Video: '1960 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE #1 (JOHN F. KENNEDY VS. RICHARD NIXON) (9/26/60)'

(Monday, September 26, 1960, 8:30 p.m. CDT; during the 1960 United States presidential election) — The two leading candidates for President of the United States, Senator John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, and Vice President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, participated in the first televised debate between presidential nominees in U.S. history tonight in Chicago at the television studios of WBBM-TV.

Video: 'Kennedy vs. Nixon - 1st 1960 Debate' (copied from original videotape)

Video: 'ABC News 45/85 part 1 (Original Broadcast Version)' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 1:11:42)

The candidates clashed on spending, farms and social issues, offering the nation the best means for spurring U.S. growth in an era of international peril.

Video: '"JFK: IN HIS OWN WORDS" (1988)' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 26:41)

Video: 'America Remembers John F. Kennedy (1983)' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 38:53)

Kennedy appeared tan and charismatic, while Nixon, due in part to poor makeup and a recent hospitalization, looked unkempt and tense.

Video: '"THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT 1960" (1963)' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 45:04)

Video: 'Television & the Presidency Part 3' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 4:17)

Video: 'Television & the Presidency Part 4' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 0:00)

A special act of Congress was passed in order to allow the American television and radio networks to broadcast the debate without having to provide equal time to other presidential candidates.

Video: 'PBS Nixon (1990)_1of3' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 44:21)

Video: '1960: Be A Man- Sell Out (1970 documentary narrated by Peter Jennings)' (Sept. 26, 1960, at 31:30-31:45)