On the morning of July 15, 1974, Christine Chubbuck, a 29-year-old television presenter, arrived at work with a .38 Smith and Wesson in her bag. Her colleagues at Channel 40, a fledgling Florida TV station, later remembered her as being in a particularly upbeat mood; certainly no one saw any reason to query her decision to switch around the running order of her show, Suncoast Digest, opening with a newscast rather than an interview.

The programme went on air at 9.30am, but a few minutes in there was a technical snarl-up, and a pre-recorded video piece about a local shooting failed to roll. After barely a moment of dead air, Chubbuck started to read from a script in front of her.

“In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts and in living colour,” she said, “you are going to see another first – an attempted suicide.” And with that she raised the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.