Peter Jennings (1938- )

• born in Toronto, Ontario
• father, Charles, was a leading journalist, announcer, and later executive with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
• at age nine, hosted a half-hour weekly children's show on CBC
• became an interviewer for an Ontario radio station after dropping out of preparatory school, then joined the CBC as host of a public-affairs program.
• in 1962 he became co-anchor of Canada's first national commercial-network newscast (CTV)
• moved to New York in 1964 and became a correspondent for American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), then became anchor of ABC's nightly newscast (1965-67)
• praised for his on-the-spot coverage and his documentary "Southern Accents: Northern Ghettos," however he returned to reporting in 1968, the move was attributed to his youth, inexperience, and Canadian background
• in the early 1970's he was appointed head of the ABC News Middle East bureau in Beirut.
• in 1971 Jennings received the National Headliner Award for his reporting on the civil war in Bangladesh
• his profile of Egyptian president aAnwar al-Sadat earned him a Peabody Award in 1974
• served briefly as Washington correspondent for ABC's "A.M. America" (1974-75), then went to London as the network's chief foreign correspondent
• in London he co-anchored the nightly newscast "World News Tonight," and he was appointed sole anchor when the show moved to New York City in 1983
• became known for his straightforward newscasting
• his November 1990 interview with Saddam Hussein just before the Persian Gulf War was one of few granted to western reporters
• biography: Anchors: Brokaw, Jennings, Rather, and the evening news by Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg

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