From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Popular Culture Outline

Standardization of the Homeric Texts Begins
(Circa 750 BCE)

The Earliest Surviving Cookbook
(Circa 850)

Playing Cards: One of the Earliest Forms of Block Printing
(1007 – 1072)

Among the Best Known Records of Early Forbidden Romantic Love
(1115)

Le Roman de la Rose: A Medieval Best Seller
(Circa 1230 – 1275)

The Earliest References to Playing Cards in Europe
(1377)

Printing Playing Cards
(1418)

The First Printed Book to Set Out Rules for a Healthy Diet
(1542)

The First Periodical to Use the Word "Magazine"
(January 1731)

The First Periodical Written for Women by a Woman
(April 1744 – May 1746)

The First American Cookbook Written by an American
(1796)

The Penny Post
(1837)

Edison Invents the Phonograph
(August 12, 1877)

The Beginning of "Talk Radio"
(February 1924)

"Modern Times"
(1936)

The First Commercially Successful Ballpoint Pen
(June 15, 1938)

The World's First Commercial Television Network
(1946 – 1956)

The First Long Playing Record (LP)
(1948)

"Mr. Television" Causes the Sale of TV Sets to Double
(1948)

Nineteen Eighty-Four
(1949)

Pioneer Televangelist
(1951)

The First Rock and Roll Recording, Named After First American Muscle Car?
(March 3 – March 5, 1951)

UNIVAC Predicts the Election of Dwight D. Eisenhower
(November 4, 1952)

One of the Earliest Surviving British Television Dramas
(December 12 – December 14, 1954)

Satirizing the Role of Automation in Eliminating Jobs, and Librarians
(1957)

The Gutenberg Galaxy
(1962)

CNN
(June 1, 1980)

Blade Runner
(1982)

Origins of the Smiley on the Internet
(September 19, 1982)

2600: The Hacker Quarterly
(1984)

Perhaps the first Underground "Ezine"
(June 1984)

eBay
(September 1995)

The First Full-Time Online Webcam Girl
(April 1996 – 2003)

The Matrix
(1999)

Napster
(June 1999)

The First Attempt to Make a Photorealistic Computer Animated 3D Feature Film
(July 11, 2001)

MySpace
(August 2003)

"Broadcast Yourself"
(February 2005)

The Most Viewed Video on YouTube
(April 2006)

Will it Blend?
(October 2006)

Five Billion Songs
(June 2008)

Three Billion Images
(November 2008)

2.5 Trillion Text Messages
(December 26, 2008)

The Death of Michael Jackson Impacts the Internet
(June 25, 2009)

"Whatever Happened to Second Life?"
(January 4, 2010)

World Texting Competition Won by Koreans
(January 14, 2010)

The First Superman Comic Book sells for $1,000,000.
(February 22, 2010)

The Holy Grail of Holy Grails, Comicbook-wise
(March 29, 2010)

"The Data-Driven Life"
(April 20, 2010)