On January 26, 1926, John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor,
gave the first public demonstration of a true television system
in London, launching a revolution in communication and
entertainment.

This information was then transmitted by cable to a screen
where it showed up as a low-resolution pattern of light and
dark. Baird’s first television program showed the heads of
two ventriloquist dummies, which he operated in front of the
camera apparatus out of view of the audience.

Baird based his television on the work of Paul Nipkow, a
German scientist who patented his ideas for a complete
television system in 1884.

The first TV image from John Logie Baird’s early “Televisor” demonstrations.

On January 26, 1905, during a routine inspection of the
Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a superintendent
made a  glittering discovery: a 3,106-carat diamond.

Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the “Cullinan,”
it was the largest diamond ever found.

Superintendent Frederick Wells was 18 feet below the
earth’s surface when he spotted a flash of starlight
embedded in the wall just above him. His discovery
was presented that same afternoon to Sir Thomas
Cullinan, who owned the mine.

Cullinan then sold the diamond to the Transvaal
provincial government, which presented the stone
to Britain’s King Edward VII as a birthday gift.

Sir Thomas Cullinan
(1862 – 1936)

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964)

MacArthur was a general who served as a top commander
during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank
of General of the Army.

He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff
of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme
Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945
during WWII; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers
overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951;
and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean
War from 1950 to 1951.  

MacArthur was nominated for the Medal of Honor three
times, and was awarded it for his WWII service in the
Philippines.

General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore during initial
landings at Leyte, Philippine Islands.

General Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander during formal surrender ceremonies on
the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay.

On January 26, 1979, “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a television
comedy about two cousins in the rural South and their
souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger known as the General Lee,
debuted on CBS.

The show, which originally aired for seven seasons, centered
around cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke
(Tom Wopat) and their ongoing efforts to elude their nemeses,
the crooked county commissioner “Boss” Jefferson Davis Hogg
(Sorrell Booke) and the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane
(James Best).

“The Dukes of Hazzard” was known for its car chases, stunts
and the General Lee.

The General Lee in action.

The first Emmy Awards ceremony was held on January 25, 1949
at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

The awards recognize excellence in television (which in the
1940s was a novel medium).

Hollywood’s first television academy had been founded three
years earlier by Sydney Cassyd, a former film editor for Frank
Capra who later worked as a grip at Paramount Studios and
an entertainment journalist.

Sydney Cassyd (1908 – 2000)