What country was the first to have television?

The first fully operational television system was demonstrated in 1925 in London, England by John Logie Baird.

But... the answer isn't quite that simple. Baird was a Scotsman and started his work in Scotland. So the country of origin might be Scotland. However, he used something called a Nipkow disc to create a scanned image. That was invented by Gottlieb Nipkow, a German of Russian heritage. Although Nipkow never made a television with his disc, it was a fundamental part of the Baird system. So perhaps the television is German or Russian.

One last complication - Philo Farnsworth developed the ideas and showed off his own electro-mechanical television system in 1927 in the US. Then in 1929, he created a television that had no moving parts. His fully electronic television formed the basis of all television developments for the following half century. So, just maybe, the modern television is American.

Add other small but significant inventions to the list and the number of countries gets larger. Oh, we mustn't forget our Italian friend, Marconi, who developed wireless transmission, without which television would never have got off the ground.

There are enough countries involved in the creation of television to keep most people convinced that it was conceived in their own country and to keep this debate running for many years to come.