On October 5, 1947, President Harry Truman (1884-1972) made
the first-ever televised presidential address from the White
House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain
in order to help starving Europeans.

In 1947, television was still in its infancy and the number of TV
sets in U.S. homes only numbered in the thousands (by the early
1950s, millions of Americans owned TVs); most people listened
to the radio for news and entertainment.

              
CAMILLE BOHANNON

On October 2, 1959, Rod Serling’s iconic sci-fi series “The
Twilight Zone” premiered on CBS to rave reviews.

The show, which promises to introduce viewers to a
“dimension as timeless as infinity,” quickly became a
classic.

The original “Twilight Zone” ran on CBS for five seasons,
from 1959 to 1964, totaling 156 episodes.

Each episode used supernatural, science-fiction and
fantastical stories to explore human nature, social issues
and the shared anxieties of the era.

The first episode, “Where Is Everybody?,” follows Mike
Ferris (Earl Holliman below), who finds himself alone in
a small town without any recollection of how he got there
or where he was.

TIM MAGUIRE

On September 26, 1960, for the first time in U.S. history, a
debate between major party presidential candidates was
broadcast on live television.

The presidential hopefuls, John F. Kennedy, a Democratic
senator of Massachusetts, and Richard M. Nixon, the vice
president of the United States, met in a Chicago studio to
discuss U.S. domestic matters.

Kennedy emerged the apparent winner from this first of four
televised debates, partly owing to his greater ease before the
camera than Nixon, who, unlike Kennedy, seemed nervous
and declined to wear makeup.