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Jan 1, 1300
C 15.000-13,000 BC
Prehistoric humans paint images on the walls of their caves -
Jan 2, 1350
C. .3500 BC
Chinese entertainers use firelight to project silhouettes of puppets onto a screen. -
Jan 4, 1435
Leone Alberti
Leone Alberti writes Della Pictura, a treatise on the laws of perspective. The book systematizes
the rules for drawing three-dimensional scenes on two-dimensional planes. -
Jan 5, 1450
Johann Gutenberg
Johann Gutenberg invents movable type, allowing mass production of documents. -
Electricity
Franklin discovers electricity -
First Amendment
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of
the press. -
First computer Program
Babbage designs Analytical Machine, often considered to be the first general-purpose computer.
Lady Byron writes programs for the machine -
Telegraph
Samuel Morse debuts the telegraph. The invention revolutionizes the transmission of
information. -
George Boole
George Boole: develops binary mathematical language of 1’s and 0’s (Boolean Algebra) -
Telegraph cable
Europe and North America are briefly linked by a transatlantic telegraph cable; by 1866, the system is up to stay. News that once took months to travel now takes seconds. -
Phone
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first phone call. Pizza is still another 75 years away.
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phone call
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first phone call. -
Phonograph
Thomas Alva Edison invents the Phonograph. He also cuts the first recording, a soulful rendition of “Mary had a Little Lamb. -
Films and music
Mood Music for Film: Musical scores sent along for organ accompaniment
Gramophone: disks manually rotated @ 70 rpm Film: Sequential photographs with sprockets manually pulled through a projector -
Camera
Eastman introduces the Brownie, a one-dollar camera designed for children. -
Wireless
Guglielmo Marconi perfects a wireless radio system that transmits Morse code over the Atlantic Ocean. -
Fax machine
The fax machine is invented by German scientist Arthur Korn. -
Radio
KDKA-AM Pittsburgh signs on the air. Still running, it's the world's first commercial radio station, and the first to present news, reporting results of the 1920 Harding-Cox presidential race. -
First movie
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" the first full-length animation is released. -
3D film
Bwana Devil, the first 3-D film using polarized lenses, is released. -
Audio Cassette and home video
Phillips first compact audio cassette. First home video tape recording -
Moon
The U.S. effort to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth pays off handsomely. Technology spinoffs include laptop computers, small solid-state lasers (which lead to Compact Discs), cordless power tools, solar power cells, liquid crystals, and Tang. -
Personal Computer
MITS releases the first successful personal computer. The Altair is named for a planet from
the Star Trek television series (or is the planet later named for the computer?). It uses Intel Corporation's 8080 microprocessor, also developed in 1974. The PC will not really catch on until the advent of the Apple II. -
Bill Gates
SONY Betamax VCR with a one hour, ½ inch video cassette tape -
Color
The Apple II changes everything. It's the first PC to use color graphics. -
Windows
Microsoft Windows version 1.0 hits the streets. -
WWW
British physicist Tim Berners-Lee proposes a global hypertext system, the World Wide Web. During the next few years, he will develop the standards for URL, HTML, and HTTP. -
MP3
The MP3 digital audio compression format is invented at the Fraunhofer Institute, a German research lab. -
Toy Story
Disney releases Toy Story, the first feature-length movie totally comprised by computer graphics. The 77-minute film takes four years to make, and 800,000 machine hours to render. -
Apple
The revolution will be downloaded: Apple introduces iTunes (January) and the iPod (October).
