NEW YORK, Apr 1, 2002/ --- On April 7, 1927, a group of newspaper reporters and dignitaries gathered at AT&T's Laboratories in New York City to see the first American demonstration of something new: television.

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover provided the "entertainment," as his live picture and voice were transmitted over telephone lines from Washington, D.C., to New York.

A second telecast followed that day, via radio transmission from Whippany, N.J. The telecasts demonstrated television's potential as an adjunct to telephone service and as a medium for entertainment.

Newspapers trumpeted AT&T's achievement as the latest wonder in an age of wonders.

Herbert Ives, the AT&T researcher who led the television project, followed that triumph with color television in 1929 and two-way interactive television in 1930, using video telephone booths connecting AT&T buildings in New York.