Video: 'CNN First Hour: June 1, 1980'

(Sunday, June 1, 1980, 6:00 p.m. EDT) — CNN, the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, made its debut tonight.

Cable News Network, founded by American media proprietor Ted Turner, launched with an original staff of 25 employees based at its headquarters in Atlanta, and bureaus in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

The inaugural broadcast on the channel was an introduction by Turner, who read a “poem” of dedication to a crowd of 700 onlookers on the front lawn of the old Progressive Club in Altanta and a nationwide cable TV audience.

The first news story on CNN was a report on how the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has reacted to the May 29, 1980, shooting of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan.