#OnThisDay 1908: Alistair Cooke, the presenter of Letter from America for nearly 60 years, was born. In 1972 he shared some thoughts about the United States and journalism, on Parkinson. | BBC Archive

#OnThisDay 1969: Alistair Cooke took a break from letter writing to appear on 'Personal Cinema' where he discussed his career, family, love of film and Charlie Chaplin. | BBC Archive

#OnThisDay in 1972: America: A Personal History of the United States was first broadcast on BBC2. The 13-part series was written and narrated by Alistair Cooke, who had a particularly fond regard for San Francisco. | BBC Archive

To celebrate our 50th Anniversary (today!) tune in at 10/9c tonight to watch The Unseen Alistair Cooke, a special which includes footage from 150 reels of film shot by the former MASTERPIECE host. | MASTERPIECE | PBS

On this day in 1971, Alistair Cooke brought us the very first MASTERPIECE presentation, "The First Churchhills," kicking off 55 years of laughter, tears, and the enduring magic of theater. Thank you and happy birthday to GBH's MASTERPIECE | PBS! Relive hundreds of iconic introductions from The Linda and Andrew Egendorf Masterpiece Theatre Alistair Cooke Collection in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Link in the comments. #MASTERPIECE #MASTERPIECEPBS #PBS #TVHistory #MasterpieceMyster