星期三是美国之音首次海外广播的68周年纪念日。
1942年2月24日，美国之音第一次播出德语节目，作为向德国人民进行反纳粹战争宣传的手段。当时播音员威廉.哈兰.海尔对听众说，“消息可能是好的，也可能是坏的，但我们将告诉您真实的情况。”
那时美国参加第二次世界大战刚刚79天。到二战结束时，美国之音已从纽约的演播室用40种语言播出。
今天，美国之音从华盛顿总部通过广播、电视和互联网、用英语等45种语言向全球大约1亿2千500万听众播出。
Wednesday is the 68th anniversary of the first overseas broadcast by the Voice of America.
On February 24, 1942, VOA broadcast its first program in the German language, as a means of countering Nazi wartime propaganda to the German people. During that broadcast, announcer William Harlan Hale told his audience, “The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.”
This was just 79 days after the United States entered World War Two. By the end of the war, VOA was broadcasting in 40 languages from its studios in New York.
Today, from its headquarters in Washington, DC, VOA uses radio, television and the Internet to reach an estimated audience of 125 million people. It broadcasts in 45 languages, including English.