These are the 10 most-watched events in television history…

(You probably even remember many of them...)

First of all, a warm greeting.

Television is a device that few people can live without today.

And it was the invention of this device that made certain events in history possible.

Before its appearance, never before had so many people witnessed such events in such numbers.

But since the numbers seemed extremely interesting to me, I gathered the statistics and then it was created...

Before we get to that, let me introduce myself first.

My name is Uroš and I am the co-owner of the Kron technical service, where we have repaired more than 75,586 devices in the 30 years of operation.

And no - I am not telling you this to brag, but I want to tell you something else...

Since I have already encountered thousands of televisions, since their inception, I have also learned more about their history and the events that have marked this wonderful device.

So…

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s start with the top ten most-watched events…

#10: The President’s Funeral…

November 22, 1963 was a very tragic day for Americans, as they learned of the assassination of their president, John F. Kennedy.

Three days later, around 250,000 people attended the ceremony live, and even more were glued to their television screens.

According to statistics, 93% of American households that had a home television at the time watched the funeral.

The number of viewers is estimated at 180 million.

#9: The Prince’s Wedding…

When it comes to the English royal family, there’s always a lot of dust.

In the modern age of television, the most attention has been drawn to the newlyweds, Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

On April 29, 2011, they got married in London in front of 300 million people.

And yes…

A divorce in this case would probably be one of the least pleasant…

#8: Cricket World Cup semi-final...

It's hard for Europeans to imagine that a cricket match could make it into the top ten most-watched content.

After all, many people would put at least 5 World Cup finals ahead of this event.

But as mentioned, on March 30, 2011, Asia glued itself to its small screens.

The Cricket World Cup semi-final match between Pakistan and India was watched by 400 million people.

* This may not be such a surprising figure, considering that Pakistan and India had a combined population of 1.45 billion that year.

But if we look at the seventh most-watched event in history...

Če pa pogledava sedmi najbolj gledan dogodek v zgodovini…

#7: New Year's Festival...

Since 1983, the Spring Festival Gala has been broadcast on television in China, which is dedicated to celebrating the Chinese New Year.

In 2012, this festival was apparently very special, as it was reportedly watched by 490 million people.

This also made it into the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most watched entertainment programs of all time.

#6: Memorial service...

Twelve days after the death of legendary pop star Michael Jackson, a memorial service was held in his honor.

The event in California was watched live by approximately half a billion people in 2009, making the sad event the sixth most watched event in history.

Interestingly, Jackson's concert promoter AEG Live gave away 17,500 free tickets to fans around the world for the ceremony.

1.6 million people applied for the "candidate" in 24 hours.

The next event was...

#5: A giant leap for mankind...

You could say that the moon landing and Michael Jackson's ceremony share fifth place in terms of viewership.

But considering that on June 20, 1969, according to rough estimates, half a billion people also watched the event, I still put it in the foreground.

The number of people who had access to small screens at that time was significantly smaller, and the world's population was also smaller.

In short, the moon landing is definitely at the very top of television milestones.

#4: The World Cup final...

Fourth place was taken by the most popular sport on the planet - football.

In 2006, the Olympic Stadium in Berlin hosted two teams of superstars from Italy and France.

In addition to one goal on each side, penalties and celebrations by the Italians, the match was definitely marked by a foolish incident by the Frenchman.

Zinedine Zidane knocked out Marco Materazzi with a single punch in his farewell match in front of 715 million people.

Although Zidan is not proud of this event, many a professional martial arts competitor would probably aspire to such an achievement...

#3: Miner Rescue...

In third place was another tragic event.

In 2010, a real disaster occurred in Chile, when 33 miners were trapped deep underground.

They remained buried underground for 69 days, and their rescue was reportedly watched live by around 1 billion people.

The following event also achieved similar ratings...

#2: Spectacle in Hawaii...

It was January 14, 1973, when Elvis Presley performed in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The legendary concert, which was broadcast around the world, was also watched by around a billion people at the time.

It is also interesting that it was the most expensive entertainment show of that time. It cost the NBC media company as much as 2.5 million dollars.

And we have reached the final of the most watched television program in history...

#1: Opening in Beijing...

On August 8, 2008, the Summer Olympic Games officially opened in Beijing.

The opening ceremony featured more than 15,000 acrobats, artists and dancers from all over the world.

The costs were also appropriate, as the 4-hour ceremony cost around 100 million dollars.

Well, at least it was worth it in the end.

The magic show was supposedly watched live by almost every fourth person on earth.

The viewership is estimated at almost 2 billion people.

Yes…

Few would dare to say that this could ever happen again.

*But never say never…

In short, we sailed to the end of this article and I sincerely hope you liked it.

If you want to find out some other interesting facts about mobile phones, I invite you to click on the button below and read 9 bizarre interesting facts about mobile phones…

On the other side of the link, you will find out things about mobile phones that only a few people know.

If you are not interested in this at all, there is of course nothing wrong with that.

Nevertheless, I believe that you liked this article and that you now know a few things more.

See you next time,

Uroš Vogrinec, owner of the Kron IT service