CCTV cameras are now a routine part of everyday life, watching over streets, airports, shopping malls, banks, and public transport systems. But few people know that the technology was first used during World War II to monitor Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket launches.
The journey from a single military monitoring system in 1942 to today's vast digital surveillance networks spans more than eight decades, driven by breakthroughs in recording, storage, and networking technology.
