| Timeline |
|---|
| 1878 CE | The Cathode ray tube is invented by Crookes an English chemist. | |
| 1880 CE | France's Leblanc theorizes transmitting a picture in segments. | |
| 1881 CE | First book about television, The Electric Telescope, is published | |
| 1890 CE | Karl Ferdinand Braun invents the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) | |
| 1902 CE | Otto von Bronk applies for German patent on colour television. | |
| 1906 CE | Th screen aspect ratio of 4:3 is established as an international viewing standard. | |
| 1907 CE | In Russia, Rosing develops a theory of television. | |
| 1907 CE | Edouard Belin makes the first telephoto transmission, from Paris to Lyon to Bordeaux and back to Paris. | |
| 1907 CE | Dr Lee de Forest perfects the Audion tube, a triode vacuum tube that magnifies sound. | |
| 1910 CE | Sweden's Elkstrom invents 'flying spot' camera light beam. | |
| 1921 CE | First transatlantic telephoto transmission is made between Annapolis, Md., and Belin's laboratories at La Malmaison, Fr. | |
| 1922 CE | The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is established. | |
| 1923 CE | Zworykin produces an electronic iconoscope camera tube and kinescope display tube. | |
| 1923 CE | Ribbon microphone becomes the studio standard. | |
| 1923 CE | A picture, broken into dots, is sent by wire. | |
| 1923 CE | Vladimir Zworykin patents television picture tube. | |
| 1925 CE | A moving image - the blades of a model windmill - is telecast | |
| 1926 CE | John Logie Baird demonstrates an electro-mechanical disk-based Television system in London. | |
| 1926 CE | Bell Telephone Labs transmit film by television | |
| 1927 CE | Farnsworth assembles a complete electronic TV system | |
| 1927 CE | Using phone lines TV is sent from Wash DC to NYC | |
| 1927 CE | Bell Laboratories perform the first mechanical television transmission in United States. | |
| 1928 CE | Television sets are put in three homes - programming begins | |
| 1928 CE | In an experiment - television crosses the Atlantic | |
| 1928 CE | In Schenectady - NY - the first scheduled television broadcasts | |
| 1928 CE | Scottish inventor J Blaird demonstrates color-TV | |
| 1928 CE | The first transatlantic TV image received, Hartsdale NY | |
| 1929 CE | Experiments begin on electronic colour television. | |
| 1929 CE | In Germany, magnetic sound recordings are made on plastic tape. | |
| 1929 CE | A television studio is built in London. | |
| 1929 CE | Bell Lab transmits stills in colour by mechanical scanning. | |
| 1929 CE | Zworykin demonstrates a cathode-ray tube 'kinescope' receiver which provides 60 scan lines. | |
| 1929 CE | The first US color TV demonstration, in New York City. | |
| 1929 CE | The first regularly scheduled US TV broadcasts, 3 nights per week. | |
| 1930 CE | TVs based on British mechanical system roll off factory line | |
| 1931 CE | Electronic TV broadcasts in Los Angeles and Moscow | |
| 1931 CE | NBC experimentally doubles transmission to 120-line screen | |
| 1932 CE | Phil T. Farnesworth demonstrates electronic television. | |
| 1934 CE | In Germany - a mobile television truck roams the streets | |
| 1936 CE | Berlin Olympics are televised closed circuit | |
| 1936 CE | The first high-definition TV broadcast service, by BBC in London | |
| 1936 CE | The first US TV Gardening show | |
| 1937 CE | NBC sends mobile TV truck onto New York streets | |
| 1937 CE | A recording - the Hindenburg crash - is broadcast coast to coast | |
| 1938 CE | Broadcasts can be taped and edited | |
| 1938 CE | DuMont markets electronic television receiver for the home | |
| 1938 CE | The first public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV (London) | |
| 1939 CE | New York World's Fair shows television to public | |
| 1939 CE | Regular TV broadcasts begin | |
| 1940 CE | The first showing of high definition color TV | |
| 1 Jul 1941 CE | Following US FCC approval, regular US scheduled commercial TV broadcasts begin. | |
| 1941 CE | CBS and NBC start commercial transmission - WW II intervenes | |
| 1941 CE | Goldmark at CBS experiments with electronic colour TV | |
| 1941 CE | First commercial television license is issued in US. | |
| 1944 CE | The first TV Musical comedy (The Boys from Boise) | |
| 1947 CE | Revised International Telecommunication Convention adopted | |
| 1947 CE | The first permanent TV installed on seagoing vessel (The New Jersey) | |
| 1947 CE | RCA mass produced a 7 inch TV and 170,000 of them were sold. | |
| 1947 CE | 1 million US TV sets had been sold. | |
| 1948 CE | Public clamor for television begins - FCC freezes new licenses | |
| 1948 CE | An airoplane re-broadcasts TV signal across nine states | |
| 1948 CE | Allen Funt's "Candid Camera" TV debut on ABC | |
| 1948 CE | Philips begin experimental TV broadcasting | |
| 1948 CE | First U.S. cable television systems appear. | |
| 1949 CE | Network TV in US | |
| 1949 CE | Community Antenna Television - forerunner to cable | |
| 1949 CE | Candid Camera, TV comedy Variety, moves to NBC | |
| 1949 CE | The first UHF television station operating regular basis (Bridgeport Ct) | |
| 1949 CE | Columbia Pictures converts its short-subject division to television production, beginning a trend other Hollywood studios would soon follow. | |
| 1950 CE | Vidicon camera tube improves television pictures. | |
| 1951 CE | One and a half million TV sets in US - a tenfold jump in one year | |
| 1951 CE | The first transcontinental TV broadcast, by Pres Truman | |
| Sep 1952 CE | In the USA, private colour television test broadcasts began with 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie'. Futher test trasmissions were made in March and April of 1953. | |
| 1952 CE | Univac projects the winner of the presidential election on CBS | |
| 1952 CE | Zenith proposes pay-TV system using punched cards | |
| 1952 CE | The first human birth televised to public from Denver, Colarado. | |
| 1952 CE | The first ultra high frequency (UHF) television station, Portland Or | |
| 30 Aug 1953 CE | In the USA, 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' stared in the first public colour television broadcast. | |
| 1953 CE | NTSC colour standard adopted in the US | |
| 1953 CE | CATV system uses microwave to bring in distant signals | |
