Today in History

[2jakes]

"Dr. Livingston....I presume?
11/10/1871:

I enjoyed Stanley's (Tracy)bent-shaped meerschaum pipe
which went from an egg white color at the start of the
film to a dark golden hue towards the end of the movie.

When I hear "Onward Christian Soldiers", I think of
Dr. Livingston and the people of Africa but most of all,
his quest for the source of the Nile.

Btw:
I miss movies when actors had great
voices like the ones on this film.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1969, the TV show, 'Sesame Street' was first broadcast. It was intended as an educational program to teach kids how to count & learn the alphabet, which is an indictment of the U.S. educational system at the time.

 

[2jakes]

Nov. 10,1954

"Marine Corps War Memorial" unveiled in Arlington County, Virginia, dedicated to US Marine Corps who died in defense of US since 1775 (inspired by 1945 Iwo Jima photo of servicemen raising US flag)

 

[Peacoat]

This date in 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in Washington, DC. Remember the controversy over Maya Ying Lin and the Wall? In the years since its construction, however, he Wall has become a national shrine, drawing more annual visitors than the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial.

 

[2jakes]

Nov 10, 1775
The U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress. The Marines went out of existence after the end of the Revolutionary War in April of 1783. The Marine Corps were formally re-established on July 11, 1798. This day is observed as the birth date of the United States Marine Corp.

 

[GHT]

Today, in 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns of World War One fell silent.
The war to end all wars had ended.
In London, at The Cenotaph, wreaths will be laid, prayers will be said and heads bowed, a two minute silence will be observed.
It's been estimated that if it were possible, if all the fallen soldiers were able to march past the Cenotaph, it would take them ninety-six hours if they marched non stop, day and night, eight abreast. And that's only the British soldiers, Heaven only knows how long all our allies soldiers would take.

 

[Redquill]

Freedom is not free, thank you to all veterans

 

[MissMittens]

Today in 1851, Moby Dick was first published.

In 1922 on this day, the BBC started broadcast transmissions, from it's original Marconi House station

https://secret-cities.com/2010/03/17/marconi-house/

 

[MissMittens]

BBC's first transmitter, the Marconi station, callsign "2LO" in 1923, roughly a year after launch.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1969, Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the moon, was launched from Cape Canaveral.

On this day in 1908, Albert Einstein, presented his Quantum Theory of Light.

 

[3fingers]

BBC's first transmitter, the Marconi station, callsign "2LO" in 1923, roughly a year after launch.

View attachment 144414

Interesting. will have to do some reading about this. My BBC listening days were from Bush House. Sadly gone now as well.

 

[vitanola]

Today, in 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns of World War One fell silent.
The war to end all wars had ended.
In London, at The Cenotaph, wreaths will be laid, prayers will be said and heads bowed, a two minute silence will be observed.
It's been estimated that if it were possible, if all the fallen soldiers were able to march past the Cenotaph, it would take them ninety-six hours if they marched non stop, day and night, eight abreast. And that's only the British soldiers, Heaven only knows how long all our allies soldiers would take.

It appears that we HAVE forgotten.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The forgetting started a lot earlier than most people remember.

 

[MissMittens]

The forgetting started a lot earlier than most people remember.

Ain't that the truth

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1907, Oklahoma joined the union & became the 46th state.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The forgetting started a lot earlier than most people remember.

Well if they forgot, how do you expect them to remember ?

 

[LizzieMaine]

On this date in 1926, the National Broadcasting COmpany was formally dedicated with a star-studded broadcast from the ballroom of the old Waldorf-Astoria in New York. There weren't yet any full-blown radio stars, so the bill for the evening was drawn from opera, the concert stage, and vaudeville, with such personalities as Mary Garden, Will Rogers, Weber and Fields, and Ben Bernie all making appearances.

