January 25, 1947
Patent filed for world’s first video game
Thomas Goldsmith, Jr. files a patent for a Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, an interactive missile simulator game to be played on a screen. Prototypes will be made and the patent awarded the following year, but no commercial models will be released.

Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device
Game:
The cathode-ray tube amusement device is the earliest known interactive electronic game. The device simulates an artillery shell arcing towards targets on a cathode ray tube screen, which is controlled by the player by adjusting knobs to change the trajectory of a CRT beam spot on the display in order to reach plastic targets overlaid on the screen. Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann constructed the game from analog electronics and filed for a patent in 1947, which was issued the following year. The gaming device was never manufactured or marketed to the public, so it had no effect on the future video game industry. Under most definitions, the device is not considered a video game, as while it had an electronic display it did not run on a computing device. Therefore, despite its relevance to the early history of video games, it is not generally considered a candidate for the title of the first video game.