Detail map of Brussel, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Belgium,Manhattan, New York, New York, United States,Andover, Maine, United States,Pleumeur-Bodou, Bretagne, France

A: Brussel, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Belgium, B: Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, C: Andover, Maine, United States, D: Pleumeur-Bodou, Bretagne, France

Telstar 1 Relays the First Live Trans-Atlantic TV Broadcasts

7/11/1962 to 7/23/1962
177 foot horn antenna at AT&T

177 foot horn antenna at AT&T's satellite ground station in Andover, Maine, built to communicate with Telstar

On July 11, 1962 the Telstar 1 satellite relayed the first, and non-public, television pictures—a flag outside Andover Earth Station—to Pleumeur-Bodou on July 11, 1962. Almost two weeks later, on July 23, at 3:00 p.m. EDT, it relayed the first publicly available live transatlantic television signal.The broadcast was made possible in Europe by Eurovision and in North America by NBCCBSABC, and the CBC

"The first public broadcast featured CBS's Walter Cronkite and NBC's Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby in Brussels.The first pictures were the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The first broadcast was intended to have been remarks by President John F. Kennedy, but the signal was acquired before the president was ready, so the lead-in time was filled with a short segment of a televised game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The batter, Tony Taylor, was seen hitting a ball pitched by Cal Koonce to the right fielder George Altman. From there, the video switched first to Washington, DC; then to Cape Canaveral, Florida; to the Seattle World's Fair; then to Quebec and finally to Stratford, Ontario. The Washington segment included remarks by President Kennedy, talking about the price of the American dollar, which was causing concern in Europe" (Wikipedia article Telstar 1, accessed 10-28-2014).

 

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