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220
Woodblock Printing
A technique for printing text, images or patterns that was used widely throughout East Asia. It originated in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. -
Jan 1, 713
Early Newspapers
Between 713 and 734, the Kaiyuan Za Bao ("Bulletin of the Court") of the Chinese Tang Dynasty published government news; it was handwritten on silk and read by government officials -
Jan 1, 1040
Moveable Type
The first known movable type system was created in China by Bi Sheng out of porcelain.[2] Sheng used clay type, which broke easily, but Wang Zhen later carved a more durable type from wood by 1298 C.E. -
Jan 1, 1230
Moveable Type Innovations
Koreans invented a metal type movable printing using bronze. The Jikji, published in 1377, is the earliest known metal printed book. -
Jan 1, 1450
Printing Press
Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced what is regarded as the first modern movable type system in Europe. Compared to woodblock printing, movable type page setting and printing using a press was faster and more durable. The metal type pieces were sturdier and the lettering more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. -
Jan 1, 1455
The Gutenberg Bible
The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible established the superiority of movable type for western languages, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. -
First "Real" Newspaper
The German-language Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, printed from 1605 onwards by Johann Carolus in Strasbourg, is often recognized as the first newspaper. -
Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine, first published in 1731, in London, is considered to have been the first general-interest magazine. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. -
Telegraph
At the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey on January 11, 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail made the first public demonstration of the electric telegraph. -
Rotary Printing Press
The rotary printing press was invented by Richard March Hoe in 1843. It uses impressions curved around a cylinder to print on long continuous rolls of paper or other substrates. Rotary drum printing was later significantly improved by William Bullock. -
Offset Press
The first rotary offset lithographic printing press was created in England and patented in 1875 by Robert Barclay. -
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell makes the world's first long distance telephone call, about 6 miles between Brantford and Paris, Ontario, Canada. -
Phonograph
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. While other inventors had produced devices that could record sounds, Edison's phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet phonograph cylinder, and could both record and reproduce sounds. -
Early Wireless Experimentation
Nikoli Tesla gave a public demonstration of "wireless" radio communication. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the National Electric Light Association, he described in detail the principles of radio communication. -
Lumiere's Motion Picture Camera
The Frenchman Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the first motion picture camera in 1895. Several others had made similar inventions around the same time as Lumiere. What Lumiere invented was a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe, three functions covered in one invention. -
First Wireless Transmission
Guglielmo Marconi is the first scientist to achieve successful radio transmission. -
Period: to
World War One
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Wireless Communication Advancements
First clear transmission of human speech, (on 9XM) after experiments with voice (1918) and music (1917) -
Early Television
On January 26, 1926 at his laboratory in London, John Logie Baird gave what is widely recognized as being the world's first demonstration of a working television system to members of the Royal Institution and a newspaper reporter. -
First Talking Picture
The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, The release of "The Jazz Singer" heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. -
Tape Recording
Magnetic tape was invented for recording sound by Fritz Pfleumer in 1928 in Germany, based on the invention of magnetic wire recording by Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. -
Period: to
World War Two
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Commercial Television
Commercial TV programming begins in the United States -
Cassette Tape
In 1962 Philips invented the compact audio cassette medium for audio storage, introducing it in Europe in August 1963 (at the Berlin Radio Show),[2][7][8][9][10] and in the United States (under the Norelco brand) in November 1964, with the trademark name Compact Cassette. -
First Internet Precursors
The ARPAnet project begins, connecting various universities across the country for data sharing. -
Affordable Color TV
1971 was the first year that sales of color TVs in the US exceeded B&W ones. -
First email program written
First basic e-mail programs written by Ray Tomlinson at BBN for ARPANET: SNDMSG and READMAIL. -
First Mobile Phone
Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.[3][4] The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 2.5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1.75 inches wide. -
Period: to
Mr. Gould's Lifespan
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Compact Disc
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First "pocket" cell phone
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"World Wide Web" Created
Tim Berners-Lee published a proposal to build a "Hypertext project" called "WorldWideWeb" (one word, also "W3") as a "web" of "hypertext documents" to be viewed by "browsers" using a client–server architecture. -
Digital Video Disc (DVD)
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"3G" telcommunications network launched
Third generation mobile phone capabilities, including broadband data transfer
