Here's the 75th anniversary report from Rod Beaton, who was president and chief executive officer of UPI:
A new era in world journalism began on July 15, 1907, with the hand-flicked dots and dashes of Morse code transmitting 10,000 words each day to the first of 369 newspapers to buy the United Press service in that initial year.
From the first days, Unipressers seemed to spark, and stay in the forefront of an explosion in news coverage sophistication, techniques and technology, information diversity and responsiveness to man's insatiable curiosity.
One of our colleagues, H.D. "Doc" Quigg, said it well: "We have been through...roaring, aching, inventive and never timid years -- war and science fiction, changing mores and shifting national bents, politics and old lace, tragedy and fun."
To which I would add: "Frustation at times, and exhilaration always."
Surely, it has been enough to test a reporter's mettle and a news agency's value.
United Press was founded by E.W. Scripps, in response to what he perceived as an ominous trend.
"I do not believe," Scripps said, "it would be good for journalism in this country if there should be one big news trust."
Seventy-five years later, United Press International serves approximately 7,525 newspapers, radio and television stations and cable systems in more than 100 nations. The daily flow of news and other information is up to 13 million words.
Unipressers now number in the thousands instead of the hundred or so in the early days.
It has been only a beginning for UPI
As information data banks gain exposure in our computerized world, the UPI database undoubtedly will someday reach literally millions of outlets.
No matter how the information field evolves, UPI is committed to one cardinal value: the truth.
Without that commitment we would wither as an institution, and it is vital that we persevere because we play such a critical role in a free society.
Unipressers are traditionally men and women bursting with ideas. They broke with tradition in putting a reporter's byline on stories, sending features over the wire, starting the wire service interview, covering labor as well as management, and in sending American-trained reporters abroad to report independently.
One of our great reporters, Raymond Clapper, discovered the "smoke-filled room," and his story made the phrase part of the language. Another, Westbrook Pegler, pioneered the "aw nuts" school of sportswriting. William Shepherd said he wrote for "the Omaha milkman." Harrison Salisbury wrote that Hitler would turn on Russia, and got a call that night that it was happening. Merriman Smith made "Thank you, Mr. President" famous. And then there were Walter Cronkrite, Eric Sevareid, H. Allen Smith, Jim Kilgallen, Henry Shapiro, Louis Cassels, Russ Jones, Kyoichi Sawada and hundreds of others who established the standards that have carried forward into the present. Unipressers of today are no less outstanding.
We have been a technological leader, which has resulted in substantial benefits to our entire industry. UPI's Information Storage & Retrieval system stands as a benchmark in the computerized handling of data. Photographic innovations, such as the use of 35 millimeter cameras, Unifax II receivers, the 16-S transmitter and UPI's Digital Darkroom, have led the field.
We are determined that this tradition will continue.
UPI observes its 75th birthday with tremendous pride in the myriad past achievements and in the great reporting and talent it has spawned. We look to the present and the contributions of this generation with equal pride, coming as they have in a difficult transitional period for news agencies.
We reserve our really great hope and expectations for the future. Never have our opportunities and challenges been larger. We look forward to them with enthusiasm.
Rod Beaton, president and chief executive officer