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Voice of America - Key Dates

April 1951

Plans for a series of shipborne radio stations to broadcast Voice of America programmes were first announced by the US Department of State.

late 1951

A former merchant ship, Coastal Messenger was transferred to the control of the Department of State, renamed Courier and fitted out as a floating radio station.

15th February 1952  

Courier was commissioned into the US Coastguard Service

4th March 1952

President Harry S. Truman visited the Courier when she docked in Washington, D.C. and used the occasion to broadcast a major policy speech beamed at Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union

18th April 1952

Test transmissions from the Courier take place in the Panama Canal Zone, using the call sign KU2XAJ

22nd August 1952

The Courier arrived in the Mediterranean and anchored off the Greek Island of Rhodes.

7th September 1952

Broadcasts of the Voice of America - Seabase Radio Station Dodecanese Islands - start from the Courier

May 1964

Broadcasting  from the Courier ends when the Voice of America operation is transferred to a landbased transmitter in Rhodes.








1st April 1951  

In Greece, women are given the right to vote

.






6th February 1952 Princess Elizabeth  becomes Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

28th April 1952

The Allied occupation of Japan formally ends with a peace treaty signed in San Francisco.

2nd September 1952

The first open-heart surgery is performed at the University of Minnesota.






1st May 1964

The first BASIC program ran on a computer.











In other  N E W S

1951

1952

1964



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