On this day in history: Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time

On March 6, 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off as anchor of the CBS Evening News after 19 years at the post. (At the time, CBS has a mandatory retirement age of 65.)

Often referred to as “the most trusted man in America”—a title he earned in a 1972 poll—Cronkite reported on the biggest events of a turbulent era, including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Lennon, as well as the 1969 moon landing, the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the Iran hostage crisis.

Of course, he ended his tenure with his signature line: “And that’s the way it is.”