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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: February 1, 2004

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show [Watch on YouTube]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: That question seems almost rhetorical, right? We all know why the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show is important to the history of TV. Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” caused an entire nation to clutch their pearls and shield the eyes of nearby children and then touched off a firestorm of debate that ranged from the silly to the conspiratorial to the political.

No matter what you believe about the true intention of Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s show-stopping boob-grab — I personally tend to believe the “wardrobe malfunction” excuse, as much as it’s been turned into a punchline; it seems pretty clear that the intent was to have Justin tear off an outer layer of Janet’s bodice; the bra that was supposed to remain got accidentally ripped off as well; but you’re free to hold your own opinions — the undeniable fact is that the United States of America, the country that defeated Hitler, invented jazz, and gave birth to Cher, lost their damn minds at the sight of one breast for a fraction of a second.

Of course, there are quite a few elements of what became known as “Nipplegate” worth delving into. The gendered power dynamics between Jackson and Timberlake within the performance. The fact that Justin was able to emerge relatively unscathed while the incident will haunt Janet Jackson for the rest of her career, the basic definition of white privilege. The fact that Janet either a) wore a star-shaped pendant over her nipple for display purposes (if you believe the malfunction was intentional) or b) wore a star-shaped pendant over her nipple just because (if you believe the malfunction was an accident). But the least interesting of all those debates was the “Think of the children!” hysteria by people horrified that their tots — who had simply tuned in to watch football players violently crash into each other in increasingly violent and dangerous ways for three hours — had their eyes seared shut by the upsetting and evil sight of an exposed black breast. Check out the clip below for the tears! The ENRON comparisons!

The governmental and regulatory response was an overreaction above and beyond what most people even expected. And its legacy can be found in every seven seconds worth of silence every time somebody on an award show lets the f-word slip. Has our country’s decade of increased sensitivity to indecency on live TV served to make the culture a more genteel, less sexually explicit one. That’s probably a rhetorical question too.