Boston Receives First Transcontinental TV Broadcast
On this day in 1951, anyone in Boston with access to a television set could be part of history — a program was transmitted live from coast-to-coast for the first time ever. President Harry Truman's opening speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was broadcast to an audience of 40,000,000 people, by far the largest audience for any presidential address in American history. Both the content and the technology were significant. The Peace Conference would formalize the end of hostilities with Japan, opening the door for Japan's economic recovery, while the broadcast initiated a new era in telecommunications.
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