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.

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.

On August 26, 1939, the first televised Major League Baseball
game was broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was
to become WNBC-TV.

At the time, television was still in its infancy and programming
did not yet exist, and very few people owned television sets—
there were only about 400 in the New York area.