Rather Anchors Final 'Evening News'

Rather, shown here in 2003, will not be leaving CBS entirely: he will join the staff of the newsmagazine 60 Minutes Wednesday. CBS hide caption

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CBS

Wednesday night is Dan Rather's last broadcast as anchor at CBS's Evening News. It marks Rather's 24th anniversary behind the desk of the broadcast.

Rather, 73, has covered almost every major news story of the last four decades, but a botched report on President Bush's military service record cast a shadow on the last months of his tenure.

Rather got his start in the 1950s as a wire service and radio reporter in Huntsville, Texas. The network hired him after seeing his exhaustive coverage of a hurricane bearing down on Galveston for the CBS station in Houston.