The BBC — Timeline


NATION SHALL SPEAK PEACE UNTO NATION This is London calling.......... 2LO calling..........

1922	May	First broadcast of station 2LO in London is made from a 100W transmitter on the top floor of Marconi House, Strand. Talks begin to form a UK broadcasting syndicate, which will end in formation of the British Broadcasting Company.
	October	British Broadcasting Company Ltd founded after the govenment issued the six major radio manufacturers to form the radio station. Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) makes the first Royal broadcast from York House via 2LO.
	November	BBC's radio station 2LO officially opened and begins daily transmissions broadcasting from Marconi House, Strand.
	December	John Reith (later Lord Reith) appointed General Manager. The total staff at the BBC is four (4). First daily news bulletin and the first 'talk' are broadcast.

1923	January	BBC obtains a formal licence to broadcast.
	April	BBC moves to studios in the premises of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Savoy Hill, London.
	September	First issue of BBC's Radio Times published.
	November	John Reith (formerly General Manager) becomes Managing Director of the BBC.
	December	First broadcast of the chimes of Big Ben by the BBC.

1924	February	Greenwich Time Signal - the 'pips' - are broadcast for the first time by the BBC.
	April	King George V broadcasts from the opening of the British Empire Exhibition. He is heard by an estimated 10 million people.

1926	December	British Broadcasting Company Ltd dissolved.

1927	January	British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) established by Royal Charter. BBC makes wearing of evening dress compulsory for station announcers.
	November	BBC begins experimental short-wave radio transmissions five days a week from 5SW at Chelmsford to the British Empire.

1929	September	First daily television broadcast by the BBC.

1932	May	Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London becomes the BBC's headquarters.
	December	The BBC Empire Service launched (which inturn will become the BBC World Service). King George V gives the first Christmas address by a monarch to listeners in the UK and around the world. This first Christmas message was written by the author Rudyard Kipling.

1936	August	High-definition television transmissions from the Radiolympia exhibition.
	November	Start of the world's first regular television service from Alexandra Palace.

1938	January	First BBC broadcast in Arabic for listeners in the Near and Middle East - the first foreign-language BBC service.
	June	Sir John Reith leaves the BBC at the end of his time as Director-General.
	September	BBC starts its European Service with news broadcasts in French, German and Italian.

1939	August	BBC Monitoring Service is established at Wood Norton in Surrey.
	September	11:15am Outbreak of war. Declaration of war is broadcast on the BBC by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. BBC Television Service closed down. BBC Home Service replaces the National and Regional programmes. Radio International is set up by the International Broadcasting Company (IBC) to broadcast English-language programmes to forces in continental Europe, using Radio Normandy's facilities. Known as 'The station behind the lines'.

1940	January	The Forces Programme begins.
	May	Winston Churchill makes his first BBC radio broadcast as Prime Minister, "Be Ye Men of Valour"
	June	18th. General de Gaulle launched his famous BBC broadcast appeal to France from London, "Nothing is Lost"
	July	Dutch citizens are forbidden by the German occupation to listen to BBC and other foreign broadcasts. Radio Oranje begins transmissions from London to the people of the German-occupied low countries.
	October	Seven people are killed when a German bomb hits Broadcasting House during the BBC's 9pm news.
	November	Forces Programme radio service is introduced by BBC.
	December	A landmine badly damages the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House.

1941	January	BBC Television's transmitter at Alexandra Palace in north London is modified as part of Operation Domino to 'bend' the German radio direction beams for guiding bombers.
	July	'V' for Victory campaign is inaugurated by Winston Churchill. The BBC first uses the opening bar of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, forming the pattern of the Morse code for the letter V in its overseas transmissions. Clandestine radio station De Brandaris goes on air in occupied Netherlands.
	October	Decree by General de Gaulle's French government-in-exile sets up Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française.
	December	Christmas Eve. Charles de Gaulle broadcasts "A Christmas message to the children of France"

1942	February	Voice of America begins short wave radio transmissions. Its first programmes are in German.
	March	BBC begins transmitting news bulletins in Morse code for the benefit of resistance fighters in mainland Europe.

1943	May	German occupation orders all radio receivers in the Netherlands to be surrendered.

1944	February	Forces Programme replaced by the General Forces Programme.
	June	BBC starts broadcasting War Report to mark the D-Day landings. AEF Programme, a joint British, Canadian and US radio service, begins broadcasting to the Allied Expeditionary Forces now beginning the liberation of Europe. Its signature tune is "Oranges and Lemons". Bush House, headquarters of the BBC European services, is hit by a German flying bomb.

1945	May	7th. German armed forces surrendered unconditionally on May 7. Winston Churchill BBC broadcast "The End of the War in Europe" Hostilities in Europe ended officially at midnight, May 8. 1945. 13th. Winston Churchill's final broadcast to the Nation as Prime Minister during World War II, providing a personal review of his term of office as he prepares to take his leave of it.
	June	Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) is arrested and charged with treason for making pro-Nazi broadcasts to Britain during the war.
	July	BBC Light Programme succeeds the General Forces Programme.
	January	William Joyce, the Nazi broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw, is hanged for treason in London.

1946	June	BBC Television Service resumes.