Few journalists this decade have had as great an impact on US political life as Tim Russert. The NBC news bureau chief's sudden death this afternoon at age 58 has left Washington in shock and mourning the loss of a favourite son.
To honor Russert's fearless style and unflappable personality, here are just a few of his biggest moments -- on Sunday morning's Meet the Press and elsewhere. Read on for more....
1984 Soon after his arrival at NBC, Russert arranges for the Today show to broadcast the first US television appearance of Pope John Paul II (see more in this Howard Kurtz profile).
1986-1987 Russert leads weeklong NBC news broadcasts from China and South Africa, opening up an unprecedented dialogue with the two nations.
1992 Russert declares Bill Clinton the winner of the Democratic presidential nomination in April -- two months before Clinton's wife would later claim he had it sewn up.
2003 When interviewing Howard Dean, then the Democratic presidential frontrunner, Russert asks how many active-duty troops are in the US military. Dean acknowledged that he could not answer, and the host replied: "But as commander-in-chief, you should know that." Many political analysts saw the moment as the beginning of the end of Dean's campaign. (The answer was 1.4m at the time.)
2004 At the height of the scandal over George W Bush's military service that brought down Dan Rather, Russert pressed the president to release all of his records from the Vietnam era. "We did so in 2000," Bush tells Russert. Five days later, the White House seemingly contradicted Bush by releasing new records.
2007 Russert takes the stand in the explosive perjury trial of "Scooter" Libby, a top aide to US vice president Dick Cheney. Russert coolly disputed Libby's claim that the newsman knew about undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame before Libby did.
2007 My personal all-time favourite Russert moment: his brilliant smack-down of John McCain on the touchy issue of nation-building. Watch and marvel:
