1938 in Television - Events

Events

  • February 21 – The BBC Television Service broadcasts the first ever piece of television science-fiction, a 35-minute adaptation of a segment of the play R.U.R. by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek.
  • March 12 – First news bulletin carried by BBC television, in sound only. Previously, the service had aired British Movietone News cinema newsreels.
  • April 1 – The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race is first televised by the BBC.
  • April 19 – The first televised football (soccer) match, England v Scotland, shown on the BBC.
  • April 23 – The FA Cup Final is televised for the first time by the BBC.
  • May 12 – W2XBS telecasts the 1937 film Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The staff projectionist accidentally played the last reel out of order, ending the film 20 minutes early. NBC was unable to obtain the rights to first run movies for many years to follow.
  • May 14 – The first quiz show, Spelling Bee, is televised by the BBC.
  • May – Communicating Systems, Inc. of New York introduces the first electronic television sets available to the general public in the U.S. Model with 3-inch (76 mm) tube is $125–$150, 5-inch tube is $195–$250. Image only; sound apparatus is $15 more. Sets reach department stores in June.
  • June – DuMont introduces television sets in the US, receiving both pictures and sound. $650 for a 10 by 8-in. screen, $395 for 8¼ by 6½ in.
  • June 24 – Test Match Cricket is broadcast for the first time by the BBC, with coverage of the second test of The Ashes series between England and Australia, live from Lord's Cricket Ground.
  • September 29 – License for W9XAT Minneapolis, granted in 1929, expires. TV doesn't return to the area for a decade.
  • October 26 – The first televised ice hockey match, Harringay Racers v Streatham Redskins, shown on the BBC.
  • November 12 – NBC's W2XBT airs what was the first telecast of an unscheduled event, a fire which broke out on Wards Island.
  • John Logie Baird gives the world's first public demonstration of a colour television broadcast. The 120-line image is projected at the Dominion Theatre, London on a 12 by 9 feet (3.7 by 2.7 m) screen in front of an audience of 3,000.
  • December 12 – Start of daily TV broadcasting in Moscow (USSR).
  • December 31 – 9,315 television sets have been sold in England.

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Famous quotes containing the word events:

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