12 of the most unbelievable moments ever captured on live TV
It's hard to believe how many world-altering events were unintentionally broadcast to millions
The Challenger space shuttle tragedy and the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald were both shown live on television.
The first television was invented in 1927. In the early days, much of the programming available was previously recorded. It wasn't until around the 1950s that we had the technology for live broadcast television.
Simply put, live TV changed everything. It was only a few years earlier that the Hindenburg disaster had the world's attention rapt. The incident saw a state-of-the-art Zeppelin flying machine burst into flames without warning, killing 36 people. You might remember, even if you can't place it, the iconic and tragic radio broadcast of the accident: "Oh, the humanity!" Though even that commentary by broadcast journalist Herbert Morrison was recorded live and broadcast to the world much later.
Soon, the biggest most earth-shaking events were being broadcast all over the world live, not just for people to hear, but to see with their own eyes. In some cases, they were even being captured (sometimes unwittingly) before producers had a chance to cut away.
Here are some of the wildest and most famous incidents to have ever occurred in the roughly 75-year history of live television.
1. The second plane hits on 9/11
Almost anyone who was alive in 2001 can tell you where they were the morning of September 11.
Though there is some footage of the first plane to hit the World Trade Center, it wasn't until after that impact that news and media began to descend upon the area. No one knew the extent of what was happening at first, except that it was a horrible tragedy. And then the second plane hit the South tower as millions watched in absolute horror, changing the world forever.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
2. Randy Johnson obliterates a bird during MLB game
Not all the crazy things that have happened on live television had such far reaching impacts. And, thankfully, not all of them have been quite as tragic.
Well, I guess we should try telling that to this poor bird. It flew through the middle of a baseball diamond at the worst possible time, getting instantly annihilated by pitcher Randy Johnson's fastball! The freak incident was a one-in-a-million occurrence that's still known as one of the wildest things to ever happen during a pro sports game.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
3. The Challenger tragedy
In 1986 the world watched eagerly as the space shuttle Challenger launched out of Cape Canaveral, Florida with seven crew members aboard. The event was being broadcast live in schools all over the country when the unthinkable happened: The shuttle exploded without warning just 73 seconds into its flight.
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4. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walk on the moon
Thankfully, here's one space flight with a happy ending. In 1969, Apollo 11 took astronauts to the moon for the first manned landing. Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon as millions of onlookers watched on live from their homes, with the help of incredible NASA camera and satellite technology.
(Of course, to this day some people still insist the whole thing was faked!)
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5. The killing of Lee Harvey Oswald
Though there was much media coverage of JFK's doomed appearance in Dallas in 1963 and, of course, his assassination, the actual moment of his shooting was never shown live on television. However the death of Lee Harvey Oswald, his presumed killer, was.
Just two days later, while being moved through the police station in handcuffs, Oswald was approached and shot by a man named Jack Ruby. The entire thing was captured and broadcast to a huge audience who was tuned-in constantly for updates on the case.
6. Gary Plauche murders his son's kidnapper
It was a horrible story, but all too familiar. No one watching at the time had any idea that they were about to witness a historic and shocking moment.
A man named Jeffrey Doucet had been arrested on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young boy, and a news crew was waiting for him to arrive in police custody at the airport in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Unbeknownst to Doucet, the police, the reporters, and the live audience, the victimized boy's father was also waiting. Gary Plauche remained incognito until Doucet walked past him, at which point Plauche pulled a gun and shot, killing him.
Plauche did not serve significant time for the murder, receiving a lenient sentence.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
7. A guy wins $250,000 on a scratch-off while being interviewed about a winning a new car on a scratch-off
OK, that was a dark stretch, right? Here's another one-in-a-million moment that's a lot more fun.
In 1998, an Australian man named Bill Morgan was down on his luck. He lived in a truck and nearly died twice in a small period, once from a terrible car crash and then from an allergic reaction to medication. His luck turned around when he won a brand new car on a lottery scratch-off ticket.
A local news station came out to cover Morgan's story and asked him to scratch off another ticket for B-roll footage for the story. In the live video, Morgan is absolutely stunned to find that he won $250,000 on the second ticket.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
8. Magician dies on stage and the audience thinks it's all part of the act
Tommy Cooper, a comedian and magician, was performing on the UK television show Live from Her Majesty's in front of an audience of roughly 12 million people when he suddenly collapsed during an illusion.
The audience, knowing Cooper liked to have a little fun with pretending to fail the trick, began laughing. In reality, Cooper had suffered a heart attack and was dead on arrival by the time he made it to the hospital.
9. Damar Hamlin goes into cardiac arrest on Monday Night Football
About 15 million people watch a typical Monday Night Football game. The audience was likely bigger than that for a highly anticipated showdown between the Bengals and Bills in January of 2023.
Early in the game, after a seemingly routine tackle, Bills safety Damar Hamlin stood up, wobbled, and collapsed to the field. Trainers rushed to his side, and soon, first responders and an ambulance showed up as well. Viewers had very little idea what was happening, except that the stadium was absolutely silent and players on both sidelines were shown crying.
Hamlin had suffered cardiac arrest on the field, more specifically an episode of commotio cordis which is almost always fatal if not treated immediately. The Bills' training staff that rushed to his side saved his life on live television via CPR, and Hamlin eventually returned to NFL duty the next year.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
10. The Max Headroom TV hijacking
Here's a weird one. In November 1987, a masked "hijacker" took over the live feed of WGN-TV in Chicago. The person was dressed as the character Max Headroom. There was no sound or speech for 30 bizarre seconds before station engineers regained control over the television feed.
The same person, later that day, hijacked the feed of another major Chicago station: WTTW. This interruption lasted about 90 seconds and included, well, a lot of extremely strange stuff.
The FCC investigated the incident but were never able to identify the culprits.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
11. Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at The Oscars
Will this incident earn a place in the history books one day? Maybe not. But for a brief moment in 2022, we all thought this was the craziest thing that had ever occurred. Was it all a skit? Was it real? No one knew for sure at first.
I guess you just had to be there.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
12. January 6, 2021
Millions of Americans watched it unfold live in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential election as a mob of over 2000 protestors approached and then stormed the US Capitol.
The footage captured by the media present that day is among the most shocking in American history.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Can you imagine if there were dozens of iPhone videos taken aboard the Titanic as it sank? If someone been trying to sneak a selfie with Abraham Lincoln in the background just as John Wilkes Booth was sneaking up to assassinate him?
It's amazing to think that there will likely never be a major historical or pop culture event that's not captured, if not on live television, at least on self-shot video. On second thought, after seeing some of these videos, maybe that's not such a good thing.