It would change the face of television in the USA forever. The first ever advert, which was sanctioned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), was broadcast on NBC on this day.

The historic ad was screened during a Dodgers-Phillies game and cost Bulova, the watch maker, $9.

Whilst this was the first officially sanctioned ad, other stations had already started broadcasting unofficial adverts by this time. Before 1941, all broadcasting was licensed on the basis that it was noncommercial.

It has to be said that the audience for the $9 ad was quite small. The development of television was slow during the end of World War 2. Television only started to become widespread at the end of the 1940's.