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.

On the April 8 show, Cokie Roberts shared interviews she conducted with people living near the Three Mile Island plant, about the radiation release and how authorities handled it.

An unidentified resident: "I wish they would have told somebody. I mean, this worst release started Friday morning, about quarter of seven, and when it was over about 10 o'clock, then they told us. And my wife and kids were here. I mean, that's not right!"

Roberts: "In a normal disaster, the disaster affects everybody the same way. When flood waters rise, they take away the house and everybody in it. But this was something different. This mysterious, invisible danger doesn't work that way. "

Hear the broadcast.

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