Then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon’s famous presidential debate was filmed in Chicago on September 16, 1960.

The first of four debates recorded by CBS’s WBBM-TV attracted enormous publicity. Presidential scholars argue that Kennedy’s on-screen appearance and performance helped him and was the major turning point of his campaign.

Since the 1960s, televised presidential debates have become a permanent fixture of the political process.

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