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Epic of Gilgamesh 2750-2500 BC
Perhaps the oldest written story on Earth. This comes to from Ancient Sumeria, and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cunieform script. It is about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk. It is thought to have been written between 2750-2500 B.C. -
The library 2000 B.C.
The earliest known library was a collection of clay tablets in Babylonia in the 2000 B.C. -
Bone, Shells, Wood and Silk 2 B.C.
Writing on bone, shells, wood and silk existed in China by the second century BC. -
Paper AD 105
Papermaking has traditionally been traced to China about AD 105. -
Censorship 303 A.D.
From a political and religious point of view, books were censored very early: the works of Protagoras were burned because he was a proponent of agnosticism and argued that one could know whether or not the gods existed. Generally, cultural conflicts led to important periods of book destruction: in 303, the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of Christian texts. -
Print 1455
1455, when Johannes Gutenberg, a metal worker, invented the first printing press. The first book printed was the Bible. -
Public Library 1731
Benjamin Franklin founded the Library Company in 1731, which makes it America's first successful lending library and oldest cultural institution. -
Typewriter 1874
the first typewriter, though not successful, was called the Sholes & Glidden Type Writer. It was produced by the gunmakers E. Remington & Sons 1874. Not more than 5,000 were sold. It founded a worldwide industry, and it brought mechanization to dreary, time-consuming office work. -
Electric typewriter 1872
Thomas Edison patented an electric typewriter in 1872, but the first workable model was not introduced until the 1920s. -
First Commercial Computers 1951
First commercial computer. -
Dynabook 1970's
An early e-book implementation were the desktop prototypes for a proposed notebook computer, the Dynabook, in the 1970s at PARC, which would be a general-purpose portable personal computer, including reading books. -
Kindle 2009
The Kindle was realeased in the United States in 2009. -
Next Generation 20??
The week of May 23rd Mircroft and Amazon signed an agreement to make a "Next Generation" Kindle.
