Summary:
This timeline traces the development of some major technological advances.
Johannes Gutenberg becomes the first person to use moveable-type printing and invents the mechanical printing press. Between 1450 and 1455, he prints several books, including the Bible.
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, a machine that separates cotton fibers from the seeds. Previously, this process was done by hand.
Samuel F. B. Morse develops and patents the telegraph. On January 26, 1838, Morse sends the first telegram across two miles of wire. Six years later, he demonstrates the telegraph in Washington, D.C., ushering in a new era of communication.
Elisha Graves Otis demonstrates his passenger elevator at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in New York. On March 23, 1857, the first elevator is installed in a building.
The first urban, underground railway system--subway--begins operation in London. Known as the Metropolitan Railway, it is now part of the London Underground. In 1868, the first elevated railway opens in New York City. The technology to build these transit systems soon spreads to other major urban areas.
Christopher Sholes develops the first commercially successful typewriter. He sells the patent for the typewriter to Remington and Sons who begin to mass produce the machine.
Mar 10: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone and conducts the first successful telephone transmission.
Thomas Edison works with a team of engineers to perfect a system of sound recording and transmission called the phonograph.
Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.
Thomas Edison makes duplicate copies of documents and patents the technology for the mimeograph.
Emile Berliner discovers a way to record sound on a horizontal disc (or record) which becomes known as a gramophone.
George Eastman introduces a hand-held box camera for portable use that contains a roll of film. The invention helps bring photography to the masses and also helps form the basis for the invention of motion picture film. Eastman names his new camera and film company Kodak.
Dec 17: Wilbur and Orville Wright make the first powered, sustained and controlled flight in history. The flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, lasts twelve seconds and paves the way for modern aviation.
Nov 2: The first commercial radio broadcasts begin when AM radio station KDKA broadcasts the results of the presidential election.
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) emerges as a radio conglomerate.
Scottish engineer John Logie Baird invents the first color television, though it is not widely popularized until RCA begins commercializing it in 1954.
Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) surfaces as the third major radio network in America.
Sep 1: Philo Farnsworth demonstrates the world’s first working television system by televising a motion picture film.
Oct 11: The Graf Zeppelin airship leaves Germany on its first intercontinental trip. The airship lands in New York on October 15. It is the first commercial transatlantic air service.
Nov: George Stibitz completes his computer design. Stibitz is recognized as the father of the modern digital computer.
Percy L. Spencer uses microwaves to produce frictional heat, developing the microwave oven. High prices kept microwave ovens out of many homes until the early 1980s. By 1986, an estimated 25% of households in the United States owned a microwave oven.
Edwin Land, the founder of the Polaroid company, introduces a camera that produces a developed photographic image in sixty seconds.
Mar 31: The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company sells the first commercial computer, the UNIVAC 1, to the United States Census Bureau.
International Business Machines (IBM) rolls out the OS/360, the first mass-produced computer operating system. The system covers a full range of applications, both commercial and scientific.
Mar 22: Digital Equipment Corporation launches the first successful commercial minicomputer. The widely-sold computer is the size of a large refrigerator.
The Atari Company is founded and releases its first arcade video game, "Pong." Pong’s success paves the way for the video game industry.
Apr 4: Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft, a computer software company. Microsoft releases their first computer operating system in 1980.
Apr 1: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne establish the Apple computer company and sell the Apple I personal computer kit. The Apple I is handbuilt by Wozniak.
Atari releases the Atari 2600, a video game console for the home. It is wildly popular and successful until the mid-1980s when Nintendo enters the video game market.
Sony releases the Walkman, a portable cassette tape player that allows people to carry their own personal music collections with them.
Aug 1: MTV premieres and ushers in an era of cutting-edge music videos and pop culture for the remainder of the century and beyond. "I want my MTV" becomes the slogan for millions of teenagers.
IBM markets Acorn, the ` running on a platform known as MS DOS.
Time Magazine names the personal computer its “Man of the Year.” Personal computers have dramatically changed the way people communicate, with IBM dominating the market.
Aug 17: The compact disc (CD) is invented, and begins to phase out the audio cassette.
Japanese company Nintendo brings the NES to the United States. "Super Mario Brothers" and "The Legend of Zelda" become instant landmarks in pop culture history, and the home video game console is resurrected after the failures of Atari.
Motorola markets the first mobile cellular phone. At two pounds and more than a foot long, the DynaTAC 8000X retails for $3,995.
Nov: Microsoft releases the Windows operating system.
The first laptop computer is designed, making personal computing a mobile technology.
Nintendo releases the Game Boy, the first of several mobile electronic game devices.
Tim Berners-Lee, a Geneva scientist, designs the concept of the Internet in an attempt to simplify research document retrieval. One year later, he adds the browser feature and applies the name "World Wide Web."
Sep 15: Larry Page and Sergey Brin register the domain google.com. The search engine attracts a loyal following, and one year later, the company Google, Inc. is incorporated.
