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NBC

American television and radio network

21 dated entries naming NBC, drawn from 17 separate years between 1926 CE and 1986 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as National Broadcasting Company in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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20th century

  • 1926November 15 – The NBC Radio Network opens in the United States with 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).source
  • 1932February 15 – Clara, Lu & Em, generally regarded as the first daytime network soap opera, debuts in its morning time slot over the Blue Network of NBC Radio in the United States, having originally been a late evening program.source
  • 1937December 12 – Mae West makes a risqué guest appearance on NBC's Chase and Sanborn Hour, which eventually results in her being banned from radio.source
  • 1941July 1 – NBC Television begins commercial operation on WNBT, on Channel 1. The world's first legal TV commercial, for Bulova watches, occurs at 2:29 PM over WNBT, before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second spot displays a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time." As a one-off special, the first quiz show called "Uncle Bee" is telecast on WNBT's inaugural broadcast day, followed later the same day by Ralph Edwards hosting the second game show broadcast on U.S. television, Truth or Consequences, as simulcast on radio and TV and sponsored by Ivory Soap. Weekly broadcasts of the show commence in 1956, with Bob Barker.source
  • 1941August 31 – The Great Gildersleeve debuts on NBC Radio in the United States.source
  • 1944December 10 – Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini leads a concert performance of the first half of Beethoven's Fidelio (minus its spoken dialogue) on NBC Radio, starring Rose Bampton. He chooses this opera for its political message: a statement against tyranny and dictatorship. Presenting it in German, Toscanini intends it as a tribute to the German people who are being oppressed by Hitler. The second half is broadcast a week later. The performance is later released on LP and CD, the first of 7 operas that Toscanini conducts on radio.source
  • 1947April 16 – The first public demonstration of a TV camera zoom lens, the Jerry Fairbanks Zoomar, is held at NBC studios in New York.source
  • 1947November 6 – The television program Meet the Press makes its debut, on the NBC-TV network in the United States.source
  • 1947December 6 – Arturo Toscanini conducts a concert performance of the first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello, for a broadcast on NBC Radio in the United States. The second half of the opera is broadcast a week later.source
  • 1949March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.source
  • 1949June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC in the United States.source
  • 1951December 24 – Gian Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC in the United States, becoming the first opera written especially for television.source
  • 1954September 27 – The Tonight Show first airs on live television on NBC in the United States being the first late night talk show.source
  • 1956October 29 – The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV in the United States.source
  • 1958October 17 – An Evening with Fred Astaire, the first television show recorded on color videotape, is broadcast on NBC in the United States.source
  • 1960December 8 – For the first time, Mary Martin's Peter Pan is presented as a stand-alone 2-hour special on NBC television in the United States, instead of as part of an anthology series. This version, rather than being presented live, is shown on videotape, enabling NBC to repeat it as often as they wish without having to restage it. Although nearly all of the adult actors repeat their original Broadway roles, all of the original children have, ironically, outgrown their roles and are replaced by new actors.source
  • 1962October 1 – Johnny Carson takes over as permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show on television, a post he will hold for 30 years.source
  • 1964December 6 – The 1-hour stop-motion animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the popular Christmas song, is broadcast for the first time, on NBC. It becomes a Christmas tradition, despite moving to CBS in 1972.source
  • 1968November 17 – The "Heidi Game": NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders–New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi. Fans are unable to see Oakland (which had been trailing 32–29) score 2 late touchdowns to win 43–32; as a result, thousands of outraged football fans flood the NBC switchboards to protest.source
  • 1979NBC introduces a new version of its famous peacock, used in conjunction with the 1975-style N, for the Fall season.source
  • 1986May 12 – NBC unveils its current peacock logo at the finale of its 60th anniversary special.source

Named in the same entries