| 1965 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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| January 4 |
CBS buys the Fender Guitar Company for $13m. |
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| January 30 |
Independent Television’s coverage of the
state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill is the largest ever, using 45 live cameras. |
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| January |
King Radio pirate station goes on the air from the former Radio
Invicta installation at Red Sands Tower in the Thames Estuary. |
â September 25 |
| February 8 |
Ban on UK television advertising of cigarettes is announced by health minister Kenneth Robinson. |
â February |
| February 27 |
Dutch coalition cabinet resigns because of
its inability to agree a new broadcasting structure and legislation. |
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| February |
Television services start in Mauritius and Senegal. |
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| February |
Cigarette advertising is banned on UK television
with effect from August 1. |
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| March 23 |
First successful two-man manoeuvrable US space flight, Gemini III. |
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| March |
BBC announces a £5m deficit. |
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| March |
Ampex introduces its fixed-head videotape recorder VR-303, designed for non-technical
users, quarter-inch tape runs at 100 ips and gives 50 minutes’ recording. |
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| April |
Electronovision makes Harlow, using its eponymous
process to produce an electronic motion picture for theatrical release, in England. |
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| April 6 |
 Intelsat 1 (Early Bird),
the first geostationary communications satellite for commercial use, is launched. |
Click on picture for more |
| April 23 |
Molniya-1 satellite is launched by USSR into
geostationary orbit, the first Soviet active real-time satellite. Once established it is
used for television relays between Moscow and Vladivostok, a distance of 6,200 miles. |
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| April 26 |
Channel 4 Television (later Rede Globo) begins transmissions in Brazil. |
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| May 2 |
Early Bird carries the first transatlantic television programme linking nine countries. |
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| May 13 |
The Rolling Stones record Satisfaction. |
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| May 17 |
First transatlantic colour television transmission is made by NBC from UK to US. |
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| May 17 |
Dolby Laboratories is founded, specialising in audio noise reduction. |
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| May 24 |
Test transmissions of PAL colour television start in UK. |
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| May |
Of 510 stations broadcasting on medium waveband radio
frequencies, only 208 have been authorised under the 1948 Copenhagen Convention. |
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| June 28 |
Early Bird satellite goes into commercial service. |
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| June |
Television services start in Ghana and Saudi Arabia. |
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| June |
Leicester University announces that it is to establish
a mass communications research department; the Independent Television Authority is to provide
£250,000 over five years to the Television Research Committee. Shortly afterwards, the
University of Leeds announces that it will have a similar unit opening in the autumn. |
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| July |
First live transatlantic television commercial, for the
Daily Mail newspaper, is broadcast in the UK. |
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| July |
MVR of California demonstrates a single-frame video disc
machine capable of recording 600 still frames or 20 seconds of action for immediate replay. |
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| July 15 |
Still photographs of the surface of Mars are sent back to Earth from the Mariner IV spacecraft. |
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| July |
US firm Westinghouse announces Phonovid system for recording
and playback of still pictures and sound on a television screen from an ordinary home record player. |
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| July |
The Beatles’ film soundtrack album Help! is the first album in US history
to have advance orders of a million copies. In the UK the album sells 270,000 copies in the first week. |
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| July 31 |
Last cigarette commercial, 60 seconds for Rothman International, is shown on UK
television before the ban. |
à 1971 |
| August 1 |
UK television licence fee is increased from £4 to £5, less than two years since the
last increase, and the radio licence from £1 to £1 5s (£1.25). |
Radio licence fee
TV licence fee |
| August 16 |
The Beatles’ concert before 56,000 fans at Shea Stadium, New York—for
which they are paid a $160,000 fee—is filmed as a television special. |
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| August |
MVR video disc machine VDR-210CF built to CBS
specifications is used for instant replays on CBS coverage of an American football game. |
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| August |
Sony markets the first home-use videotape recorder CV-2000 (CV for Consumer Video). |
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| September 25 |
Pirate station King Radio is
renamed Radio 390. |
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| September |
Radio Essex pirate station goes on the air from Knock John Tower in the Thames Estuary. |
à 1966 |
| September |
Television service starts in Paraguay. |
Television start dates |
| September |
CBS television network in US begins screenings of recent feature films. |
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| October |
Television services start in New Caledonia and Surinam. |
Television start dates |
| October |
Committee chaired by Dr Brynmor Jones, Vice-Chancellor
of the University of Hull, considering the use of audio-visual media in higher education
recommends greater use of closed circuit television. |
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| October |
One of the two weekly episodes of Granada Television’s
soap opera Coronation Street does not reach the Top 20 ratings. |
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| November 8 |
BBC Television decides not to screen The War
Game, Peter Watkins’ deliberately ‘shocking’ film about nuclear war. |
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| November 13 |
Critic Kenneth Tynan uses the word ‘fuck’ in a conversation with Robert
Robinson on the BBC3 magazine programme. |
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| November 14 |
ITV network transmission of the Royal Variety
Performance achieves the highest ever UK television audience (22.65m). Comedian Ken Dodd
introduces stars including singers Tom Jones and Cilla Black and magician David Nixon. |
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| November 26 |
First French satellite, AST, is launched. |
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| November |
Experimental transmissions of SECAM colour television
are conducted via the Molniya-1 satellite between Paris and Moscow. |
|
| l |
First UK ‘twin’ cinema—Nottingham
Odeon—is opened. |
|
| l |
 Arriflex BL is the first self-blimped (sound-proofed) camera from Arnold & Richter. |
|
| l |
 Super 8 amateur motion
picture film format introduced by Eastman Kodak. |
|
| l |
The biblical epic film The Greatest Story Ever Told is filmed with an aspect
ratio of 2.75:1—probably the largest ever used for a commercial release. |
|
| l |
Television extends around Australia: stations open in Adelaide (SAS-10), Brisbane
(TVQ-0) and Perth (STW-9); a third commercial station opens in Sydney (TEN-10), establishing the
long-surviving pattern of three commercial networks: Seven, Nine and Ten. |
|
| l |
3M introduces the first colour low-noise videotape,
Scotch Brand 399, which remains the industry standard for five years. |
|
| l |
Illinois Institute of Technology proposes a system of
multi-track longitudinal video recording with the tape direction reversed at the end of
each track. A prototype machine is built by Collaro-Magnavox of Essex, UK. |
|
| l |
Matsushita introduces a compact half-inch industrial
videotape recorder to match the Sony CV series. |
|
| l |
Sony introduces the first monochrome half-inch tape
Video Rover portapak—used almost immediately by New York video artist Nam June Paik. |
|
| l |
German consumer electronics firm Loewe announces plans to market the
Optacord 600 home entertainment centre—a combined television
receiver and videotape recorder. |
The quest for home video: Loewe Optacord 600 |
| l |
Wesgrove home video recorder is developed in the UK (based on the
Telcan). Outwardly resembling a Ferrograph audio recorder, it employs ¼-inch
tape running at 90, 120 or 150 ips and giving up to 30 minutes' recording time on 11½-inch reels. A
do-it-yourself kit, VKR-500, goes on sale for £97 10s (£97.50). |
|
| l |
Pioneer in Japan develops the transistor audio amplifier. |
|
| l |
Introduction of BBC World Service. |
|
| l |
Television service starts in Ghana and a television experiment in
Senegal. |
Television start dates |
| l |
Community Television and Western Microwave, the Montana-based cable television operations
with six systems and 12,550 subscribers, relocate to Denver, Colorado. |
à 1968 |
