Seventy-two years ago this week, the world teetered on the brink of war as Germany issued demands for a portion of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. As the fate of the Czech people hung in the balance, Britain and Germany underwent talks and negotiations to resolve the crisis and a new word, Appeasement started to make its way into daily usage.

Here are a series of news reports and analysis from CBS on September 26, 1938 with Edward R. Murrow in London, Robert Trout and H.V. Kaltenborn in New York discussing the events of the day and speculating on the outcome.

The world was holding its collective breath and Radio news came into its own as a viable source of information for the first time. The Czech crisis was a culminating moment in Network radio as reports came in live from overseas adding a new dimension as well as a new urgency to the concept of broadcast journalism as it had never happened before.

The Munich Crisis of 1938 was, it turned out to be, a short respite before Europe plunged into war a year later. A little over two months earlier, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain delivered the now-famous "gas mask" address, where he prepared England for what looked like inevitable war over the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia.

In what was later described as a terrible sell-out of the Czech people in the name of appeasement, Chamberlain agreed to step aside in Germany's quest for the territory, in exchange for a promise not to go to war.

In this address, made during the Lord Mayor's Banquet at Guildhall, Chamberlain reiterates much of what he breathlessly declared from the three famous paragraphs of his agreement with Hitler when he stepped off the plane on his return from Munich at the end of September.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: “In the first one, we agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe. I don’t think anybody would deny that. The second one expresses an opinion, namely that we regard the agreements signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. And again I ask, could anybody knowing the feeling here, and knowing the feeling of the people in Germany, can anybody doubt that those words express the heartfelt desire of the two peoples? Then the third paragraph; we are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe. Is anybody going to condemn that statement of policy?”

Needless to say, the "peace in our time" as proclaimed in the press was short-lived. By next year another region came into question and by the end of 1939 it would spiral quickly out of hand.

This is the complete address given by Prime Minister Chamberlain, and relayed by the BBC to listeners all over the world on November 9, 1938.

News for this May 23rd in 1938 comes from Germany, via the Shortwave Service of Radio Berlin and their daily English newscast.

Reports on border incidents between Czech and German troops, the continuing negotiations between Berlin, London and Paris on the Sudeten question. News regarding meetings between Sudeten-German mouthpiece Konrad Henlein with Czech representatives on the border question. Continuing pressure for a settlement.

And the weather in Berlin was "fine and spring-like".

And that's how this day was rolling if you happened to be around on May 23, 1938 and were dial hopping on your Shortwave radio, listening for Berlin.

This day in 1938 was about the continuing crisis in Eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia and a piece of disputed territory Germany claimed was theirs.

As the crisis deepened, on the morning of September 23rd 1938, Czech Ambassador to Great Britain Jan Masaryk delivered an appeal to the American audience about the situation and where things stood.

Jan Masaryk: “My people have gone further in self-restraint, discipline, International solidarity in these last few days than anyone could have expected. And I am more proud than I ever was to be a citizen of Czechoslovakia. We shall study Mr. Hitler’s proposal with goodwill and the same spirit of conciliation which made us swallow many little pills, and bitter pills, in the last few days. But I solemnly declare that we shall not give in on the fundamental issues. We believe in Democracy, humanitarianism, freedom of religion and speech and the importance of the individual.”

Within days the picture would emerge that Czechoslovakia would be forced to give in to German demands and a new word became popular, more for its irony than anything else: Appeasement.

Here is the original newscast with breaking bulletins by Robert Trout, H.V. Kaltenborn and Edward R. Murrow from CBS Radio on the morning of September 23, 1938.

The nature of news gathering was changing rapidly, just like the status of the world in general.