The ATC time line

All Things Considered went on the air on May 3, 1971. Linda Wertheimer -- then the show's director, now its veteran host -- remembers a day "scented with spring flowers and tear gas." As Washington, D.C., police clashed with demonstrators protesting the war in Southeast Asia, newly-minted NPR reporters caught it all.

In her 1995 book Listening to America, Wertheimer writes: "As I listen to the tape of that first day's broadcast, it sounds rough. Listeners had no way of knowing who was speaking, reporters and the people they talked to were almost all nameless. In some cases, we didn't say where the conversations were taking place, or where the events we listened to happened. That first day's broadcast sounds indulgent in some places, overlong in others.

"We wouldn't do it that way now -- and yet, we would. For all its unedited, sprawling, confusing quality, we did what [then-host] Robert Conley said we would on that very first day. We put our listeners out there, in the middle of everything...

"We are still doing that."

From this All Things Considered (ATC) timeline, choose a year to read excerpts and hear audio from a signature broadcast.

1971
For the debut program's coverage of anti-war demonstrations, NPR's Jeff Kamen takes to the Washington streets with microphone in hand. "Today in the nation's capital," he reports, "it is a crime to be young and have long hair. . ."

After a bumpy first few months, Jim Russell and Mike Waters become ATC co-hosts. Also on the team: director Wertheimer, and a tape editor named Susan Stamberg. The fledgling National Public Radio has 90 member stations.

1972
The program survives its first year with the help of "panic buttons," extended pieces of music to be used when reporters' tapes fail to materialize on schedule. Thus is born the term "button" for any NPR musical break.

Susan Stamberg joins Waters as host, becoming the first woman in the United States to anchor a national daily news program. At Thanksgiving, she launches what will become an NPR tradition: an on-air reading of her mother-in-law's recipe for cranberry relish.

1973
ATC reports win prestigious honors: the Ohio State Award and the George Foster Peabody Award.

Susan Stamberg conducts a weekly series of phone calls to a small band of "ordinary" citizens across the country, sounding them out on the unfolding Watergate story. Their reactions become a litmus test on changing public attitudes toward the Nixon White House.

1974
Bob Edwards joins ATC as newscaster in February. He becomes Stamberg's co-host in August.

On Aug. 8, Nixon told the nation he would resign. On ATC, call-ins reflect Americans' reactions from all points on the political spectrum. For the first time, the scope of the ATC audience is clear.

1975
The House of Representatives votes against President Ford's request for additional help for South Vietnam. The decision signals the end of U.S. involvement; on April 30, the last Americans are airlifted out of Saigon just as the city falls to the North Vietnamese.

Noah Adams joins ATC staff as a production assistant. Music writer Fred Calland pays tribute to Elvis Presley on the rock-and-roll icon's 40th birthday.

1976
In the same year Americans celebrate the bicentennial of their Revolution, Jimmy Carter is elected President. Unable to finance election coverage that entails traveling with the candidates, ATC focuses its attention on the voters, interviewing them about their choices and concerns.

Robert Siegel joins NPR as an associate producer.

1977
When President Carter proposes a tax rebate to stimulate the economy, administration economists agree that rebate should be $50 Susan Stamberg and Bob Edwards air a list of items one could buy with this rebate. The list includes six marriage licenses in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; a four-night stay at the Omaha YWCA; ten pounds of coffee; and a one-way ticket between Kansas City and Des Moines.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show airs its final episode after seven years on television.

Robert Siegel is appointed public affairs editor.

1978
Additional reporters and editors join the NPR staff in anticipation of the launch of a new show: Morning Edition.

For the first time, ATC has more stories filed every day than it can put on the air. NPR broadcasts live from the chamber of the Senate during the Panama Canal Treaty debates -- the first time the Senate allows such a broadcast.

1979
Iranian students take 53 people hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania releases radiation into the surrounding area.

Bob Edwards is asked "temporarily" to join Morning Edition as host -- the position he still holds today. On ATC, Sanford Ungar replaces Edwards as Stamberg's co-host.

NPR goes on satellite -- the world's first radio network to do so -- revolutionizing delivery of news and information to public radio stations.

1980
Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer create a political reporting partnership that lasts throughout the decade.

John Lennon is murdered. ATC does a series of reports, threaded with Beatles music, on the murder, the vigil outside the apartment building, and reactions around the country.

1981
After more than a year of being held captive, hostages are freed from Iran the same day Ronald Reagan takes the oath of office as President.

ATC celebrates 10 years on the air.

1982
ATC broadcasts a story about a "frightening medical mystery" that had yet to be fully understood by the medical community. The mystery would later become known as AIDS.

Weekend ATC host Noah Adams is named weekday co-host, joining Susan Stamberg.

1983
More than 200 U.S. Marines are killed when a truck explodes in front of their headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. The nation is flooded with Cabbage Patch Kids -- dolls purchased by grown-ups for "adoption" by kids.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu makes his NPR debut. His first essay is a fairy tale about bears.

1984
Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman nominated by a major political party as its candidate for Vice President of the United States. Tag-teaming NPR's campaign coverage, Wertheimer travels with the candidates while Roberts checks in with the voters.