Despite the fervent wish of Mr. Sarnoff (not yet a General) that it be known as such, this was a long way from being the first network broadcast in America -- it was merely the result of RCA taking over operation of an already existing network operated by AT&T. There were also no NBC chimes yet to be heard -- they wouldn't be introduced for another three years, and would evolve into their best-known form for another two years after that.

No recording exists of any part of the first NBC broadcast. Nobody bothered to arrange for one. And the check Will Rogers received for his participation remained uncashed for months, until NBC's bookkeepers finally asked him about it and he rather sheepishly found it folded up in the pocket of the evening coat he'd worn the night of the show.

 

[Fading Fast]

On this date in 1926, the National Broadcasting COmpany was formally dedicated with a star-studded broadcast from the ballroom of the old Waldorf-Astoria in New York. There weren't yet any full-blown radio stars, so the bill for the evening was drawn from opera, the concert stage, and vaudeville, with such personalities as Mary Garden, Will Rogers, Weber and Fields, and Ben Bernie all making appearances.

Despite the fervent wish of Mr. Sarnoff (not yet a General) that it be known as such, this was a long way from being the first network broadcast in America -- it was merely the result of RCA taking over operation of an already existing network operated by AT&T. There were also no NBC chimes yet to be heard -- they wouldn't be introduced for another three years, and would evolve into their best-known form for another two years after that.

No recording exists of any part of the first NBC broadcast. Nobody bothered to arrange for one. And the check Will Rogers received for his participation remained uncashed for months, until NBC's bookkeepers finally asked him about it and he rather sheepishly found it folded up in the pocket of the evening coat he'd worn the night of the show.

Neat stuff. When I lived in Boston, I remember this fact being brayed about:

Buckminster was also the site of the first network radio broadcast in 1929. After WNAC Radio moved into its new studios in the hotel in July of that year, they later transmitted their first broadcast using a 100-foot antenna connected to the building’s roof with a clothesline.
​

I have no idea if it is true (and I know you noted that NBC's 1926 broadcast wasn't a network one anyway). One thing I've learned over the years is that most things have several "first ever" events as there can genuinely be disagreement or it comes about from playing the words/definition game of what "network" or "broadcast" or something means.

 

[MissMittens]

Today in 1902, the Teddy Bear became popular, due to Teddy Roosevelt and a Washington Star newspaper cartoon depicting the President with a bear.

Today in 1945, the first Nazi scientists are brought to the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip.

 

[LizzieMaine]

WNAC was a part of the early AT&T network broadcasts which pre-dated NBC, but the very first network broadcast of all, in 1923, connected WEAF in New York with WJAR in Providence, RI and WCAP in Washington. WNAC didn't get involved until the following year.

As for the NBC inaugural broadcast itself, it's really astonishing how poorly documented it actually is, and even NBC itself doesn't seem to have its facts straight. For years they've distributed this photo as having been taken that night:

Yes, that's Will Rogers at the microphone -- but Will wasn't actually in New York that night. He was cut into the program by remote from Independence, Kansas, where he was appearing in a vaudeville engagement. And the square microphone at his right is a model not introduced until 1929.

If that weren't enough, look at the far left in the audience and you'll see two people you might recognize. That's Charles A. Lindbergh sitting next to Amelia Earhart. While Earhart did have some regional notoriety around the Boston area by late 1926, Charles A. Lindbergh was absolutely nobody -- an obscure air mail pilot who was trying to raise money in St. Louis for some scheme to fly across the Atlantic. Neither of these personalities were actually present at the Waldorf that night.

While NBC did keep voluminous history files from about the mid-thirties onward, its earliest years were murky even to those working there early on. When they went digging in the archives for material to publicize their tenth anniversary in 1936, there was so little to be found that they ended up just grabbing a bunch of old photos at random and sent them out as being representative of the event, even though they actually had nothing to do with it. I'm not convinced that any actual photos taken that night still exist -- if any were taken at all. The first two and a half years of NBC, from November 1926 to the arrival of Amos 'n' Andy in August 1929, are probably the least-well-documented aspect of network broadcasting history.