This Mickey Mouse cartoon was the last show seen on UK TV before World War II

Television started in the United Kingdom in 1936, but just three years later as World War II was about to start, Britain pulled the plug on all televisions for the next seven years.

The last thing people saw was Mickey Mouse.

On Sept. 1, 1939, anticipating the outbreak of war the BBC Television Service stopped broadcasting in fear the VHF waves would act as a homing signal for enemy bombers to London.

At 12:05 p.m. The Mickey Mouse cartoon “Mickey’s Gala Premiere” was aired. This 1933 cartoon follows Mickey as a new Mickey Mouse cartoon is premiered in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. At 12:13, various sound and vision test signals were sent out. At 12:35 TV was gone.

At 3 p.m. on June 7, 1946, TV was again turned. BBC television presenter Jasmine Bligh kicked off the broadcast with “Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh…?” A few minutes later “Mickey’s Gala Premiere” was played again in its entirety, picking up where the broadcast left off in 1939.

Mickey was the last star seen on TV before the war and the first seen on TV when the war ended.