Multimedia Timeline

  • 100

    Sumerian stamp seals 4000 B.C.

    Sumerian stamp seals 4000 B.C.
    Used to seal letters and tell who was sending them because each pearson had a diffrent one.
  • 100

    Sumerian word system on clay tabs 3100 B.C.

    Sumerian word system on clay tabs 3100 B.C.
    What the sumerians wrote their gods words on.
  • 100

    Phoenician alphabet 2000 B.C.

    Phoenician alphabet 2000 B.C.
    The First alphabet with letters not words.
  • 100

    Semitic almhabet in Egypt 600 B.C.

    Semitic almhabet in Egypt 600 B.C.
    The egyptian alphabet.
  • 100

    Egyptianpapyrus scrolls 1900-1800 B.C.

    Egyptianpapyrus scrolls 1900-1800 B.C.
    The Egyptians First transportable writing.
  • 100

    Public Library in Athens 540 B.C.

    Public Library in Athens 540 B.C.
    The Worlds First public library
  • 100

    Chinese paper 105 B.C.

    Chinese paper 105 B.C.
    Chinese paper was the Earilest paper
  • Jan 16, 1450

    Gutenberg Press

    Gutenberg Press
  • Period: Jan 22, 1500 to

    Italian gazettes

  • Jan 16, 1517

    Martin Luther nails "Ninety Five Theses" to a door

    Martin Luther nails "Ninety Five Theses" to a door
  • Jan 22, 1534

    First press in America (Spanish America)

    First press in America (Spanish America)
  • Dutch Coranto (printed in English in 1620)

    Dutch Coranto (printed in English in 1620)
  • First press in what would become U.S. (Harvard College)

    First press in what would become U.S. (Harvard College)
  • John Milton denounces licensing of the press in Areopagitica

    John Milton denounces licensing of the press in Areopagitica
  • Oxford Gazette in England

    Oxford Gazette in England
  • First American newspaper: Publick Occurrences (lasts one issue)

    First American newspaper: Publick Occurrences (lasts one issue)
  • First successful American newspaper: The Boston News-Letter

    First successful American newspaper: The Boston News-Letter
  • John Peter Zenger trial

    John Peter Zenger trial
  • First American magazines

    First American magazines
  • Period: to

    Rise of Party Press

  • Bill of Rights (including First Amendment) ratified

    Bill of Rights (including First Amendment) ratified
    These were the rights all americans were given allong side the constution.
  • Alien and Sedition Acts passed

    Alien and Sedition Acts passed
    The acts that regarded out of country immagrantes.
  • Saturday Evening Post founded

  • First African-American newspaper in U.S.: Freedom’s Journal

    First African-American newspaper in U.S.: Freedom’s Journal
  • First Native American newspaper in U.S.: Cherokee Phoenix

    First Native American newspaper in U.S.: Cherokee Phoenix
    1828 – First Native American newspaper in U.S.: Cherokee Phoenix
  • Noah Webster publishes first dictionary

  • New York Sun begins publication; rise of the Penny Press

  • Samuel Morse granted patent for telegraph.

    First message, May 24: “What hath God wrought?” Second message: “Have you any news?”
  • Associated Press founded

  • Period: to

    Civil War brings home “necessity” of news

  • Thomas Edison invents the “talking machine”

  • Edison lab develops movie camera

  • George Eastman introduces the Kodak camera

  • Heinrich Hertz transmits wireless sound waves

  • Linotype machine introduced at newspapers

  • first “New Journalism” period; “Yellow Journalism”

  • Edison develops mass market phonograph

  • Edison patents Kinetoscope – first parlor opens 1894 in New York

  • Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World starts daily women’s page

  • “Stunt girl” Nellie Bly circles the world

  • Period: to

    1900s – Muckraking magazines

  • Guglielmo Marconi sends and receives radio message across the Atlantic (Morse code, point to point)

  • First “nickelodeon”

