Sam Donaldson

Did you know?!

1. Big break

   Donaldson's team found Erich Priebke, a Nazi Gestapo officer who had fled to Argentina after World War II, in 1994. On a street in Bariloche, Donaldson asked him about the 335 Italian civilians executed under Adolf Hitler's direct orders.

2. A change of course

   In 1958, while serving on active duty, Donaldson was among the military observers at an atomic test at the Nevada testing grounds. The device, whose yield was roughly equal to the bombs dropped on Japan, went off three thousand yards from the slit trench where the observers were.

3. A first

   Donaldson anchored a U.S. news broadcast on the Internet in 2002, the first one with a regular schedule. He later hosted the ABC News Now "Politics Live" broadcast.

4. A first

   In 1991, Donaldson closed the ABC News Nightline broadcast to report the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He showed the Soviet anthem, the last Soviet Kremlin flag coming down and the Russian Tricolor going up.