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Thomas Alva Edison, working in his lab, succeeds in recovering Mary's Little Lamb from a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a spinning cylinder.
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Edison officially demonstrates the invention of the phonograph.
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Emile Berliner is granted a patent on flat disc gramophone, making the production of multiple copies practical.
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Marconi achieves wireless radio transmission from Italy to America.
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The Victor Talking Machine Company is founded by Emile Berliner and Eldridge Johnson. Experimental optical recordings are made on motion picture film.
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Lee DeForest invents the triode vacuum tube, the first electronic signal amplifier.
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The first talking movie is demonstrated by Edison using his kinetophone process, a cylinder player mechanically synchronized to a film projector.
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The Scully disc recording lathe is introduced. E.C. Wente publishes a paper in Physical Review describing a uniformly sensitive instrument for the absolute measurement of sound intensity - the condenser microphone.
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The first commercial radio broadcast is made by KDKA, Pittsburg, PA.
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Bell Laboratories develops a moving armature lateral cutting system for recording on disc. RCA works on the development of ribbon microphones.
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"The Jazz Singer" is released as the first commercial talking picture.
The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) is formed.
The Japan Victor Corporation (JVC) is formed. -
Dr. Georg Neumann founds a German company to manufacture his condenser microphones. It's first product is the Model CMV-3.
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Harry Nyquist publishes the mathematical foundation for the sampling theorem basic to all digital audio processing. The Nyquist theorem.
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Alan Blumlein, working for EMI in London patents the stereo recording technique, using a figure-eight miking arrangement.
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BASF prepares the first plastic-based magnetic recording tape.
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The Shure Brothers engineer the microphone element for the SM57 and SM58 Models.
The RCA 44B and 77B ribbon microphones are introduced.
RCA develops the first column loudspeaker. -
AC biasing of magnetic tape is accidently discovered by German researchers. Major Armstrong, the inventor of FM radio, makes the first experimental FM broadcast.
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Walt Disney's "Fantasia" is released with 8-track stereophonic sound.
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Altec develops its Model 604 coaxial speaker.
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RCA introduces the microgroove 45rpm, large-hole, 7-inch record and record-player attachment. Magnecord produces the first US-made stereo tape recorder.
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Peter J. Baxandall publishes his (much copied) tone control circuit.
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Ampex develops Sel-Sync recording, making audio overdubbing practical.
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The movie "Forbidden Planet" is released, with the first all-electronic music score.
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The FCC approves the FM stereo broadcast format.
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The Grateful Dead produce the "Wall of Sound" at the San Francisco Cow Palace, which incorporates separate systems for vocals, each of the guitars, and for piano and drums.
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Apple II unveiled
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DVD discs and players become commercially available.
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The first Blu-ray Disc titles
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The first iPhone was released