Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a La Garde De Nuit, a Nights' Watch Cocktail inspired by World Television Day! Yes, it’s a thing.
In 1996, the UN General Assembly proclaimed November 21st as World Television Day. This date commemorates the first World Television Forum held that same year. During the Forum, leading media figures discussed the growing significance of television in our ever-changing world.
The first fully electronic television set was invented in 1927, by 21-year-old American inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth. His idea was to capture moving images, transfer them into code, and then move the images along radio waves to different devices. In 1928, a television aired its first broadcast. It wasn’t until 1938 that television sets became commercially available.
At first, televisions in the home were rare. In 1949, there were only about 1 million American households that owned a television set. Part of the reason for that? The cost was prohibitively expensive. The most expensive television set on the market in 1949 cost $1,295. In today’s dollars, that would be nearly $14,000! Thankfully, technology and innovation brought the costs down, and by 1969, the number of U.S. households that had TV sets skyrocketed to 44 million. At the same time, the number of TV stations in the U.S. went from 69 to 566.
Today, nearly 96% of all households in the United States have at least one television set. TV isn’t just an American phenomenon. Throughout the world, 1.63 billion people have televisions in their homes. Even though the number of televisions has increased dramatically, the reasons for watching hasn’t changed much. People still watch TV as a way to get the news, unwind, or escape reality. Some people, especially children, watch television to learn.
The UN’s acknowledgment of the impact television has on culture around the world was an important marker, officially noting for history that every nation is affected by video combined with audio and understood its importance to communication, information, entertainment, and politics.
In the nearly 30 year s since, the importance of video + audio has only grown. Even radio shows like ours now have video! So with that in mind, let’s raise a glass with tonight’s Drink Of The Day, a La Garde De Nuit, a Nights’ Watch Cocktail!
Ingredients
Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink:
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