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TV REMOVE CONTROL
The first wireless remote, designed by Zenith's Eugene Polley, is essentially a flashlight. -
MICROWAVE OVEN
Spencer patents a "radar range" that cooks with high-frequency radio waves. -
JET AIRLINER
The Boeing 707-120 debuts as the world's first successful commercial jet airliner, ushering in the era of accessible mass air travel. -
CORDLESS TOOLS
Black and Decker releases its first cordless drill. -
INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
The Unimate, the first programmable industrial robot, is installed on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey. -
COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE
Telstar is launched as the first "active" communications satellite—active as in amplifying and retransmitting incoming signals -
VIDEO GAMES
The programmers write Spacewar; 43 years later 89 percent of school-age kids own video games. -
COMPUTER MOUSE
"I don't know why we call it a mouse. It started that way, and we never changed it." —Doug Engelbart, engineer, Stanford Research Institute, 1968 -
MUSIC SYNTHESIZER
Robert Moog develops the first electronic synthesizer to make the leap from machine to musical instrument -
SMOKE DETECTOR
Randolph Smith and Kenneth House patent a battery-powered smoke detector for home use. -
DIGITAL MUSIC
James Russell, a scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, invents the first digital-to-optical recording and playback s -
ELECTRONIC IGNITION
Chrysler paves the way for the era of electronic—rather than mechanical—advances in automobiles with the electronic ignition. -
PERSONAL COMPUTER
in the 1975,Ed Roberts coined the term personal computer when he introduced the Altair 8800 -
GPS
The first satellite in the modern Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) is launched. -
SONY WALKMAN
"This is the product that will satisfy those young people who want to listen to music all day." —Akio Morita, Sony Chairman, February 1979 -
Period: to
Inventions of the past
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MP3 PLAYER
Depending on who you ask, the MP3 is either the end of civilization (record companies) or the dawn of a new world