|
|
3500 BC
to 2900
BC |
The Phoenicians develop an alphabet.
The Sumerians develop cuneiform
writing - pictographs of accounts written on clay tablets.
The Egyptians develop hieroglyphic
writing. |
1775 BC |
Greeks use a phonetic alphabet written
from left to right. |
1400 BC |
Oldest record of writing in China
on bones. |
1270 BC |
The first encyclopedia is written
in Syria. |
900 BC |
The very first postal service -
for government use in China. |
776 BC |
First recorded use of homing pigeons
used to send message - the winner of the Olympic Games to the Athenians. |
530 BC |
The Greeks start the very first
library. |
500 BC
to 170
BC |
Papyrus rolls and early parchments
made of dried reeds - first portable and light writing surfaces. |
200 BC
to 100
BC |
Human messengers
on foot or horseback common in Egypt and China with messenger relay stations
built.
Sometimes
fire messages used from relay station to station instead of humans. |
14 |
Romans establish
postal services. |
37 |
Heliographs - first recorded use
of mirrors to send messages by Roman Emperor Tiberius. |
100 |
First bound books |
105 BC |
Tsai Lun of China invents paper
as we know it. |
305 |
First wooden printing presses invented
in China - symbols carved on a wooden block. |
1049 |
First movable
type invented - clay - invented in China by Pi Sheng. |
1450 |
Newspapers
appear in Europe. |
1455 |
Johannes
Gutenberg invents a printing press with metal movable type. |
1560 |
Camera
Obscura invented - primitive image making. |
1650 |
First daily newspaper
- Leipzig. |
1714 |
Englishmen, Henry Mill receives
the first patent for a typewriter. |
1793 |
Claude
Chappe invents the first long-distance semaphore (visual or optical)
telegraph line. |
1814 |
Joseph
Nicéphore Niépce achieves the first photographic image. |
1821 |
Charles
Wheatstone reproduces sound in a primitive sound box - the first microphone. |
1831 |
Joseph
Henry invents the first electric telegraph. |
1835 |
Samuel Morse invents Morse
code. |
1843 |
Samuel
Morse invents the first long distance electric telegraph line.
Alexander Bain patents the first
fax
machine. |
1861 |
United States starts the Pony
Express for mail delivery.
Coleman Sellers invents the Kinematoscope
- a machine that flashed a series of still photographs onto a screen. |
1867 |
American, Sholes the first successful
and modern typewriter. |
1876 |
Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph
- an office copying machine.
Alexander Graham Bell patents the
electric telephone.
Melvyl Dewey writes the Dewey Decimal
System for ordering library books. |
1877 |
Thomas Edison
patents the phonograph - with a wax cylinder as recording medium.
Eadweard
Muybridge invents high speed photography - creating first moving pictures
that captured motion. |
1887 |
Emile Berliner invents the gramophone
- a system of recording which could be used over and over again. |
1888 |
George
Eastman patents Kodak roll film camera. |
1889 |
Almon
Strowger patents the direct dial telephone or automatic telephone exchange. |
1894 |
Guglielmo
Marconi improves wireless telegraphy. |
1898 |
First telephone
answering machines. |
1899 |
Valdemar
Poulsen invents the first magnetic recordings - using magnetized steel
tape as recording medium - the foundation for both mass data storage on
disk and tape and the music recording industry.
Loudspeakers invented. |
1902 |
Guglielmo Marconi transmits radio
signals from Cornwall to Newfoundland - the first radio signal across the
Atlantic Ocean. |
1904 |
First regular comic
books. |
1906 |
Lee
Deforest invents the electronic amplifying tube or triode - this allowed
all electronic signals to be amplified improving all electronic communications
i.e. telephones and radios. |
1910 |
Thomas Edison demonstrated the first
talking
motion picture. |
1914 |
First cross continental telephone
call made. |
1916 |
First radios with tuners - different
stations. |
1923 |
The television or iconoscope
(cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin - first television
camera. |
1925 |
John Logie
Baird transmits the first experimental television signal. |
1926 |
Warner Brothers Studios invented
a way to record sound separately from the film on large disks and synchronized
the sound and motion picture tracks upon playback - an improvement on Thomas
Edison's work. |
1927 |
NBC starts two radio networks.
CBS founded.
First television
broadcasts in England.
Warner Brothers releases "The Jazz
Singer" the first successful talking motion
picture. |
1930 |
Radio popularity spreads with the
"Golden Age" of radio.
First television
broadcasts in the United States.
Movietone system of recording film
sound on an audio track right on the film invented. |
1934 |
Joseph
Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic
recording. |
1938 |
Television
broadcasts able to be taped and edited - rather than only live. |
1939 |
Scheduled television
broadcasts begin. |
1944 |
Computers like Harvard's
Mark I put into public service - government owned - the age of Information
Science begins. |
1948 |
Long playing record invented - vinyl
and played at 33 rpm.
Transistor
invented - enabling the miniaturization of electronic devices. |
1949 |
Network television
starts in U.S.
45 rpm record invented. |
1951 |
Computers
are first sold commercially. |
1958 |
Chester Carlson invents the photocopier
or Xerox
machine.
Integrated
Circuit invented - enabling the further miniaturization of electronic
devices and computers. |
1963 |
Zip
codes invented in the United States. |
1966 |
Xerox invents the Telecopier - the
first successful fax
machine. |
1969 |
ARPANET
- the first Internet started. |
1971 |
The computer floppy
disc invented.
The microprocessor
invented - considered a computer on a chip. |
1972 |
HBO invents pay-TV service for cable. |
1976 |
Apple
I home computer invented.
First nationwide programming - via
satellite and implemented by Ted Turner. |
1979 |
First cellular
phone communication network started in Japan.. |
1980 |
Sony Walkman invented. |
1981 |
IBM
PC first sold.
First laptop computers sold to public.
Computer
mouse becomes regular part of computer. |
1983 |
Time magazines names the computer
as "Man of the Year."
First cellular
phone network started in the United States. |
1984 |
Apple
Macintosh released.
IBM PC AT released. |
1985 |
Cellular
telephones in cars become wide-spread.
CD-ROMs in computers. |
1994 |
American government releases control
of internet and WWW is born - making communication at lightspeed. |