On Feb. 1, 1951, Channel 5 in Los Angeles aired on live TV — for the first time ever — the detonation of an atomic bomb blast. The camera was stationed on top of a Las Vegas hotel and pointed toward the desert where dozens of nuclear explosions were set off above ground in that era. Hugh Hart tells the story at Wired.com with the help of KTLA legend Stan Chambers.

The photo, by the way, is of a blast later in 1951. All the TV audience saw that morning was white light.