Richard M. Nixon John F. Kennedy first televised presidential candidates debate

Senator John F. Kennedy debates Vice President Richard M. Nixon in the first televised debates, 1960. Credit: National Park Service.

On September 26, 1960 for the first time in U.S. history a debate between presidential candidates is shown on television, attracting enormous publicity an estimated 80 million viewers watched. The presidential hopefuls, Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of the United States and John F. Kennedy, the Democratic junior senator from Massachusetts met in a Chicago studio to discuss U.S. domestic matters.

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