By: HISTORY.com Editors

1947

World Series broadcast on TV for first time

HISTORY.com Editors

Published: August 16, 2021

Last Updated: January 24, 2025

On September 30, 1947, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 5-3, in Game 1 of the World Series—the first Fall Classic game broadcast on television. It is the second "Subway Series" between and Yankees and Dodgers and first World Series to involve a Black player. Jackie Robinson of the Dodgers broke Major League Baseball's color barrier six months earlier.

While Red Barber and Mel Allen called the game on the radio, Bob Stanton described the action on NBC.

In 1939, the first regular-season Major League Baseball game was broadcast on TV, and by 1947, television was still a luxury. Fewer than 50,000 TVs were used in the United States, mostly in bars, restaurants and private clubs in major cities on the East Coast, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2012.

More to History: Jackie Robinson & Civil Rights

Jackie Robinson's legacy extends well past his iconic baseball career.

By contrast, millions of fans followed games on the radio. More than 73,000 fans attended Game 1 in Yankee Stadium.

The first broadcast was flawed, as sunlight and shadows obscured the view of NBC cameras, and the network's new and cumbersome equipment broke down.

The Dodgers lost the 1947 World Series to the Yankees in seven games.

The first World Series to be broadcast in color came in 1955, when the Dodgers and Yankees met again. The Dodgers defeated the Yankees that season for their only championship while they were based in Brooklyn.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on September 30th

1776

General George Washington complains about his militia

In a letter to his nephew, Lund Washington, plantation manager of Mount Vernon, General George Washington writes on September 30, 1776, of his displeasure with the undisciplined conduct and poor battlefield performance of the American militia. Washington blamed the Patriot reliance on the militia as the chief root of his problems in the devastating loss […]

1822

Joseph Marion Hernández becomes the first Hispanic elected to Congress

On September 30, 1822, Joseph Marion Hernández becomes the first Hispanic to be elected to the United States Congress. Born a Spanish citizen, Hernández would die in Cuba, but in between he became the first Hispanic American to serve at the highest levels of any of three branches of the American federal government. Hernández belonged […]

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1868

First volume of “Little Women” is published

The first volume of Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women is published on September 30, 1868. The novel will become Alcott’s first bestseller and a beloved children’s classic. Like the fictional Jo March, Alcott was the second of four daughters. She was born in Pennsylvania but spent most of her life in Concord, Massachusetts, where […]

1889

Wyoming legislators write the first state constitution to grant women the vote

On September 30, 1889, the Wyoming state convention approves a constitution that includes a provision granting women the right to vote. Formally admitted into the union the following year, Wyoming thus became the first state in the history of the nation to allow its female citizens to vote. That the isolated western state of Wyoming […]

1918

President Woodrow Wilson speaks in favor of female suffrage

On September 30, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson gives a speech before Congress in support of guaranteeing women the right to vote. Although the House of Representatives had approved a 19th constitutional amendment giving women suffrage, the Senate had yet to vote on the measure. Wilson had actually maintained a somewhat lukewarm attitude toward women’s suffrage […]

1918

Lawrence of Arabia leads liberation forces into Damascus

On September 30, 1918, a combined Arab and Australian force arrives in Damascus, Syria, to spearhead its liberation from the Turks during World War I, before British troops arrive the following morning to seal the deal. An instrumental commander in the Allied campaign was T.E. Lawrence, a legendary British soldier known as Lawrence of Arabia. […]

1927

Babe Ruth hits 60th homer of 1927 season

On September 30, 1927, Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run of the 1927 season and with it sets a record that would stand for 34 years. George Herman Ruth was born February 6, 1895, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the first of eight children, but only he and a sister survived infancy. Ruth’s father […]

1928

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and best-selling author, is born

On September 30, 1928, Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel, the human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize-winning author of more than 50 books, including “Night,” an internationally acclaimed memoir based on his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, is born in Sighet, Transylvania (present-day Romania). In May 1944, the Nazis deported […]

1938

Munich Pact signed

British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The agreement averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest. In the spring of 1938, Hitler began openly to support the demands of German-speakers living in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia for […]

1949

Berlin Airlift ends

After 15 months and more than 250,000 flights, the Berlin Airlift officially comes to an end. The airlift was one of the greatest logistical feats in modern history and was one of the crucial events of the early Cold War. In June 1948, the Soviet Union suddenly blocked all ground traffic into West Berlin, which […]

1954

USS Nautilus—world’s first nuclear submarine—is commissioned

The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, is commissioned by the U.S. Navy. In August 1958, it accomplished the first voyage under the geographic North Pole. The Nautilus was decommissioned on March 3, 1980.

Launching of the USS Nautilus

1955

James Dean dies in car accident

At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, 24-year-old actor James Dean is killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection. Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” opened shortly […]

1962

Riots erupt over desegregation of Ole Miss

In Oxford, Mississippi, James H. Meredith, an African American student, is escorted onto the University of Mississippi campus by U.S. Marshals, setting off a deadly riot. Two men were killed before the violence was quelled by more than 3,000 federal soldiers. The next day, Meredith successfully enrolled and began to attend classes amid continuing disruption. […]

2005

Michael Eisner resigns as Disney CEO

On September 30, 2005, Michael Eisner resigns as the chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company. During Eisner’s 21-year tenure with Disney, he helped transform it into an entertainment industry giant whose properties included films, theme parks and a cruise line, television networks and sports teams. Eisner also presided over a “golden age” of […]

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Citation Information

Article title: World Series broadcast on TV for first time
Author: HISTORY.com Editors
Website Name: History
URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/september-30/world-series-dodgers-yankees-tv

Date Accessed: April 29, 2025
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: January 24, 2025
Original Published Date: August 16, 2021

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