The first Eurovision took place in 1956

How Eurovision mirrors European politics

Although Eurovision claims to be nonpolitical, historian Dean Vuletic argues that it is inherently political and, in many ways, the only election in which most of Europe participates. In this brief explainer, he unpacks how the song contest's politics extend back to its first broadcast in 1956, which featured Walter Andreas Schwarz, a Jewish West German who signaled a rebuke to Germany's Nazi past.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union created a Eurovision competitor

The Soviet Union was not a member of the European Broadcasting Union, so it couldn't compete in Eurovision. In 1977, it turned a preexisting Polish-language singing competition into one that more closely resembled Eurovision and renamed it Intervision. The competition was open to countries from across the globe, regardless of their form of government, though most entrants were from communist countries.

The best Eurovision winners of all time

The contest has been around since 1956 and has amassed an impressive catalog of winning songs in that time. This list from The Guardian ranks them all, allowing you to time-travel through 70 years of Eurovision.

The Italian music contest that inspired Eurovision

Italy's Sanremo Festival began in 1951 as a way to boost tourism in the Italian Riviera during the offseason, with three acts performing original songs on a national radio broadcast. The format would be replicated five years later by Eurovision, though Sanremo is still around.

Unpacking Eurovision's inevitable political commentaries

According to the European Broadcasting Union's rules for Eurovision, politicizing the contest is prohibited. Richard Wennberg explores how wars in Europe and elsewhere have complicated the song contest's unitarian goals.

Eurovision is expanding to Asia

The Eurovision Song Contest Asia will hold its inaugural contest on November 14, 2026. A similar attempt at adapting for the United States, called the American Song Contest, was launched in 2022 but did not return for a second season.

How Eurovision became a part of queer culture

Academic Matt Weaver analyzes how the Eurovision Song Contest's camp aesthetics, inclusive mission, and international stage have attracted a sizeable gay following and how that audience is sometimes at odds with the political positions of the contest's competing nations.

The money behind Eurovision

Countries pay to take part in Eurovision, with the biggest economies—Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain, also known as the Big Five—paying the most. That unequal entry fee is not entirely for charity's sake: The Big Five countries are guaranteed spots in Eurovision's finals.

A history of Eurovision controversies

The annual song contest spectacle is no stranger to controversy. This list breaks down some of the most scandalous, including claims that 2021 winners Maneskin were snorting cocaine, Georgia's 2009 rejection for submitting a protest song, and Jordan's refusal to recognize Israel in 1978.

Watch ABBA perform on Eurovision in 1974

The pop group won the 1974 competition, representing Sweden with the song "Waterloo." It was the first time the country took home the Eurovision title and the start of a long, successful career for ABBA, who'd eventually become one of the world's bestselling musical groups.

How Eurovision selects its winners

Competing acts are judged by a combination of music industry professionals, peers, and viewers, creating a suspenseful on-air tally to reveal the contest's ultimate winner.

Why most Eurovision acts sing in English

Eurovision is intended to be a celebration of diverse cultures from around Europe—and, in the case of Israel and Australia, beyond Europe. But since 1999, most of its participants have sung in English. This episode of "The Allusionist" features Historian Dean Vuletic, who breaks down why so many countries' competitors avoid their native languages.

After it was banned from Eurovision, Russia resurrected its Cold War-era version

Russia was barred from the Eurovision Song Contest following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In 2025, President Vladimir Putin announced the revival of Intervision, a similarly structured song contest that the Soviet Union had organized throughout the Cold War.

Some non-European countries compete in Eurovision

Eurovision includes the non-European competitors Australia and Israel, who were invited to participate in the 2015 and 1973, respectively, due to the countries' affinity for the song contest. Previously, Morocco competed in Eurovision (once, in 1980), though it no longer does.

Several countries backed out of Eurovision 2026 to protest Israel's inclusion

The public broadcasting organizations of Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands said they will not compete in the 2026 Eurovision in Austria to protest Israel's inclusion, citing the humanitarian crisis from the Israel-Hamas war.

The 10 best Eurovision performances

It's one thing to write a great song for Eurovision, but it's another to execute its performance on one of the world's biggest stages. This list runs through 10 of the most impressive, with memorable entries from a Finnish metal band, a Swedish crooner, and a German comedy troupe.

Eurovision voting largely follows cultural blocs

In 2025, France's AFP analyzed the voting data from every Eurovision Song Contest and found that how countries vote often reflects long-standing cultural associations, with Nordic countries, Baltic states, and former Soviet nations tending to vote in solidarity.

