-
1550-1700 – Introduction of outdoor entertainment including bowling, primitive amusement rides, music and dancing.
-
Fans paid to attend a baseball game between two teams in the New York City area at Fashion Rack Course in Queens.
-
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was officially formed to govern collegiate athletics.
-
1919 – Development of recording of sound on motion picture film.
-
1920 – First commercial radio stations with regularly scheduled broadcasts
-
1926 – RCA established the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
-
1927 – Farnsworth transmits first electronic television picture; receives patent.
-
1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) is founded
-
1929 – The Stock Market Crash leads to the Great Depression closing nearly three-fourths of amusement parks.
-
Lou Gehrig appeared on a Wheaties box.
-
1939 – First television is sold
-
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was formed due to many Major League Baseball players serving in WWII.
-
1948 – Televisions are in over one million homes.
-
Wilson Sporting Goods signed golfer Babe Didrickson Zaharias to an endorsement contract for $100,000 per year.
-
1951 – Color television is introduced.
-
1955 – Disneyland in Anaheim, California opens costing $17 million to build.
3.8 million visitors come the first year -
1960 – Over 100 million television sets are in homes around the world.
-
1961 – Six Flags opens in Texas
First regional theme park -
Phil Knight opens Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1972, the name is changed to Nike
-
1971 – The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opens costing $375 million the build
-
1972 – Title IX is enacted, mandating equal access to educational opportunities for men and women.
-
1973 – Rich Foods pays $60,000/year for the naming rights to the Buffalo Bills football stadium.
-
1980 – The US boycotts the Summer Olympics in Moscow.
-
1980 – CNN, the first all news network, is launched by Turner Cable Network
-
1980 – Prince Charles and Diana Spencer are married on international television
-
1981 – First IBM Personal Computers are available for retail sales
-
1981 – MTV debuts
-
1982 – Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” sells 20 million albums
Largest selling record ever -
1983 – First compact disc is released
-
1984 – The Olympics becomes commercialized. Peter Ueberoth helps to make the Olympics profitable.
-
1985 – Nintendo home entertainment system is introduced
-
1989 – Time and Warner merge to become Time Warner Inc.
-
1995 – First television program delivered via the Internet (webcast)
-
1996 – Olympic Park in Atlanta, GA is bombed.
-
1997 – Princess Diana is killed in an automobile accident