History of TV timeline by Naseer Davis

  • Inventor of the television

    Ernst Alexanderson is proclaimed the "Inventor of Television" by the press in St. Louis
  • Early experiments

    Early experiments
    Electronic television was first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco on Sept. 7, 1927. The system was designed by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, a 21-year-old inventor
  • First televised image

    Philo Farnsworth was the fisrt person to transmit a televised image comprised of 60 horizontal lines it was a dollar sign
  • Experimental Broadcast

    Experimental Broadcast
    Experimental broadcast television began in the early 1930s, transmitting fuzzy images of wrestling, music and dance to a handful of screen.
  • RCA cant gain control of televison

    RCA cant gain control of televison
    Patent interference between Zworykin and Farnsworth ruled in favor of Farnsworth. Prevents RCA from gaining total patent control of television
  • Summer Olympics

    Summer Berlin Olympics televised by Telefunken and Fernseh, using RCA and Farnsworth equipment, respectively.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt

    President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, who was the first president to appear on television. At the New York World Fair
  • New York World Fair

    In 1939, RCA televised the opening of the New York World's Fair,
  • First Sales

    RCA began selling television sets with 5 by 12 in (12.7 by 25.4 cm) picture tubes.
  • RCA investment

    RCA, the company that dominated the radio business in the United States with its two NBC networks, invested $50 million in the development of electronic television
  • First televised baseball game

    The company also began broadcasting regular programs, including scenes captured by a mobile unit and, on May 17, 1939, the first televised baseball game and between Princeton and Columbia universities
  • Newscasts

    CBS was broadcasting two 15-minute newscasts a day to a tiny audience on its New York television station.
  • TV guided missiles

    USA experiments with TV guided misiles
  • Germans use Eiffel Tower

    German broadcast from Paris via Eiffel Tower
  • Color demonstation

    CBS gave the FCC a demonstration of their mechanical color system.
  • First color TV

    CBS presents color television system using a spinning mechanical color wheel. In October, the FCC approves CBS color for commercial broadcasting
  • The War is over

    It was 1951, and President Harry Truman was speaking before a conference in San Francisco about the treaty that officially ended the country’s post-WWII occupation of Japan.
  • TELSTAR

    TELSTAR was the 1st of these satellites. TELSTAR was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on July 10th. The next day the world's 1st satellite transmission of a short television program took place between Andover, MN and Pleumeur-Bodou, France.
  • First plasma tv

    The very first prototype for a plasma display monitor was invented in 1964 by Donald Bitzer, Gene Slottow, and Robert Willson.
  • Progression

    Half of all U.S households have a colored television
  • The first VCR

    In 1972 the Phillips Corporation introduced video cassette recording (VCR) for the home.
  • The Thilla from Manila

    Heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. While the broadcast networks would have to wait a day or so for tapes of the fight to be flown in, subscribing cable viewers saw this historic fight as it was happening.
  • HDTV

    In 1981 NHK, the Japanese National Broadcasting company, demonstrated their 1,125 line HDTV system to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers at their Winter conference in San Francisco.
  • The Cosby show

    The Cobsy show first aired on 1984 and NBC untill 1992
  • VHS takes over

    By 1985 the VHS format dominated the U.S. home market.
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel Air

    Will Smith stars in the hit show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
  • HDTV standards

    In 1994 HDTV standards were established and a plan for the transition from analog to digital transmission of television programming has been rolled out throughout the decade.
  • The growth of television

    99% of households have a television in the ouse
  • Family Matters

    The show Family Matters aires on CBS on 1997-1998
  • That 70 Show

    That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979.
  • That 70 Show final episode

    It debuted on the Fox television network, first airing in 1998, running for eight consecutive seasons, and concluding with the 200th episode on May 18, 2006.