1927 Bell Telephone Co. transmits an image of Commerce Secretary Hoover which becomes the first successful long distance demonstration of television.
1928 Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, DC becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
1950 The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).
1954 Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
1954 RCA manufactures first color TV set (12" screen; price: $1,000).
1954 First Miss America Pageant broadcast on television
1958 Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare the patron saint of television
1962 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
1962 Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.
1963 John F. Kennedy assassination: Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is mortally shot by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas on live national television.
1964 Ranger 6 is launched by NASA. Its mission is to carry television cameras and to crash-land on the Moon.
1968 Apollo program: NASA launches ''Apollo 7'', the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Goals for the mission include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver.
1969 The pilot episode of ''The Brady Bunch'', starring Robert Reed and Florence Henderson, airs on United States TV.
1969 Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity with the Vietnam War effort, and to support his policies. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounces the President's critics as 'an effete corps of impudent snobs' and 'nattering nabobs of negativism'.
1971 A ban on television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.
1972 ''Rainbow'', a British television programme for children, debuts.
1975 American television network NBC airs the first episode of ''Saturday Night Live'' (George Carlin is the very first host; Billy Preston and Janis Ian the very first musical guests).
1980 Millions of viewers tune into the US TV soap opera ''Dallas'' to learn who shot lead character J.R. Ewing. The event is a national obsession.
1986 The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
1987 The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine, which had required radio and television stations to "fairly" present controversial issues.
1996 ''Doctor Who'' makes its return to British television for the first time since 1989. Paul McGann starred in the US-made movie which pitted the Doctor against Eric Roberts' Master.
2001 Japanese television performer Masashi Tashiro gets No. 1 temporarily in the Internet vote of Time's Person of the Year.
2002 In Los Angeles, California, television and film actor Merlin Santana is shot to death while sitting in the passenger seat of a friend's car parked on the 3800 block of Victoria Avenue.
2004 The hugely popular television hit, ''LOST'', premieres in Ameri