| 1945 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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| February 25 |
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's International Service officially opens. |
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| February 26 |
Midnight curfew is introduced for all places of entertainment in the USA. |
â May 6 |
| March |
Hankey Committee recommends temporary revival of a 405-line television service in the
UK but advocates exploration of 1,000-line technology suitable for cinemas and of colour and 3-D, to
replace 405-line monochrome as soon as possible. |
|
| May 1 |
Radio Budapest in Hungary resumes short-wave radio broadcasts. |
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| May 3 |
Last transmissions from Reichssender Hamburg. It becomes Radio Hamburg under the control
of British forces of occupation. |
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| May 6 |
Midnight curfew is lifted for all places of entertainment in the USA. |
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| May 8 |
On VE Day WNBT television in New York is on the air from 08:45 am to 23:00 with live coverage
of celebrations. WRGB in Schenectady, NY carried the WNBT feed throughout the day interspersed with its own
local coverage from a mobile unit. |
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| May 13 |
Radio transmissions begin again in East Berlin under Soviet military control from the former
Nazi broadcasting centre (Haus des Rundfunks) in Masurenallee under the identity 'Hier spricht Berlin'
(Berlin Calling!). |
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| June 11 |
Seven US radio commentators are put under investigation by the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC). |
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| June 18 |
 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) is arrested and charged with treason for making pro-Nazi
broadcasts to Britain during the war. He is retained in Hamburg while the English law on treason is amended to
allow prosecution of persons of Irish descent, Joyce having been born in New York of Irish parentage before
the creation of the Irish Free State. |
|
| July 11 05:30 |
First test explosion of an atomic bomb in New Mexico, USA. Cost of research to date
is put at £500m, which has included employing 125,000 people. |
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| July 28 |
Last broadcast of the AEF Programme. |
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| July 29 |
BBC Light Programme is introduced on the Forces' Programme frequencies of 261.1m MW and
1500m LW. It adopts Oranges and Lemons as its signature tune from the AEF Programme. Regional
broadcasting also resumes. |
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| August 6 |
Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. |
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| c August 15 |
Westinghouse Electric Coproration proposes Stratovision, a system of television
tranmission using aircraft to relay signals across the US. To be developed with the Glenn L Martin aviation
company, a transmitter in a plane at 30,000 feet could cover a radius of 211 miles; the system would require
14 aeroplanes to be in the air at any time to cover 78 per cent of the
US area at a cost of $1,000 an hour for each plane. |
à 1946 |
| October 25 |
 RCA brings image orthicon television cameras into use at its studios in Radio City, New York.
For the first time, television camera tubes are more sensitive to light than the prevailing film emulsions. |
|
| October 29 |
Ball-point pens, using the design invented but not patented in the US by
Laszlo Biró, go on sale at Gimbel's store in New York. A consumer version
is introduced in time for Christmas in the UK by the Miles-Martin Pen Company. |
|
| October |
Wartime US ban on opening new television stations and manufacturing receivers is lifted.
Nine stations are on air and an estimated 7,000 TV sets are still in working order. |
Start dates of US television stations. |
| October |
Large demonstration of television is held at Gimbel's Department Store in Philadelphia,
attracting over 25,000 people in three weeks to watch NBC from New York and local programming from
Philco's KYW Philadelphia station. |
|
| October |
Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk (Central German Radio) goes on air from Leipzig in the
Soviet-controlled zone of East Germany. |
|
| autumn |
 Eniac
(Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) electronic computer [right] is assembled in the Moore
School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, by Professor J G Brainerd,
J P Eckert and Dr J W Mauchly. Its 30 separate component modules incorporate 18,000 vacuum tubes, weigh over
30 tons and consume nearly 200kW of electric power. By 1946 it costs $487,000. It can count from one to 5,000
in one second. [Intel's first chip processor measures 12mm x 12mm, has 12 times
the computing power of Eniac and costs $200. Current processor technology (2007) is approximately 2m times
more powerful still.] |
à 1946 |
| l |
Former NBC Blue network becomes ABC when owner Edward
Noble buys the name American Broadcasting Company from George Storer. Because of wartime restrictions the
network has not been able to build its own studios. Its television programmes originate from the DuMont
and General Electric studios. |
|
| l |
Warner Bros increases its stake in Associated British Picture Corporation to 37½ per cent. |
|
| l |
Warner Bros temporarily withdraws from membership of the MPPDA. |
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| l |
MPPDA changes its name to Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) soon after the
retirement of Will Hays. The Motion Picture Export Association of America (MPEAA) is formed. |
|
| l |
Sir Alexander Korda buys back London Film Productions from MGM and also gains control
of British Lion. |
|
| l |
Islington Studios in north London re-opens for production. It is now owned by the Rank
Organisation, which had acquired the studio during the war. Rank Organisation acquires Highbury Studios
in north London. |
|
| l |
Finnish Film Producers’ Association is formed. |
|
| l |
The British Federation of Film Societies is founded. |
|
| l |
In Hollywood, the Conference of Studio Unions organises
a strike that lasts for 30 weeks. |
|
| l |
Screen Extras Guild is established. |
|
| l |
Only eight per cent of Hollywood feature films are in colour (all Technicolor). |
à 1950 |
| l |
Drive-in cinema building boom begins in the US after the Supreme Court overturns
Hollingshead’s patent. |
|
| l |
Australian National Film Board is established as a branch of the federal government,
modelled on the National Film Board of Canada, following a report by John
Grierson. The ANFB is renamed the Commonwealth Film Unit in 1956, Film Australia in 1973. |
|
| l |
Olivia de Havilland successfully sues Warner Brothers to prevent periods of
‘suspension’ (for refusing inferior roles) being added to contracts. Hereafter seven-year
contracts run for seven years only. |
|
| l |
French ban on Jean Vigo's 1933 film Zéro de Conduite, imposed because of its
anarchistic approach to school, is lifted. |
|
| l |
Televised events in the US include the Navy Day celebration in Central Park, New York,
featuring President Harry S Truman. |
|
| l |
By the end of the Second World War, RCA has invested $10m in the development of television. |
|
| l |
CBS sets up a Television Audience Research Institute to promote the medium for
advertising, including help for advertisers to devise and test new techniques. |
|
| l |
Among US national television advertisers: Botany Worsted Mills, Bulova Watches, Esso,
Firestone Tire & Rubber, Gillette, Pan American World Airways, RCA Victor (all on NBC's WNBT,
New York), Lever Bros (on CBS's WCBW, New York), US Rubber, Macy & Co and Alexander Smith &
Sons (on DuMont's WABD, New York). |
|
| l |
US radio advertising sales for the year total $310.45m, a gain of 7.3 per cent over 1944.
NBC's gross income for the year is up7.5 per cent at $61.27m. |
|
| l |
Baird sets up John Logie Baird Ltd, with premises at 4 Upper Grosvenor Street, London. |
|
| l |
First Commonwealth Broadcasting Conference is held in London. |
|
| l |
French 441-line television system is revived from the transmitter at the Eiffel Tower
on a modest basis. |
|
| l |
BBC establishes a short-lived broadcasting
service to Welsh speakers in Patagonia. It closes the following year. |
|
| l |
The Academy Awards ceremony is first broadcast on nationwide radio in the US. |
|
| l |
Several AEG Magnetophone tape recorders are taken back
from Germany to America by US military as reparations. |
|
| l |
Decca Record Company adopts 'ffrr' (full frequency
range recording) as a trademark. |
|
| l |
UK publisher of Financial News buys the Financial
Times and merges them under the latter title. |
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