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"The Electric Theater"
Thomas L. Talley opens this theater in Los Angles and is the home of the first Nickelodeon that is later a multimedia movie palace that encouraged imitators nationwide. -
Valve
John Ambrose Fleming develops the first vacuum tube that is later called a valve. -
Wireless Voice and Music Broadcasts Experiments
Charles Herrold and Ray Newby experiment "wireless" voice and music broadcasts from San Jose, California and use radio station call letters "FN" and "SJN". The transmission of voices was with a series of arching street lamps under liquid. -
Motion Picture Star
Mary Pickford becomes the first motion picture star with her silent films. -
Public Radio Broadcasting
Charles Herrold begins the first regular public radio broadcasting of voice and music from his "wireless telegraph college" in California. It is called "The Herrold Station" and is transmitted across from San Jose to San Francisco. -
Disk Recordings
Cylinders are replaced by disk recordings. Columbia stops the use of cylinders. -
"The Squaw Man"
Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse Lasky produce the first feature-length film called "The Squaw Man". -
Phone Call!
From New York to San Francisco, on July 29th, the first transcontinental telephone call was made. -
"Just Charge It"
Western Union issues the first consumer charge card. -
Electric Records.
Electrical records replace acoustic disks by a process developed by Western Electric. -
Vitaphone
Vitaphone introduces a sound system to synchronize music and sound effects with a motion picture. -
Televiser
Scotsman John Logie Baird invents the first mechanical television. -
"Don Juan"
Warner Bros. film "Don Juan" contains music composed by William Axt due to the development of a 33 1/3 rpm disk system that synchronizes a music track from Bell Laboratories. -
NBC
"National Broadcasting Company" is the first radio network that was inaugrated on Nov. 15 with a celebration at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, NY. -
Television Picture
Philo Farnsworth transmits the first "electric television" picture in his San Francisco Laboratory. -
CBS
The "Columbia Broadcasting System" begins radio broadcasting. -
"Mr. Television"
In the United States, a young comedian named Milton Berle is the first peron seen on television, on an experimental broadcast. -
Billboard
Billboard Magazine publishes its first music chart of performed songs. -
Sound Recordings
The Edison Co. ceases the manufacturing of sound recordings. -
"Don Lee"
The West Coast "Don Lee" chain of radio stations joins the CBS radio network. -
Wife
Philo Farnsworth transmits the first TV picture of a living person - his wife - on Oct. 19, in his San Francisco laboratory; the picture is only about 3 1/2 inches square. -
Interlaced Scanning
To improve TV pictures, German scientist Fritz Schroeter applies for a patent on interlaced scanning. -
TV camera
Vladimir Zworykin applies for a patent on a TV camera vacuum tube he calls the "Iconoscope." -
Binaural Photograph System
An experimental "binaural" phonograph system is created by Bell laboratories. -
Just Swing Dance
The Duke Ellington recording of "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing starts the "swing music" dance craze. -
"The Lone Ranger"
The first episode of "The Lone Ranger" radio series debuts on radio station WXYZ in Detroit. -
MBS
The Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) begins operation on September 15. -
"Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot"
A National radio hit advertising is written by Eric Siday and Ginger Johnson. -
The AES
The Audio Engineering Society (The AES) is formed. -
"Lazy Boy"
Zenith introduces the "Lazy Boy" -- the first television remote control (it had a cable.) -
COLOR TV!
CBS television broadcast the first color TV program to five cities on June 25th. -
"sing-over"
The first ID jingle company to "sing-over" pre-recorded backgrounds - PAMS, Inc. is formed in Dallas, Texas by former radio studio musician Bill Meeks on August 20, 1951. -
"CBS Eye"
The "CBS Eye" network logo debuts on September 10, 1951. -
"I Love Lucy"
The first episode of "I Love Lucy" aired on Monday, October 15th on the CBS Television Network. -
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (the RIAA) is formed. -
Reel-to-Reel
The first pre-recorded reel-to-reel tape (at 7 1/2 ips) is offered for sale. -
RCA Color Television
On March 25, the first color television sets rolled out of the RCA Victor factory in Bloomington, Indiana. -
NBC Peacock
The NBC Peacock logo debuts in July designed by Fred Knapp and John J. Graham. -
"Solid-state" TV
Sony introduces the first "solid-state" TV set, using transistors instead of vacuum tubes. -
FM
FM Stereo radio broadcasting begins and FM slowly starts to gain respect. -
Phillips
Compact stereo tape cassettes and players are developed by Phillips. -
Computer Mouse
Douglas C. Engelbart demonstrates the first computer mouse (made of wood.) -
PicturePhone
AT&T introduces the PicturePhone at the Worlds' Fair, but it doesn't catch. -
Dolby A
The "Dolby-A" professional noise reduction system is used in some recording studios. -
Dolby B
The "Dolby-B" noise reduction system is introduced for consumer reel-to-reel and cassette tape recorders. -
Intel
The first Microprocessor (computer on a chip) is introduced by Intel -- the 4004. -
"Never Can Say Goodbye"
Gloria Gaynor records "Never Can Say Goodbye" -- the first disco record on US radio. -
PONG
Atari of Santa Clara, CA develops "Pong" -- the first electronic computer arcade game. -
Bill Gates
Bill Gates drops out of Harvard, moves to New Mexico to develop software for the new MIPS Altair "micro-computer" with Paul Allen under the name "MicroSoft." -
"Rapper's Delight"
The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", is the first hip-hop record to reach Top 40 radio. -
MTV
The MTV Music TV Cable Network debuts on the air at Midnight, August 1st. -
CD
The digital Compact Disc (CD) is introduced by a Japanese conglomerate. -
"52nd Street"
The first CD released (in Japan) is Billy Joel's "52nd Street" (October, 1982.) -
Stereo Sound
NBC broadcasts the first television programs with stereo sound. -
CDs beat LP sales
The Recording Industry Association of America (the RIAA) announces on June 19 that CDs have overtaken LP sales in the U.S. -
DAT
Phillips introduces a digital audio tape recorder (DAT) using a digital casette. -
Web Browser
Tim Berners-Lee finishes programming the first practical Web Brower which becomes known as "Nexus". -
Personal Computers outsell TV
Personal computers outsell TV sets for the first time in the United States. -
DVD
The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) increases capacity of digital storage of audio and video on a CD.