History of Television by Brenna Fisher

  • The Cornersone for Further Television Development

    The Cornersone for Further Television Development
    Vladmir Zworkin created and patented an iconoscope, which is basically a TV camera tube referred to as 'the electric eye'.
  • The Creation of Television

    The Creation of Television
    Philo Farnsworth was the first inventor to successfully transmit a television image. This image was compromised of 60 horizontal lines, and the image that was transmitted was a dollar sign. He filed for this first television patent in 1927.
  • 1928 GE "Octagon" Mechanical Television

    1928 GE "Octagon" Mechanical Television
    General Electric made this early television as part of their experimental TV program in Schenectady, New York. The first TV drama, the Queen's Messenger, was produced in September of that year by GE. Developed by Ernst W. Alexanderson, this mechanical television receiver was built for a 48-line television system.
  • 1932 Jenkins Radio and Television Receiver, Model JD-30, serial number 252

    1932 Jenkins Radio and Television Receiver, Model JD-30, serial number 252
    This unit provided only the sound and the electrical signal to drive a separate R-400 display unit. The R-400 display unit housed a motor-driven pinhole scanning disk and neon lamp.
  • First News Story

    First News Story
    The first news story was aired by BBC on November 30, 1936. This report showed a fire at London's Crystal Palace. The Palace was destroyed.
  • First Televised Baseball Game

    First Televised Baseball Game
    The first baseball game ever televised was between Princeton Universtiy and Columbia University. Princeton beat Columbia 2-1 at Columbia's Baker Field. Baker Field is now known as the birthplace of sports television.
  • First Color Television

    First Color Television
    In 1940, CBS researchers led by Peter Goldmark invented a mechanical color television system. The system was bulky, flickered, and was not compatible with earlier black and white sets.
  • First Commercial

    First Commercial
    On July 1, 1941, the first television commercial was aired, This commercial aired before a Brooklyn Dodgers and a Philidelphia Phillies game began. The commercial was 10 seconds long, and featured Bulova clocks and watches. The ad shows a clock and a map of the United States, with a voice-over that says, “America runs on Bulova time.”
  • TV-Guided Missiles in WWII

    TV-Guided Missiles in WWII
    USA has been experimenting with TV-guided missiles in Pacific. In 1944, the first combat employment of a missile guided by radio and television took place when Navy drone Liberator, controlled by Ensign James M. Simpson in a PV, flew to attack German submarine pens on Helgoland Island.
  • Color Television is a National Standard

    Color Television is a National Standard
    The FCC authorized CBS's color television technology as the national standard in October of 1950, despite it's inconvenient faults, such as the large size of the set. RCA sued to stop the public broadcasting of CBS based systems.
  • First Coast-to-Coast Color Program

    First Coast-to-Coast Color Program
    NBC broadcasts the first coast-to-coast color program, the Rose Bowl Parade, to the 200 sets able to receive
    RCA's electronic color system.
  • First Videotape

    First Videotape
    Ampex introduces the first practical videotape system of broadcast quality. This system was called VRX-1000 and it was demonstrated on April 14th, 1956. It was renamed the Mark IV and sold briskly at $50,000
  • First Televised Debate

    First Televised Debate
    The first split screen broadcast occurs on the Kennedy-Nixon debates. 70 million American viewers watched the first of four televised presidential debates between the two candidates. They were the first debates ever to be held between the presidential nominees of the two major parties during the election season.
  • The Report of the President's Murder

    The Report of the President's Murder
    Walter Cronkite first reports "President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time." The on-camera murder
    of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby is telecast live. His voice was at first heard over a blank screen in a CBS news bulletin, then he reported live for four days on the president's condition. His most unforgettable moment was when he removed his glasses to break the fateful news.
  • First Superbowl

    First Superbowl
    The first Super Bowl was aired on January 15, 1967. The game featured the Greenbay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers won 35-10 and was played before 61,946 fans in Los Angeles' 100,000-seat Memorial Coliseum. The television audience for this game is estimated to have been approximately 60 million viewers.
  • All in the Family Airs

    All in the Family Airs
    All in the Family is the first sitcom to be videotaped but more importantly breaks new ground as it deals
    openly with the bigotry and narrow-mindedness of its lead character. Episodes treat controversial subjects
    like prejudice, abortion, and homosexuality and the series makes it to the top of the ratings in its first season,
    where it stays through 1975. It aired on January 12, 1971, and was shown on CBS television network.
  • VHS Introduced

    VHS Introduced
    VHS home recording format is introduced on September 9, 1976. It is presented by the president of JVC. It was called the HR-3300. Weighing 30 pounds, it was smaller and lighter than its competitors.
  • Roots

    Roots
    Roots is the first television mini-series. It first aired on ABC-TV, and featured the story of an African boy named Kunta Kinte who was stolen by slave traders. Kunta was shipped to America, where he became a slave.
  • The Start of MTV

    The Start of MTV
    The MTV network premieres, aiming at the 18-24 age bracket with its music videos and reality programming. The first video aired on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys," or VJs.
  • David Letterman is Aired

    David Letterman is Aired
    David Letterman begins decades of late-night talk show success with Late Night with David Letterman. Bill Murray, a famous actor, was the first guest on this show.
  • Stereo Sound in Television

    Stereo Sound in Television
    Stereo sound in television broadcasting is available in all major U.S. population centers. NBC and ABC had aggressively utilized stereo sound in their broadcasts. In the wake of its introduction, electronics companies actively marketed stereo television receivers and broadcast programs proudly displayed words and/or logos in show openings, which alerted audiences that the program was being presented with stereo sound
  • The 1990 Children's Tevelsion Act

    The 1990 Children's Tevelsion Act
    The 1990 Children's Television Act, Pub. L. No. 101-437, 104 Stat. 996, is the first congressional act that
    specifically regulated children's television. The goal was to enhance television's potential to teach the nation's children valuable information and skillsOne of its requirements was a minimum of 3 hours per week of
    educational programming. Some stations tried to claim The Flintstones was a history program.
  • Primestar

    Primestar
    The first generation of direct broadcast satellite systems, Primestar, is launched by a consortium of cable
    system owners. PrimeStar was a medium-powered DBS-style system utilizing FSS technology that used a larger 3-foot (91 cm) satellite dish to receive signals.
  • PBS Online debuts

    PBS Online debuts
    PBS Online debuts after a noticing a growing trend in using the Internet. It was very similar to the broadcast network model.
  • Statistics of 2001

    Statistics of 2001
    According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American adult watched 4 hours of television daily in the year 2001. This adds up to 28 hours of TV per week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year.
  • Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

    Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
    Star Wars: Attack of the Clones is the first big budget film shot with digital cameras. Some notable actors in this film are Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ewan McGregor.
  • Sony buys MGM Studios

    Sony buys MGM Studios
    Sony buys MGM Studios for $5 billion, gaining the world's largest movie library, over 7,000 titles, and with
    estimates of the DVD-related value of those titles at over $1 billion per year.
  • Number one TV Show

    "Louie" is voted number one TV show of 2011
  • Best Tv Show of 2012

    "The Blacklist" was voted best TV show of 20112
  • History of Scotland

    A History of Scotland is a television series first broadcast