Aug 26, 1939:
First televised Major League baseball game
On this day in 1939, the first televised Major League baseball game is broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York.
Aug 26, 1959:
Mini makes its debut
On this day in 1959, the British Motor Corporation (BMC) launches its newest car, the small, affordable-at a price tag of less than $800-Mark I Mini. The diminutive Mini went on to become one of the best-selling British cars in history.
Aug 26, 1978:
Grease movie soundtrack earns its second #1 hit
The 1960s was the final decade in which the musical hits of Broadway were routinely and successfully adapted by Hollywood into big-budget screen versions. West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound Of Music (1965), Funny Girl (1968)-all of these movie musicals were among the biggest critical and commercial hits of their era. But while the early part of the subsequent decade brought successful adaptations of Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Cabaret (1972), Hollywood had all but given up Broadway by the middle of the 1970s. And then, in 1978, Paramount Pictures placed a big bet on a small musical called Grease and came up with not just an enormous hit movie, but a true pop-cultural phenomenon that included one of the most successful original motion picture soundtrack albums in music history. On August 29, 1978, that album earned its second chart-topping hit when its third single-Frankie Valli's "Grease"-reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
Aug 26, 1957:
Russia tests an intercontinental ballistic missile
The Soviet Union announces that it has successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of being fired "into any part of the world." The announcement caused great concern in the United States, and started a national debate over the "missile gap" between America and Russia.