Timeline logo large

Technology Timeline

  • Nuclear Power Reactor

    Nuclear Power Reactor
    About Walter Zinn
    On December 20, 1951, the nuclear power reactor was invented by Walter Zinn.
  • First Electric Computer

    On April 7, 1953 IBM publicly introduced the 701, its first electric computer and first mass produced computer. Later IBM introduced its first personal computer called the IBM PC in 1981.
  • Invention of the Videotape Recorder

    Invention of the Videotape Recorder
    Videotape Recorder
    Videotape recorder invented by Ampex Company.
  • Sputnik I

    Sputnik I
    Sputnik
    Sputnik I was launched by the Russians.
  • Sputnik II

    Sputnik II
    Sputnik II
    Sputnik II is launched by the Russians.
  • First Animal in Space

    On November 3, 1957,the Soviets launched a space dog into outer space who became one of the first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth.
  • Optical Disk

    Optical disc was invented by David Paul Gregg.
  • Silicon Chip

    Silicon Chip
    Integrated Circuit
    The first integrated circuit, or silicon chip, is produced by the US Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce.
  • Laser

    Laser
    Bibliography
    The laser was invented by Theodore Harold Maiman.
  • First Man in Space

    First Man in Space
    NASA
    Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space.
  • ATM

    ATM
    Inventors.about.com
    The Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) was invented by John Shepherd-Barron.
  • Video Games

    Video Games
    Video Game History
    The video game console was invented by Ralph H. Baer.
  • First Man on the Moon

    First Man on the Moon
    NASA
    Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon.
  • The First Internet Message

    The first Internet message was sent from computer science Professor Leonard KleinRock's laboratory at UCLA, after the second piece of network equipment was installed at SRI. This connection not only enabled the first transmission to be made, but is also considered to be the first Internet backbone.
  • First Microprocessor

    Intel introduces the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 on November 15, 1971.
  • Opening of Space Theater

    On March 10, 1973, the Space Theater at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center opened to the public, featuring America's first IMAX Theater and the first "tilted dome" planetarium in the world.
  • First Cell Phone

    Martin Cooper, a Motorola engineer and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment in front of reporters, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Martin Cooper weighed 2.5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1.75 inches wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge.
  • Ethernet

    Ethernet was invented by Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs.
  • First Portable Computer

    First Portable Computer
    The IBM 5100 is the first portable computer, which was released on September 1975. The computer weighed 55 pounds and had a five inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9MHz PALM processor, and 64KB of RAM.
  • The Walkman

    The first generation Sony Walkman was released to the public on July 1st, 1979. Before the Walkman was introduced, music could only be enjoyed through a stereo system at home or a car audio system.
  • World Wide Web

    World Wide Web
    The World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee.
  • Microsoft released Windows Amid

    Microsoft released Windows amid a $10 million publicity blitz. In addition to making sure consumers knew about the product, Microsoft lined up a number of other applications ahead of time that ran under Windows 3.0, including versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
  • The CD-R is Released

    The CD-R is Released
    The CD-R, released by Phillips and Sony, is an optical disk format. CD-R media can only be written on once. The disks generally hold around 650 MB of data.
  • First Cloned Sheep

    First Cloned Sheep
    Dolly, a Finn Dorset sheep, was born on July 5th, 1996, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her birth, not revealed to the public until February 3rd, 1997, sparked controversy instantly, because Dolly was the world's first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.
  • Wifi Available for Laptops

    Laptops or portable computers began able to access the Internet through Wifi.