By 1949, monochrome televisions had become a commercial success. At least 10 million TV sets were sold and programs were available to the general public. The earliest recorded proposal for a color television system belongs to a German patent in 1904. It wasn’t until the Second World War when people began to seriously consider color television as a possibility.

CBS and RCA, two giant television industries, were eager to announce the first color television system. CBS was the first to develop a system and make color television a reality. However, this reality was not accessible or compatible with any black and white television sets. Colored television would only be relevant if it could be broadcasted and received as a monochrome signal on these TV sets.

On this day, October 31st, in 1954, color television sets were made available to the public. Not many people actually went out and bought them initially, despite the number of colored programs that were broadcasted. It wasn’t until maybe a decade later until people started making the switch over to what we now take for granted—color television.