Surveying 20 Years of CNN

Cable News Network began airing 20 years ago this week as the first all-news television network.

In 20 short years, Ted Turner’s little experiment has dramatically altered the broadcast news landscape--even achieving recognition internationally that supplants the venerable BBC.

You can get a glimpse of CNN’s first baby steps preserved online at https://cnn.com/resources/video.almanac/1980/index2.html, where you’ll also find video snippets of some of the stories making headlines that year, including the eruption of Mount St. Helens and the assassination of John Lennon.

CNN has long been a considerable presence on the Web, as a visit to https://cnn.com quickly reveals. One thing you’ll not learn there, though: how much James Earl Jones has earned for each instance over the past two decades his voice has intoned with considerable authority, “This is CNN.”