22 September 1955 - ITV first broadcast.

Prior to this there was only one TV channel in GB, the BBC which put out TV programmes from 1936 to 1939 and 1946 onwards. Subsidised by the government viewers required a TV licence to watch it. 

In 1954 the Television Act allowed for independent TV stations to be established which relied on advertising for their revenue. In September 1955 Associated-Redifussion began broadcasting from the Wembley Film Studios, London with services opening in the Midlands and the north the following year. 

The first TV advertisement ran that night - Gibbs SR toothpaste. 

Television programming in the U.S. used to end at midnight with the National Anthem.  Now, you can watch television 24 hours a day.  

Same here, in fact I remember into the 70s when TV programmes would go off air in the afternoon for a few hours, seems incredible today. And you had to give the TV a good few minutes to warm up before you could watch anything. 

I've noticed that. Only on the BBC is the viewer safe from commercials, unless they're advertising themselves.

23 September 1939 - Sigmund Freud died.

The Austrian founder of psychoanalysis. Fled to London in 1938 where he died a year later aged 83 after being administered a fatal dose of morphine at his own request when his cancer of the jaw became unbearable.   

The debate goes on today about that kind of thing.