Timeline of Television
The Invention of the Electric Television
1927
(Pruitt, 2021)
In 1927, 21-year-old Philo Farnsworth created the first fully electronic TV. RCA challenged this by claiming another patent took priority. After years of legal battles, Farnsworth won in 1934 and RCA had to pay him $1 million. Even though he is recognized as the father of television, Farnsworth didn’t earn much and spent his later years fighting more patent lawsuits. He died in 1971, still in debt (Pruitt, 2021).
Berlin Olympics
1936
​(British Pathé, 2014)
The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were the first live televised sporting event. It was shown in viewing rooms in Berlin and Potsdam, demonstrating how television could broadcast big events in real-time to large audiences (Larrosa, 2016).
World Fair
1939
(Hagley, 2019)
At the 1939 World’s Fair, David Sarnoff introduced RCA’s first electronic television system, which marked a key moment in making television available to the public. Sarnoff, the head of RCA, was important in advancing television technology. Even during the Great Depression, he pushed forward with television development (Hagley, 2019).
Introduction to Color Television
1954
(Murray, 2019)
The launch of color TV by RCA in 1954 was a big milestone. It worked with both color and black-and-white sets, making TV more vibrant and engaging. Color TV also shaped how the world viewed American culture (Murray, 2019).
The First Man on the Moon
1969
(New Tang Dynasty Television, 2012)
The live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, was a huge moment in TV history. Over 600 million people watched Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon, showing how TV could connect people worldwide (Jeffrey, 2019).
The Launch of Pay-TV
1972
(Biggest Trailer Database, 2013)
On November 8, 1972, HBO launched in the U.S. with its first broadcast being a live hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. After the game, HBO showed the 1971 film Sometimes a Great Notion (Walfisz, 2022).
ESPN Launched
1979
On September 7, 1979, ESPN launched as the first all-sports cable network. Based in Bristol, Connecticut, it used satellite to reach about four million U.S. homes. The network was led by Chester R. Simmons, a former president of NBC Sports (Couch, 1980).
(Couch, 2017)