Walter Cronkite

<p>Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on November 4, 1916, Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. grew up in Houston, Texas, and studied at the University of Texas at Austin before entering professional journalism. During World War II, Cronkite was a fearless combat correspondent for United Press, landing with gliders in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden, flying bombing missions over Germany in a B-17, and covering the Nuremberg Trials.</p><p>Recruited to CBS News by Edward R. Murrow in 1950, Cronkite became the anchor of the <em>CBS Evening News</em> in 1962. On November 22, 1963, Cronkite delivered the heartbreaking news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination to a devastated world, famously pausing to take off his glasses and swallow his tears in a moment of unforgettable national intimacy.</p><p>Cronkite was an ardent champion of NASA’s space program, covering the Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969 with childlike wonder and professional stamina, exclaiming "Oh boy!" as Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface. His legendary February 1968 editorial broadcast following the Tet Offensive—declaring that the Vietnam War was mired in stalemate and that the US should negotiate an honorable peace—prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson to famously lament, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Retiring in 1981 and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Cronkite remains the gold standard of journalistic integrity, objectivity, and democratic trust.</p>