Portrait of Angela Rippon

Birthday profile

Angela Rippon

Angela Rippon, English journalist and author

Born
October 12, 1944
Age in 2026
82
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1944

About Angela Rippon

Angela May Rippon (born 12 October 1944) is an English broadcaster, former newsreader, writer and journalist. Rippon presented radio and television news programmes in South West England before moving to BBC One's Nine O'Clock News, becoming a regular presenter in 1975. She was the first female journalist to be given a permanent role presenting the BBC national television news, and the third female news presenter to appear on national broadcasts on British television, after Barbara Mandell on Independent Television News (ITN) in 1955, and Nan Winton, who temporarily presented the national news on BBC Television, in 1960. Rippon appeared on a Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1976, presented the first two series of Top Gear and also presented Come Dancing. She hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 1977. She was a presenter on, and co-founder of, breakfast television franchisee TV-am. In the 1990s, she moved to radio, presenting daily news programmes for LBC Newstalk between 1990 and 1994, and appeared on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast as a stand-in newsreader. She presented the BBC broadcast of the United Kingdom Ballroom Championships at the Bournemouth International Centre in 1991. Rippon has written fourteen books, toured with a production of Anything Goes and presented a segment of BBC1's The One Show. From 2009 until her departure in 2024, she co-presented the BBC One consumer show Rip Off Britain with Gloria Hunniford and Julia Somerville; in 2013 and 2014 she hosted Holiday Hit Squad alongside Helen Skelton and Joe Crowley. She was also the voiceover for the BBC1 game show The Wall and can currently be seen presenting occasionally on GB News. Rippon first presented a national news programme on BBC2 in 1974. Rippon was described by some newspapers as the first female television newsreader.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Angela Rippon timeline

  1. Rippon first presented a national news programme on BBC2 in 1974.
  2. Rippon appeared on a Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1976, presented the first two series of Top Gear and also presented Come Dancing.

The world when Angela Rippon was born

Angela Rippon was born in 1944. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1944

  • #1 song"Swinging on a Star" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieGoing My Way
  • Best-selling bookStrange Fruit – Lillian Smith

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGreen Bay Packers win NFL Championship
  • Top headlineD-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6
  • Technology milestoneHarvard Mark I computer begins operations
  • Defining fadBobby socks
  • Notable inventionKidney dialysis machine
  • World population2.39 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population138.4M

1944 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Angela Rippon's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19442026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$5,800$435,000
Average income$4,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population138.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.