Happy Birthday Star Trek – 47 years and still going strong

In one of those overlooked footnotes in history, Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) actually made its world premiere on Tuesday, September 6, 1966. That evening, CTV aired the episode “The Man Trap” throughout Canada. Star Trek was actually a good fit for CTV for all the same reasons it was a good fit for NBC: CTV had just switched from black-and-white to color broadcasting just a few days earlier—starting September 1, 1966. So all the bright wacky colors of Star Trek would be a real draw to Canadian viewers.

Two days later on Thursday, September 8, 1966 at 7:30 p.m., NBC aired “The Man Trap”, in the United States during “Sneak Peek Week.”

So whether you celebrate Star Trek’s “birth” as September 6 when it was first shown on television or September 8 when it was first shown on U.S. television on NBC, a happy birthday to Star Trek!

We like to thanks Star Trek Phase II to make us aware of this news fact. Even here we didn’t know that Star Trek originally started on September 6th.