Watch Celine Dion perform at Eurovision 1988

By 1988, the 20-year-old singer was already a star in her native Canada but was a relative unknown outside the French-speaking world. That changed when she represented Switzerland at Eurovision, performing "Ne Partez Pas Sans Mo." She'd go on to win the contest that year and soon become one of the bestselling artists in the world.

Watch the 'Riverdance' performance from Eurovision 1994

The Irish step dance show didn't compete in Eurovision, but it did perform as an "Interval Act" during the 1994 broadcast while votes were being tallied, earning a standing ovation. The next year, it premiered in Dublin as a stage show and continues touring the globe today.

The complex production machine behind Eurovision

This short Wall Street Journal documentary goes behind the scenes at Eurovision to show how the elaborate stage show—which features a production manager, speedy run crews, and a digital floor outlining the location of every prop for every performance—hums along so smoothly.

The story behind ABBA's Eurovision victory

The Swedish group competed in 1973 with the song "Ring Ring," but it failed to get them past the preliminary round. That changed with their 1974 performance of "Waterloo"—a song written by their agent, who was convinced it'd be a hit on Eurovision—propelled them to victory, beating out Olivia Newton-John, who was competing for the United Kingdom.

The first official Formula 1 World Championship race was in 1950

On May 13, 1950, Formula 1 held its first race at Silverstone in the UK. Over 150,000 people, including the British monarch (and future Queen Elizabeth II), turned out to watch the field of 28 cars over the 70-lap race. The race wasn't very competitive, but it's still a fascinating artifact to observe.

Watch archival footage of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics

The 1936 Berlin Games were the first Olympics to be shown live on television (though not broadcast). The Germans used a closed circuit television network to bring the Games to 25 viewing halls in black and white. View footage of American Olympic hero Jesse Owens winning his four gold medals, and his historic interaction with German long jumper Luz Long in Nazi Germany.

Over time, the World Cup became a TV powerhouse, generating massive revenue from broadcast rights and ad placements.

In 1914, the Financial Times asked readers to redraw Europe for cash prizes

Two months in World War I, the newspaper invited readers to sketch postwar borders and submit peace terms for cash prizes. The contest captured public attempts to predict a new world order and foreshadowed modern crowdsourced forecasting. It's a wild look at how uncertain Europe's future was at the time.

FIFA was formed in 1904 and held its first tournament in 1930

In 1930, the first World Cup was held in Uruguay after the Olympics refused to allow professional soccer players to play in the 1932 games. The host country made it to the final of the 13-team event, playing against Argentina. Watch this remastered film of the 1930 match with Uruguay defeating Argentina 4-2 in front of 68,000 screaming fans at the newly opened Estadio Centenario.

The Concert of Europe was an earlier attempt to manage great power relations through shared rules

After the Napoleonic wars, European powers established a system of regular consultation to manage conflicts and maintain the balance of power. It offered relative stability for nearly a century before deteriorating.

The USSR launched the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, into space in 1957

Sputnik, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, became the world's first artificial satellite. While the technology itself was limited, the launch ignited the space race and signaled that intercontinental missiles and space technology had arrived faster than American leaders expected.

In 1957, the BBC conducted one of the first televised April fool pranks

The reputable broadcaster reported a story about a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a "spaghetti tree." Some viewers didn't appreciate the joke and felt angry about being misled.

The Super Bowl is televised in over 180 countries in nearly 25 languages

First aired in 1967 on two US networks, the Super Bowl became a global broadcast in 1982, drawing about 4.5 million viewers in England, and is now televised in more than 180 countries in roughly 25 languages.

The first official Women's World Cup was in 1991

The first unofficial Women’s World Cup was played in 1970 in Italy, and momentum grew throughout the 1980s with multiple international tournaments. In 1988, FIFA tested the event's viability with a 12-team invitational in China. The first official Women’s World Cup was held in 1991 in China, and was won by the US.

Explore 100 years of technological innovation at IFA Berlin

This retrospective highlights IFA Berlin’s century of innovation, including the unveiling of the world’s first tape recorder in 1935, the launch of color TV in West Berlin in 1967, and the first public look at HD TV in 1985.

Europe’s first universities emerged from medieval church school

The modern university can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when schools in Italy, France, and England initially trained clergy before expanding to include lay students. By the 10th and 11th centuries, they taught law, medicine, and theology across Europe.

See every Olympic torch used since its debut in 1936

The 1936 Berlin Games were the first to use a torch relay to light the Olympic cauldron. At each subsequent Olympic Games, the host country designed a new set of torches. See what each torch looked like, the start and end date of the relay, the number of torches produced, what type of fuel was used, and view a map of the route.