  • Reginald Fessenden broadcasts voice

  • Period: to

    Evolution of Multimedia

  • Newsreels begin; continue into 1960s

  • Titanic sinks

    Leads to Federal Radio Act of 1912
  • Period: to

    World War I propaganda, censorship, technology

  • D.W. Griffith releases Birth of a Nation, first full-length film to significantly impact culture

  • Charlie Chaplin becomes the first entertainer to earn $1 million

  • RCA founded

  • First radio stations in U.S. and Canada

  • Period: to

    “Jazz Journalism” tabloids

  • Reader’s Digest magazine founded

  • Lee de Forest shows first “talkie”

  • Time magazine debuts

  • A.C. Nielsen company begins

  • AT&T links two radio stations for first “network”

  • Federal Radio Act sets up commission to regulate airwaves

  • Philo Farnsworth applies for electronic TV patents

  • The Jazz Singer released

  • Academy Awards given for the first time (Wings wins Best Picture)

  • Period: to

    “Golden Age of Movies”

  • Eleanor Roosevelt insists on women-only press conferences (“the Roosevelt Rule”)

  • Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established

  • England is first country with regular TV broadcasts

  • England is first country with regular TV broadcasts

  • Life magazine debuts

  • Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast

  • TV is a hit at the World’s Fair

  • First FM radio station started in New Jersey

  • First TV commercial advertises a Bulova clock

  • Welles’s Citizen Kane released

    sometimes called the best movie of all time
  • John H. Johnson starts Negro Digest

    would later found Ebony and Jet
  • Red Scare

    leads to congressional investigation of Hollywood
  • Supreme Court hands down Paramount Decision

  • Red Channels

    The Communist Influence in Radio and Television ruins careers
  • “Golden Age of Television”

  • “I Love Lucy” debuts; uses film and three cameras

  • FCC lifts “the Freeze” imposed in 1948

  • Eisenhower runs 20-second campaign spot

  • TV Guide magazine debuts;

    Lucille Ball and her newborn son on first cover
  • Playboy magazine introduced

    Marilyn Monroe is first centerfold
  • Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now” focuses on Joseph McCarthy

  • Elvis Presley discovered by Sam Phillips of Sun Records

  • Videotape introduced

  • Quiz show scandal rocks television industry

  • Kennedy-Nixon debate

  • Network news expands from 15 minutes to 30 minutes

  • Betty Friedan writes The Feminine Mystique

  • New York Times v. Sullivan gives press new right to criticize public officials

  • The Beatles first tour America

  • Period: to

    Second “New Journalism” period

    literary journalism; underground newspapers
  • Congress passes Public Broadcasting Act; PBS formed

  • Neal Armstrong walks on moon; we see it on TV

  • ABC introduces made-for-TV movies

  • Feminists stage sit-in at Ladies Home Journal

  • Ms. magazine launched

  • Life magazine died

    Came back as monthly from 1978 to 2000
  • Boylan v. New York Times sex discrimination lawsuit filed

  • Cigarette advertising banned from TV

  • Richard Nixon resigns, a result of Watergate coverage

  • Richard Nixon resigns, a result of Watergate coverage

  • People magazine introduced

  • Home Box Office (formed by Time, Inc. in 1972) begins satellite distribution of TV;

    Ted Turner starts first “superstation”
  • Sony Betamax home videocassette recorder introduced

  • Matsushita introduces VHS

  • laser disc player introduced; largely a failure, but opened door for CDs

  • Sony Walkman appears in Japan

  • Iranian hostage crisis leads to “Nightline” and loss by Jimmy Carter to a former radio broadcaster and movie actor

  • “Who Shot J.R.?” on “Dallas” is first TV season-ending cliff-hanger

  • MTV (Music Television) first airs; first video is “Video Killed the Radio Star”

  • USA Today begins publication

  • Home shopping network debuts

  • Sony introduces CD player

  • Internet access opened to general public; changes everything

  • Telecommunications Act of 1996 brings V-chip, deregulation, and dramatic increase in mergers and takeovers