BBC launches daily TV news

July 5, 1954

ON this day, the first daily television news programme of BBC was broadcast. It was a 20-minute bulletin read by newsreader Richard Baker.

The new service was introduced as “Illustrated summary of the news … followed by the latest film of events and happenings at home and abroad.”

As Richard Baker read the news, a series of headlines, still photographs and maps were shown on the screen. However, it received quite critical and harsh reviews.

BBC then improved on the content and presentation of the news by adding more footage to break up the monotony and making improvements in the storytelling.

As the BBC Director General conceded “News is not at all an easy thing to do on television. A good many of the main news items are not easily made visual — therefore we have the problem of giving news with the same standards that the corporation has built up in sound. This is a start on something we regard as extremely significant for the future,” he said.

Record-breaking penguin rescue

July 5, 2000

ON this day, over 18,000 penguins were rescued from Dassen Island, 50 miles north of Cape Town. Conservationists in South Africa carried out the biggest ever airlift of wild birds by moving them to safety as an oil slick threatened their breeding ground on the island.

The rescue operation began when the Panamanian tanker, Treasure, sank off the Cape of Good Hope with around 14,000 tonnes of oil on board. This spill was particularly dangerous because a third of the entire Jackass breed live in the affected area.

Jackass penguins — so called because they sound like braying donkeys — are the only nesting penguins in Africa and they are classed as a “threatened species”. Oil is harmful because it interferes with feathers’ natural waterproofing and leaves the penguins exposed to cold and unable to swim for food for themselves and their young.