November 3, 1969: PBS Begins Broadcasting

November 3, 1969: The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) begins operation, replacing National Educational Television (NET). A week later, on November 10, it began broadcasting Sesame Street. From NET, it inherited Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. It later developed the kids' shows The Electric Company, Zoom! and 3-2-1 Contact.

For grownups, it inherited The French Chef with Julia Child, and would develop Masterpiece Theatre with Alistair Cooke, Mystery! with Vincent Price, Great Performances (nearly always featuring classical music) with several hosts, The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, Nova with several hosts, Cosmos with Carl Sagan, Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda, and The American Experience with David McCullough. (Some of these shows would be hosted by others as their predecessors aged or died.)

PBS member stations include the following:

* WGBH-Channel 2, Boston.

* WNET-Channel 13, Newark, New Jersey, serving New York City.

* WHYY-Channel 12, Wilmington, Delaware, serving Philadelphia.

* WMPB-Channel 67, Baltimore.

* WETA-Channel 26, Washington, D.C.

* WUNC-Channel 4, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, serving Raleigh and Durham.

* WTVI-Channel 42, Charlotte.

* WGTV-Channel 8, Athens, Georgia, serving Atlanta.

* WJCT-Channel 7, Jacksonville.

* WUCF-Channel 24, Orlando.

* WEDU-Channel 3, Tampa.

* WPBT-Channel 2, Miami.

* WNPT-Channel 8, Nashville.

* WKNO-Channel 10, Memphis.

* WYES-Channel 12, New Orleans.

* KETA-Channel 13, Oklahoma City.

* KERA-Channel 13, Fort Worth, Texas, serving Dallas.

* KUHT-Channel 8, Houston.

* KLRU-Channel 18, Austin.

* KLRN-Channel 9, San Antonio.

* WNED-Channel 17, Buffalo.

* WQED-Channel 13, Pittsburgh.

* WVIZ-Channel 25, Cleveland.

* WOSU-Channel 34, Columbus.

* WCET-Channel 48, Cincinnati.

* WTVS-Channel 56, Detroit.

* WFYI-Channel 20, Indianapolis.

* WTTW-Channel 11, Chicago.

* WMVS-Channel 10, Milwaukee.

* KTCA-Channel 2, St. Paul, serving Minneapolis.

* KETC-Channel 9, St. Louis.

* KCPT-Channel 19, Kansas City.

* KRMA-Channel 6, Denver.

* KUED-Channel 7, Salt Lake City.

* KAET-Channel 8, Phoenix.

* KLVX-Channel 10, Las Vegas.

* KPBS-Channel 15, San Diego.

* KCET-Channel 28, Los Angeles.

* KQED-Channel 9, San Francisco.

* KVIE-Channel 8, Sacramento.

* KOPB-Channel 10, Portland, Oregon.

* KTCS-Channel 9, Seattle.

So when, in his 1982 hit "Pressure," Billy Joel sang, "All your life is Channel 13, Sesame Street, what does it mean?" he was referring specifically to the affiliate representing his hometown of New York, WNET. But because that station is the best-known PBS station, the phrase "Channel 13" has come to stand in for PBS in general, even in the vast majority of American cities where it's on a different channel.

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November 3, 1969 was a Monday. This was also the night of President Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech, and I have an entry for that as well.

The baseball season was over. There was no football: The NFL and ABC began partnering for Monday Night Football the following season. And while the NHL season had begun, no games where scheduled for that day.

Only 1 game was scheduled in the NBA: The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 109-93 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena. Willis Reed scored 35 points, Bill Bradley 19, Dave DeBusschere 18, Dick Barnett 14, and Walt Frazier and Cazzie Russell each scored 10. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then a rookie and still using his birth name of Lew Alcindor, scored 17 for the Bucks.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Washington Capitols, 125-115 at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. Neither team survived to be admitted to the NBA.

February 11, 1963: "The French Chef" Premieres

February 11, 1963: The French Chef premieres on WGBH-Channel 2 in Boston. It becomes the most famous cooking show in the history of American television.

Julia Child, with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, had published Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961. Living in Boston, the 49-year-old former copywriter and researcher for the OSS (the World War II forerunner of the CIA) convinced WGBH, one of the earliest public television stations, to allow her to demonstrate recipes from the book.

The show ran for 10 years, as WGBH syndicated it nationally to National Educational Television (NET), which became the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1970. PBS continued to air reruns until 1989, and they've been broadcast on nostalgia networks ever since. In 1972, PBS made it the first TV show to be captioned for the deaf -- anywhere in the world.

Child died in 2004, at age 91. In 1989, Jean Stapleton, best known for playing Edith Bunker on All in the Family, played her in a one-woman short musical play, Bon Appétit!, with music by American opera composer Lee Hoiby. In 2009, Meryl Streep played her in the film Julie & Julia.

In a 2016 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, comedian and chef Mamrie Hart played her, while "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

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February 11, 1963 was a Monday. This was also the day that author Sylvia Plath took her own life, and the day that The Beatles recorded most of their first album. I have separate entries for those events.

Baseball and football were out of season. And no games were scheduled for either the NBA or the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.