CBS broadcast the nightly Bicentennial Minutes during the United States’ 1976 anniversary.
Bicentennial Minutes was a series of one-minute educational television segments produced by the CBS Television Network. The broadcasts began on July 4, 1974, and continued through December 31, 1976, creating a daily historical countdown and commemoration of the American Revolution.
Each segment generally described an event or person connected to the corresponding date 200 years earlier. Different CBS personalities narrated the pieces, which usually ended with the phrase “And that’s the way it was,” echoing Walter Cronkite’s familiar news sign-off.
The series was originally expected to end on July 4, 1976, but CBS extended it through the end of that year. It became one of the most recognizable television features associated with the Bicentennial, although later America250 celebrations are separate from the 1970s broadcast project.