Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4 1916) is a retired iconic American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for The CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s and 1980s he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America," because of his professional experience and avuncular demeanor.

CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963.

Currently, CBS Evening News is anchored on weekdays by Katie Couric, on Saturdays by Thalia Assuras, and on Sundays by Russ Mitchell.

Walter Cronkite assumed the CBS evening anchor's chair from Douglas Edwards (I), who had been the newscaster since 1948.

The term "Anchorman" was coined with regard to Cronkite, likening his position to that of an anchor on a relay team. In Sweden, news anchors were in the past referred to as "Cronkiters" in honor of Cronkite.

This show was network TV's first 30-minute evening newscast, having been expanded from its previous 15 minute format beginning with the September 3, 1963 telecast. It was at the end of that first 30-minute installment that Cronkite first uttered his famous tagline, "And that's the way it is."

Journalist since 1937; with CBS television since 1950.

Was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981. This is the highest honor a U.S. civilian can receive. Was the lead anchor on the CBS Evening News from 16 April 1962 until 6 March 1981.

Reported on the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals in 1945.

Is the 1966 recipient of the prestigious Connor Award given by the brothers of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also an honorary brother of the fraternity.

Satirized by Ray Goulding as "Walter Chronic" in Cold Turkey (1971).

December 2003 - Underwent surgery to repair a previously injured achilles tendon.

Makes a unique claim about his television career. When he attended 1933 World's Fair, he was present at an exhibit displaying an early example of television. At the exhibit, the attendees were allowed to sit in front of the camera and watch themselves on the screen. When Cronkite sat in front of the camera he did an improptu impression of a man he had seen playing two flutes at once. Therefore, he jokingly claims that he was definitely on television decades before his contemporaries.

Attended both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 1928. The former was on a boy scout field trip and the latter was during a visit to his grandparents in Kansas City.

CBS asked Cronkite to come up with a signature closing line for the evening news. When he came up with "And that's the way it is", CBS was concerned that it would suggest a certain infallability. But Cronkite explained that it would fit any type of story whether it was funny or sad or ironic.

His first job as a journalist was as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Times.

His stage name during his days in radio was Walter Wilcox.

The very day he was born, his father immediately left the hospital and went out and voted for President Woodrow Wilson.

His mother Helen died in 1993 at the age of 101.

Father-in-law of Deborah Rush.

In 1964 he was fired from his anchorman duties at the Democratic National Convention. CBS had gotten a new president who had never worked on a presidential campaign and had definate ideas about how CBS would be covering it. It turned out to be a mess and as a result Cronkite got some of the blame so the network executives removed him from the coverage but kept him as the anchorman of the evening news. Jokingly Cronkite became buddies with the president of NBC and the people at CBS were horrified that he was being offered a job in the rival network. So when the Republican Convention rolled around Cronkite got to cover it without using the new president's tactics.

At the birth of television, he and his team at CBS practically invented the institution of the evening news program. In 1951, one of the stage managers at CBS told him to sit at the desk and do the news. Cronkite asked what he meant and the managers simply said "I don't know just do it". His idea was to first just talk to the camera like another person and organize the news stories in the same vein as the newspaper beginning with the top story and working his way down to human interest stories.

Betsy Cronkite, his wife, was working as a newspaper journalist when they met.

He is an only child.

He met his wife Betsy when he was working at a radio station in Kansas City. The two were paired up to do a cosmetics commercial and married a year later.

His family heritage is Dutch-Scottish.

Father of Kathy Cronkite.

In 1997 he released his autobiography, "A Reporter's Life", which coincided with a two-hour TV special, "Cronkite Remembers", in which he reminisced about his years as a reporter. A week later an eight-hour version aired on The Discovery Channel.

On March 15, 2005 he lost his wife of 64 years, Betsy, three weeks before their 65th anniversary.

Is a licensed amateur (ham) radio operator with the call sign KB2GSD.

In 1969 when Apollo XI was going to the Moon, Cronkite was on the air 27 of the 30 hours that it took for the flight, which many in the profession called "Walter to Walter" coverage. At the moment that Neil Armstrong stepped off the ladder of the Lunar Module onto the Moon surface, Cronkite was speechless for the first time in his career. All he could say was "Wow! and Oh Boy!" Famous words that will live in history.

He is outspoken in his distaste for Oliver Stone's film JFK (1991). Calling the film "Oliver Stone junk" and "A dangerous work of fiction that seriously mid-leads a whole generation of Americans who were not alive at that time".

Father was Walter Cronkite Sr., a dentist. Mother was Helen Cronkite who died in 1993 at the age of 101.

While attending The University of Texas, one of his past times was acting in student plays. In one of them, he co-starred with Eli Wallach.

On the day of the Kennedy assassination, he said the he had just come back from lunch and was standing at the teletype machine when rang a rare five bells - a bulletin. He shouted "Let's get on the air!" but getting on the air wasn't possible because the cameras had to be placed and then warmed up (after this the networks always had a camera ready in the newsroom). He went to an audio booth just off the newsroom floor and, interrupting As The World Turns, made an audio announcement over a CBS logo. It took another 20 minutes to get on camera.

Has a Muppet on "Sesame Street" (1969) named after him, the grouch journalist "Walter Cranky".