The first nationally broadcast soap opera was 'Clara, Lu, 'n Em'

The show first aired in Chicago in 1930, but was then picked up by NBC and broadcast across the country in 1931. The show followed three women who lived in the same duplex. Listen to a 1934 episode below, including the preshow's soap-centric advertising.

Watch tATu represent Russia in Eurovision 2003

The duo was already internationally known, thanks to their breakout 2002 hit "All The Things She Said," when they performed on the Eurovision stage in Latvia. Their performance of "Ne Ver, Ne Boysia, Ne Prosi" wasn't enough to propel them to victory, though; they ended up in third place, behind entrants from Turkey and Belgium.

The first surviving opera tells the story of Orpheus and Euridice

Jacopo Peri's “Euridice,” premiered in 1600, is the oldest surviving opera. The story is based on the Greek mythology tale about a musician named Orpheus who attempts to save his wife from the underworld by pleasing the god Hades with his musical talents.

The story of the debut 1967 Consumer Electronics Show

Read an account of the origins of the first CES in New York in 1967, a story which is surprisingly difficult to find information about.

The inaugural Cannes Film Festival featured legendary directors

The festival’s first year was 1946. It featured 11 films from some of the world’s best filmmakers, including Jean Cocteau, Alfred Hitchcock, George Sydney, and Billy Wilder.

The Marshall Plan aimed to rebuild Europe and limit Soviet influence

Launched in 1948, the Marshall Plan provided over $12B (roughly $150B today) in US aid to help rebuild Western Europe. While framed as economic recovery, it also served as a Cold War tool—tying countries to the US and excluding the Soviet bloc.

Churchill’s 1946 ‘Iron Curtain’ speech warned of growing Soviet domination

In a 1946 speech, Winston Churchill declared that an “Iron Curtain” had descended across Europe—dividing East from West. The address marked one of the first public acknowledgments of the emerging Cold War and coined the term that would define the conflict.

The first compact cassette tape was introduced at IFA 1963

At IFA 1963 in Berlin, Philips introduced the compact cassette tape. This new standardized audio format replaced bulky reel-to-reel tape and would go on to dominate home recording and music listening for decades.

The massive gathering that rang in the first Earth Day

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 and helped inspire a significant nationwide environmental movement. In Philadelphia, the holiday was rung in with a gathering in the city’s Fairmount Park featuring musicians, speakers, and over 10,000 attendees. This video from CBS offers remarkable footage from the day and explains why Philadelphians were especially drawn to the environmental cause.

Radio quiz shows took off in the '40s

The concept took hold during the Great Depression, with 50 shows on the air by 1940, because they allowed families to imagine a financial windfall was just a few questions away. Although the genre had a slight downturn during World War II, it experienced a resurgence by the end of the decade, with 200 shows on the air.

The 1956 Suez crisis was one of the earliest tests of the rules-based order

When Britain, France, and Israel secretly invaded Egypt, the Eisenhower administration supported UN resolutions condemning the invasion and called for a ceasefire—publicly criticizing its closest allies to uphold the principle that force should not be used to resolve international disputes.

How David Attenborough's work in color television gave tennis balls their color

As controller of BBC Two, Attenborough wanted the BBC to achieve the first full-color broadcast in Europe and saw Wimbledon as the perfect event to make it happen. Noticing that the white tennis balls used then would stain green and become less visible on color broadcasts as matches progressed, he suggested fluorescent balls, which were eventually adopted.

Europe’s first recorded influenza pandemic swept the continent in 1580

The 1580 influenza pandemic, traced from Asia to Africa and into Europe, became the first flu outbreak clearly documented across the continent—killing tens of thousands and highlighting influenza’s potential for rapid global spread.

CES debuted in 1967 amid a wave of miniaturization in at-home electronics

The rapid development of integrated circuits—the basis of computing power—in the 1960s catalyzed an industrial shift toward miniature devices, including pocket transistor radios, smaller TVs, and more. This first consumer electronics trade show (with a slate of 117 exhibitors and 17,000 attendees) sought to make everyday electronics accessible and portable. See a timeline of early consumer tech with photos.

The Latin Grammys first began in 2000

For many years, the Grammy Awards honored Spanish-language artists during the main ceremony. Over time, though, these artists became so popular that the decision was made to spin off a separate awards show: the Latin Grammys. The Latin Grammys honor music recorded in Spanish or Portuguese, but the voting process is much the same as it is for the traditional Grammys.

The United Nations was founded in San Francisco in 1945.