TV Timeline

The Boston Phoenix
November 26 - December 4, 1997

[TV at 50]

TV Timeline
October 1947	First World Series broadcast
November 1948	First election coverage
January 1949	Inauguration of President Truman
April 1949	Milton Berle hosts first telethon, for cancer research
November 1950	First Metropolitan Opera broadcast
Christmas 1950	First Disney broadcast
July 1952	First presidential-convention coverage
September 1952	Nixon's Checkers speech
January 1953	Little Ricky born on I Love Lucy
March 1953	Bob Hope hosts first Oscar telecast
June 1953	Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
March 1954	Edward R. Murrow interviews Joseph McCarthy
September 1954	First Miss America coverage
September 1956	Elvis on Ed Sullivan
March 1957	Vivienne Nearing beats Charles Van Doren on Twenty-One
February 1960	Jack Paar walks out on The Tonight Show
February 1960	First Olympics coverage
September 1960	Kennedy-Nixon debates
May 1961	Newton Minow says TV is a "vast wasteland"
February 1962	John Glenn orbits the earth
October 1962	Johnny Carson's first Tonight Show
August 1963	Civil-rights march on Washington
November 1963	John F. Kennedy assassination
February 1964	The Beatles on Ed Sullivan
August 1967	Last episode of The Fugitive
September 1967	Pete Seeger censored on The Smothers Brothers Show
April 1968	Martin Luther King assassination
June 1968	Robert Kennedy assassination
August 1968	Democratic Convention in Chicago
November 1968	Heidi pre-empts the NFL
July 1969	Neil Armstrong's moonwalk
December 1969	Tiny Tim marries Miss Vicki
September 1970	Monday Night Football debuts
January 1971	*PBS's Masterpiece Theatre* debuts**
August 1972	The Munich Olympics terrorist attack
May 1973	The Watergate hearings
August 1974	Nixon resigns
October 1974	Rhoda gets married
October 1975	Saturday Night Live debuts
November 1980	"Who shot J.R.?" revealed
March 1981	Reagan assassination attempt
July 1981	The Royal wedding
August 1981	MTV begins broadcasting
February 1983	Last episode of MASH*
July 1985	Live Aid aired around the world
January 1986	Challenger explosion
October 1989	San Francisco earthquake
January 1991	Persian Gulf war
October 1991	Clarence Thomas hearings
February 1994	Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Olympic faceoff
June 1994	O.J. takes his white Bronco for a spin
April 1997	Ellen comes out
September 1997	Princess Diana's funeral