This Day in American History: MTV Debuts

On this day in 1981, a fledgling cable channel opened with footage of a rocket launch and a moon landing before declaring, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll" -- and music television was born.

At precisely 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, MTV -- Music Television -- launched on cable systems across the country. Its opening sequence spliced together footage of the Space Shuttle Columbia's launch and the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing, culminating in an animated astronaut planting a flag bearing the MTV logo on the lunar surface. Co-creator John Lack then delivered the channel's now-famous first words on air, introducing the first music video ever broadcast on American television: "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the British band The Buggles.

The choice was almost too on-the-nose -- a song about technology replacing an older medium, kicking off a channel built entirely around a new one. MTV was the brainchild of a small team of radio-industry veterans, chiefly Robert Pittman, John Lack, and former Monkee Michael Nesmith, who bet that a 24-hour channel dedicated purely to music videos could work where television executives were skeptical.

It was a slow build at first -- MTV launched in only a fraction of American cable households and struggled for advertisers until its 1982 "I Want My MTV" campaign turned it into a cultural fixture. Within a few years, getting a video into MTV's rotation could make or break an artist's career, and an entire generation grew up organizing their afternoons around VJs and world premieres. Four decades later, the channel that opened with grainy Apollo 11 footage had permanently rewired how the music industry sold songs.

---

Also on this day:

• 1876 -- Colorado becomes the 38th state, earning the nickname "the Centennial State."

• 1907 -- The U.S. Army Signal Corps establishes an aeronautical division, the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force.

• 1945 -- Mel Ott hits the 500th home run of his career, the third player ever to reach the mark after Ruth and Foxx.

• 1973 -- George Lucas's "American Graffiti" opens in theaters.

• 1994 -- Cal Ripken Jr. becomes only the second player to appear in 2,000 consecutive MLB games.

A rocket launch, a flag on the Moon, and a Buggles song -- and the way America consumed music changed overnight.

Source: Britannica, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame