NEWS FIRSTS

Since it launched in 1989 Sky News had developed a strong reputation for the speed and accuracy with which it breaks major news stories. Below is a summary of some of Sky News' highlights.

Highlights of the last 21 years include being first:

• With the world’s first live TV battle, broadcast from the frontline in Umm Qsar, Iraq, 2003
• With the news of the annoucement that Michael Martin will resign as the Speaker of the House of Commons
• With live pictures of the terror attacks on the US on September 11
• With news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris
• With news that incidents on the London Underground on 7th July 2005 were not as a result of a power surge and subsequently first to report that a bomb had exploded on a London bus
• To report live, in vision, from the frontline during the 2006 34 day Israel – Hizbollah war
• To cross the border live in vision during the 2006 34 day Israel – Hizbollah war
• With live pictures of US troops reaching al-Fardous Square, Baghdad, where the statue of Saddam Hussein was then toppled the execution of Saddam Hussein
• With news of the execution of Saddam Hussein
• To report the death of the Queen Mother
• UK Broadcaster to present live from South East Asia after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami
• With pictures of the Liberation of Kosovo: Sky News was the only channel broadcasting live pictures all day as KFOR entered Kosovo, liberating Pristina
• UK Broadcaster to present live from Burma after Cyclone Nargis hit in 2008
• UK broadcaster to report from inside Beslan school siege in 2004
• With news of shootings in Mumbai – that later became a three day siege in November 2008
• To report the resignation of Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair in October 2008
• With News of the Nationalisation of Northern Rock in 2008
• With Continuous coverage of the Thames Whale
• With pictures of the ‘Prescott Punch’
• With pictures of the US/Coalition bombing of Afghanistan
• To broadcast live coverage of the Louise Woodward and OJ Simpson trials
• With news of Concorde crashing during take-off in Paris
• With news of the discovery of the missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews and subsequently the news of her mother’s guilty trial verdict
• With news of a terror attack in Pakistan on the Sri Lankan cricket team
• With news that ten men had been arrested as part of a counter-terrorism operation in the North West.