On ATC, Adams interviews a medical doctor who advocates harvesting organs from executed criminals. His name: Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

1985
Violence breaks out regularly in South African black townships, and the government declares a state of emergency. The U.S. joins a worldwide movement by establishing sanctions against this apartheid nation.

ATC co-hosts its broadcast from two different locations: Washington, D.C., and Nairobi, Kenya, the site of a United Nations conference on women.

Longtime commentator Kim Williams says farewell in an ATC interview; she dies of cancer shortly thereafter.

1986
The space shuttle Challenger explodes four miles above the coast of Florida. On board was Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from New Hampshire. NPR reporters Howard Berkes and Danny Zwerdling break the story of why the Challenger disaster occurred.

The Statue of Liberty receives a facelift and internal restorations, thanks to contributions from corporate America. Susan Stamberg leaves ATC to launch Weekend Edition Sunday.

1987
The United States budget reaches the trillion-dollar mark for the first time. Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev campaigns for glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reconstruction).

Noah Adams leaves ATC to host Minnesota Public Radio's Good Evening. Renee Montagne and Robert Siegel co-host ATC.

1988
Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Libyan terrorists are suspected of planting the bomb that caused the explosion.

For the second straight year, readers of the Washington Journalism Review vote ATC the best network radio program. With microphone in hand, intrepid ATC producer Peter Breslow joins an American team to scale the snow and ice up 23,000 feet on Mount Everest. The reporting expedition takes three months, and includes an overland trek across Tibet -- through an earthquake, landslides, and a bridge collapse.

1989
The world witnesses the fall of the Berlin Wall as the Cold War slowly comes to an end. The Chinese government opens fire on demonstrating students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Renee Montagne leaves as host of ATC to become a correspondent with NPR's National Desk. Noah Adams and Linda Wertheimer join Robert Siegel as co-hosts.

1990
President Bush mobilizes thousands of American troops in Saudi Arabia to go to war against Iraq. Nelson Mandela is freed from a South African prison after 27 years.

Noah Adams and commentator Andrei Codrescu report from Romania in the aftermath of the revolution there.

1991
The world watches as the Soviet Union comes to an end and the 15 separate republics are granted their independence.

ATC turns 20.

The Gulf War begins in January. In March, Neal Conan, NPR's defense correspondent and former ATC executive producer, disappears on a reporting trip to southern Iraq (March); he is captured by the Iraqi Republican Guard and freed less than a week later.

1992
Parts of Los Angeles erupt in riots when a jury fails to convict four white police officers of beating a black motorist named Rodney King.

Robert Siegel interviews author Salman Rushdie, who has been in hiding for three years because of death threats following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses.

1993
Federal agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. During the siege, a fire breaks out and most of the cult members are killed, including leader David Koresh and several children.

ATC is the first public radio program to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

1994
As South Africans prepare to vote in their first all-race elections, ATC airs a series of reports on the status of African nations. In the elections, Nelson Mandela wins with 60 percent of the vote.

Civil war breaks out in Rwanda.

NPR moves its Washington headquarters to 635 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., an area of the city known as Chinatown.

1995
More than 100 people are killed when a bomb goes off at a federal building in Oklahoma City.

The O.J. Simpson trial permeates media coverage throughout the United States and around the world. In October, the jury returns a verdict of not guilty.

ATC expands to two hours, and begins the program an hour earlier (at 4 p.m. EST), as member stations reach out to an early East Coast commuting audience.

1996
Theodore Kaczynski, a former University of California, Berkeley professor living as a recluse in a one-room cabin, is arrested at his Montana home for possession of bomb components. He is suspected of being the notorious Unabomber.

ATC airs the hour-long documentary Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse produced by David Isay. The documentary wins the 1996 George Foster Peabody Award, broadcasting's most prestigious honor.

To mark its 25th anniversary, ATC airs a montage recalling the variety of sounds and voices the program has presented over the years.

1997
After more than 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong is returned to China. Princess Diana dies when her car crashes into the wall of a Paris traffic tunnel. And scientists in Scotland announce success in cloning the first mammal from an adult, a sheep they name "Dolly."

In November ATC launches a yearlong series examining issues related to dying.

1998
Senator and veteran astronaut John Glenn becomes the oldest person to visit space. The senator is 77 when he boards the space shuttle Discovery.

The day the Monica Lewinsky story breaks, Robert Siegel and Mara Liasson conduct a previously scheduled live interview with President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.

1999
When a raft capsizes off the coast of Miami, a young boy is pulled from the waters. Elian Gonzales becomes the center of an international custody battle.

ATC focuses intensive coverage on the student shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School.

The series Lost & Found Sound brings ATC listeners a collection of richly layered stories that chronicle, reflect, and celebrate our changing century of sound. The series is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva) and Jay Allison, in collaboration with NPR and independent producers.

2000
Though the world prepared for "Y2K" digital disaster, it never materializes.

Presidential election results remain unknown for a month, as the state of Florida recounts its votes. In the end, George W. Bush is named the victor.

As part of The Changing Face of America series, commentator Leon Wynter returns to Prince George's County, Maryland, after an absence of 20 years, to discover what life is like in the only suburban county in the nation to have African Americans as the majority population.

2001
All Things Considered joins member stations and the nation to celebrate 30 years of sound news.

Contents Copyright 2001, National Public Radio