Timeline: ASL Important Dates

322 BCE

ancient greeks

322 388 B.C. Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, pronounced that Deaf people could not be educated without hearing stating "it is impossible to reason without the ability to hear" and "Those who are born deaf all become senseless and incapable of reason".
427-347 B.C.: Ancient Greek philosopher Plato believes in his book Plato's Cratylus that all people were born with innate intelligence and it must be nurtured or developed. Without speech, deaf people had primitive thoughts.

345

Christans view being deaf as a sin

Between 345 and 550 being deaf is considered a sin by Christians.

1500

Geronimo Cardano teaches his son to speak using symbols

Geronimo Cardano of Padua attempts to teach his deaf son using a code of symbols.

1620

Juan Pablo

Juan Pablo Bonet writes the first well-known book of manual alphabetic signs for the deaf.

1788

French sign language dictionary

Charles Michel De L’Eppe publishes a dictionary of French sign language.

1817

First deaf school was founded

In 1817 Gallaudet was founded

1862

Baseball Hand Signals

William "Dummy" Hoy , the first deaf Major League baseball player, was the reason umpires adopted the hand signals "out", "safe", and "strike".

1894

The Football Huddle

The Gallaudet University football team invented the football huddle to keep the opponents from eavesdropping on the quarterback in American Sign Language.