrip as they were about to leave and just hours before 900 residents of Jonestown drank cyanide-laced fruit punch.
"Showing extraordinary bravery, cameraman Bob Brown recorded the attack, perhaps even the shot that killed him. Rep. Ryan and Correspondent Don Harris were wounded. The gunmen then approached and fired execution-style into each victim's head," the NBC memorial reads.
NBC Correspondent Fred Francis wasn't with Brown and Harris, but he arrived in Guyana shortly after news of their deaths and the mass suicide surfaced. Here, he shares his memories of covering this grisly story and how it has affected him in the years since:
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This week's Real to Reel takes a look at how production of the Nightly News broadcast has changed over the years, and how much of it has remained the same.
Here, Nightly News Director Brett Holey offers his take on production of the Nov. 9, 1977 broadcast anchored by John Chancellor and David Brinkley, and offers some behind-the-scenes tidbits and trivia:
Twenty-nine years later, so much has changed, and yet so much is the same.
OK, the look and the sound is a time warp.
The music is such a mid-70s sound you can almost smell the polyester. It was composed by Henry Mancini and its rhythm and orchestration (a little techno, a little smooth jazz, very movie of the week) were imitated in local news themes for years. Yet it was a relatively brief 8 years after this newscast that John Williams composed “The Mission,” the theme that we use to this day.
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On Oct. 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy addressed the American public on national television, announcing that U.S. spy planes had discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba, just 90 miles off the U.S. coastline. The sites were nearing completion when discovered and housed missiles that could have hit numerous major cities in the Southeast and Central United States.
In his address, Kennedy announced that he had ordered a naval blockade of Cuba and that he would remedy the situation through military force if necessary.
Watch the opening of President Kennedy's speech
Watch NBC's special coverage of the crisis
NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell was still a teenager when the crisis took place, but remembers it clearly and covered the 40th anniversary of the event from Cuba in 2002.
Here, Andrea shares her recollections:
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On Oct. 17, 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced it would cut exports of oil to the United States and other nations providing military aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur war. At the time, OPEC said exports would be reduced by 5 percent each month until Israel evacuated the occupied territories from the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
VIDEO: Watch the Oct. 17, 1973 broadcast report anchored by John Chancellor
A full embargo was imposed in December, creating a serious energy crisis in the United States. NBC's George Lewis recalls what it was like to cover the embargo announcement and the subsequent fuel shortage:
Discuss (1 comments) Email this | Link to thisAs Brian promised in his blog on Friday, here is the first of many installments in our new blog series "Real to Reel," taking a look at news events in recent history. Each week, we'll offer you a glimpse of a different historical event, how NBC covered it (with video straight from the broadcast when our archives allow) and a brief explainer from a producer or correspondent on what it was like to cover the event, how it affected them as journalists, and what significance it might have to the world today.
We hope you enjoy this series, and, as always, we welcome your comments and discussions.
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