One year after Microsoft incorporates MP3 support into its Windows Media Player, the first portable MP3 devices emerge and begin to replace the "Walkman" and "Discman."
Oct 21: The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is enacted by U.S. Congress which requires the FTC to create and enforce rules regarding children's online privacy.
Oct 20: The FTC issues regulations effective April 21, 2000, to require parental consent from commercial Web sites before the collection, use or disclosure of personal information from children under 13.
Dec 31: The world prepares to celebrate the new millennium. However, the
Y2K glitch threatens to put a damper on the festivities. Computer programmers warn of the potential for a catastrophic computer crash if computers process "00" as the year 1900 instead of 2000. No major problems are reported in the New Year
The initial 600,000 consoles of PlayStation 2 sell out immediately. By 2005, Sony's product becomes the fastest console to reach 100 million units shipped. It becomes the best-selling game system in history.
Kodak begins selling mass-marketed digital cameras, rendering 35mm film and Polaroid cameras a thing of the past.
MySpace--a social networking site--becomes one of the most popular web destinations on the entire Internet.
Feb: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim create YouTube, an online video sharing community. In 2006, they sell You Tube to Google.
Facebook follows in the successful footsteps of MySpace, linking students--and eventually people not in the academic arena--to one another.
Nintendo releases its fifth home gaming console, titled Wii. The Wii's boom in popularity allows it to easily surpass its competitors, Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Sep 15: A survey finds that nearly all young Americans play some type of video game.
Dec: An Associated Press-MTV poll finds that more than a quarter of young people between the ages of 14 and 24 have been involved in "sexting"--sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online.
Dec: A Washington Post article reveals that at a time when network attacks are rising in frequency and sophistication, the federal government is faced with a shortage of skilled computer-security workers.
Jan: A Kaiser Family Foundation report reveals that 8- to 18-year-olds now spend an average of 7 hours, 38 minutes daily watching TV, playing video games and using a computer for entertainment.
Feb: A federal judge grants Microsoft Corp.'s "request for an order to deactivate hundreds of Internet addresses that the company linked to an army of tens of thousands of PCs around the globe, infected with computer code that allows them to be harnessed to spread spam, malicious virus programs and mount mass attacks to disable Web sites."
Apr: The Library of Congress announces that it has acquired every public tweet since Twitter began four years ago and will archive them by topics.
Jul: A provision of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 goes into effect that requires colleges and universities "to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material by users of the institution's network" or risk losing federal funding.
Sep 22: The suicide death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, after videos of him in sexual encounters with another man are broadcast on the Internet, prompts discussion about social media technology and student behavior.
Oct: A Wall Street Journal investigation finds that Facebook has been transmitting identifying information about its users to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies.
Oct 4: The Department of Homeland Security launches the "Stop. Think. Connect." public cybersecurity awareness campaign--a national initiative that promotes simple steps the public can take to increase their safety and security online.
Oct 7: The results of an AP-mtvU Poll of college students reveals that 57 percent of students would be more stressed without computers and cell phones.
Dec 21: The Federal Communications Commission votes 3-2 to back FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's plan for what is commonly known as "net neutrality," rules that prohibit Internet providers from interfering with legal Web traffic.
May: The Pentagon concludes that computer sabotage by another country can constitute an act of war, which means that the U.S. has the option to respond using traditional military force.
Nov: The Federal Communications Commission announces a new program that will make high-speed Internet access and computers more affordable for more than 25 million mainly low-income Americans.
Jan: The Supreme Court rules that police cannot track an individual with a GPS device attached to a car without a warrant issued by a judge in advance.
Jun: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention release the results of a survey of high school seniors that reveals that 58 percent of them said they had texted or emailed while driving during the previous month.
Sep: California becomes the first state to require social media websites to allow minors a way to take down photos and other posts.
Dec: A national campaign called "Hour of Code" is launched to teach students from kindergarten through 12th grade the basics of computer coding.
Feb: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission adopts net neutrality rules for Internet providers.
President Trump outlines how agency chief information officers drive information technology decisions and cut wasteful spending.
Mar: Silicon Valley worries issues with China and intellectual property could be cause for a technology trade war.
Jul 11: A digital services tax is passed by the French Senate, enabling large technology companies in France that provide digital consumer services to be taxed.
Oct 31: The American Civil Liberties Union sues the U.S. Justice Dept., DEA and FBI for their use of facial recognition software which puts Americans' privacy and civil freedoms at risk.
Jan 18: Smaller tech companies plead to Congress as to why big tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook should be regulated.
Aug 19: Apple becomes the first company in the U.S. to hit a market cap of $2 trillion.
Apr 23: The European Commission issues new transparency regulations for the Digital Services Act.
Jul 5: European Parliament adopts the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act to regulate big tech companies.
Jan 1: Tech companies layoff more employees than in any other month since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Sep 26: The Federal Trade Commission (FCC) and 17 states file an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon over allegations of inflating prices.
Mar 21: The Department of Justice files an antitrust lawsuit against Apple over allegations of monopolizing the smartphone market.
