December 24

On Christmas Eve, 1906, radio innovator Reginald Fessenden broadcasting from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, made the first radio broadcast containing programming. The broadcast included Fessenden playing Silent Night, on the violin, and reading both poetry and a passage from the Bible.

Fessenden had more than 24 patents issued in his name and was fond of saying “An inventor is one who can see the applicability of means to supplying demand five years before it is obvious to those skilled in the art.”