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

The First Industrial Complex
(Circa 2,500,000 BCE – 500,000 BCE)

Acheulean or Mode 2 Industries
(Circa 1,650,000 BCE – 100,000 BCE)

Early Humans Make Bone Tools
(Circa 1,500,000 BCE)

The Earliest Hearths
(Circa 1,500,000 BCE – 790,000 BCE)

Humans May Have Lived in Britain as Early as 950,000 Years Ago
(Circa 950,000 BCE – 780,000 BCE)

Hunting Large Animals With Spears
(Circa 500,000 BCE)

The Earliest Use of Pigments
(Circa 400,000 BCE – 350,000 BCE)

The Oldest Wooden Spears
(Circa 400,000 BCE)

Early Humans Use Heat-Treated Stone for Tools
(Circa 162,000 BCE – 70,000 BCE)

The Earliest Known Forms of Human Adornment
(Circa 132,000 BCE – 98,000 BCE)

Tools for Capturing Fast or Dangerous Prey
(Circa 104,000 BCE)

Katanda Bone Harpoon Point
(88,000 BCE – 78,000 BCE)

Making Materials from Flax Fibers
(Circa 32,000 BCE – 28,000 BCE)

Untitled
(Circa 28,000 BCE – 21,000 BCE)

The Earliest Representation of Spun Thread
(25,000 BCE)

The Eight Founding Crops of Domesticated Agriculture
(Circa 9,500 BCE)

Horse Domestication Revolutionizes Transportation, Communication, and Warfare
(Circa 3,500 BCE)

Imperial Purple
(1,200 BCE)

The Earliest Chinese Inscriptions in Bronze
(Circa 1,200 BCE – 1,045 BCE)

The First Truly Automatic Self-Regulatory Device
(Circa 285 BCE – 222 BCE)

Early Example of Assembly Line Production
(215 BCE – 210 BCE)

The Earliest Analog Computer
(Circa 150 BCE – 100 BCE)

Invention of the Astrolabe
(Circa 150 BCE – 100 BCE)

The First Automata Recorded
(10 CE – 70 CE)

The Only Ancient Manual of Roman Military Instructions that Survived Intact
(Circa 390 CE)

First Mention of Printing in China
(593)

The Archetype of De Architectura
(Circa 800)

The First Programmable Machine & the Earliest Known Mechanical Musical Instrument
(850)

The Earliest Surviving Dated Astrolabe
(927 – 928)

Earliest Description of the Compass
(1086)

Earliest Record of the Use of the Compass in Navigation
(1119)

The First Paper Mill in Al-Andalus
(1150)

First Recorded Designs of a Programmable Automaton
(1206)

Perhaps the Earliest Programmable Analog Computer
(1206)

The Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt
(Circa 1230)

Confirmation that Printed Textiles Exist in Europe
(1234)

Discovery of the Compass--The Earliest Known European Work of Experimental Science
(1269)

A Venetian Ordinance on the Production of Eyeglasses
(April 2, 1300)

The Earliest Surviving Spectacles
(Circa 1350)

The Earliest Depiction of Eyeglasses in a Painted Work of Art
(1352)

Earliest European Document on the Production of Paper
(1390)

Casting 100,000 Pieces of Copper Printing Types
(1403)

Earliest Known European Textile Printer
(1417)

One of the Earliest Surviving Italian Manuscripts on Technology and War Machines
(Circa 1420)

The Earliest Known Treatise on Shipbuilding
(1434)

Description of Textile Printing
(1437)

Gutenberg Begins Experimentation on Printing
(1438 – 1444)

The First English Patent for an Invention
(1449)

The 42-Line Bible
(1454)

Completion of the 42-Line Bible
(1455 – 1456)

Gutenberg's Last Production? An Early Form of Stereotyping?.
(1460 – 1469)

The First Printed Book on Technology with the First Woodcuts on a Scientific or Technological Subject
(1472)

The First Technical Dictionary
(1473 – 1474)

Leonardo Builds a Programmable Mechanical Automaton
(1478)

The First Concrete Evidence of the Existence of Matrices for the Casting of Type Fonts
(September 1480)

Origins of the Pencil
(Circa 1500 – 1565)

The First Large-Scale Production-Line
(Circa 1525)

The First Description of Typecasting
(1540)

Renaissance Information Retrieval Device
(1588)

Moving the Obelisk
(1590)

The Soroban
(Circa 1600)

The First Copying Device?
(1603 – 1605)

The First "Computer Manual"
(1606)

Among the First Records of Litigation over an Invention
(1607)

Encrypted Notice of the Discovery of Saturn's Ring
(1656)

Working Around the English Monopoly on Solid Graphite
(1662)

Leibnitz Invents the Stepped Drum Gear Calculator
(1673 – 1710)

First Comprehensive Printing Manual
(1683 – 1684)

The First Paper Mill in the United States
(1690)

A Loom Controlled by Perforated Paper Tape
(1725)

Invention of Punched Cards?
(1728)

Complex Enough to Provide a Credible Imitation of Life
(1731 – 1738)

The First Automaton to Simulate Biological Processes
(1739)

Mechanical and Industrial Arts of 18th Century France
(1749 – 1814)

The Central Enterprise of the French Enlightenment
(1751 – 1780)

Hargreaves Invents the Spinning Jenny
(1764)

Arkwright Patents the Hydraulic Spinning Machine
(1769)

Invention of the Rubber Eraser
(April 15, 1770)

Building Key Parts of the Handpress out of Iron
(1772)

Lichtenberg Figures
(1777)

Technology Leading to Disruptive Economic and Social Change
(1781)

Watt Invents the Centrifugal Governor
(1788)

The First Successful Speech Synthesizer
(1791)

Invention of Modern Pencil Lead
(1795)

Invention of Lithography
(1796)

The First Paper-Making Machine
(1798 – 1799)

The First Completely Iron Printing Press
(1798)

The Industrial Revolution Advances
(1800)

The First Book Printed on Recycled Paper
(1801)

The Jacquard Loom Uses Punched Cards to Store Patterns
(1803)

Fourdrinier Machines for Paper Manufacture
(1804)

Foundation of Aerodynamics and Invention of the Airplane
(1809 – 1810)

The First Book on Modern Food Preservation Methods
(1810)

Luddites
(1811)

First Steam Powered Printing Press
(1812)

Invention of the Two-Wheeled Bicycle- the First Personalized Mechanical Transport
(June 12, 1817)

Machine-Made Paper Exceeds the Production of Hand-Made Paper
(Circa 1820)

The First Railroad
(1825)

4000-5000 Impressions per Hour
(1827)

Railway Competition
(1829)

The First U.S. Steam Locomotive
(1829)

Typing a Letter Takes Longer than Writing by Hand
(1829)

The Beginning of Operations Research
(1832)

The Most Famous Image in the Early History of Computing
(1839)

The Doppler Principle
(1842)

The First Working Difference Engine
(1843)

Sending Weather Information by Telegraph
(1847)

Printing Telegraph Messages
(1855)

Earliest Sound Recordings, without Playback
(1860)

The Stock Ticker
(1867)

The Times of London Prints on Continuous Paper, Increasing Production
(1868)

"On Governors"
(1868)

The First Device to Allow the Operator to Write Faster than a Person Writing by Hand
(1868)

Over 6000 Miles of RR Track in England
(1870)

Willoughy Smith Discovers the Photoconductivity of Selenium
(1873)

The First QWERTY Keyboard
(1873 – 1874)

Calculators Using a True Variable-Toothed Gear
(Circa 1875)

The Earliest Exhibition Exclusively of Scientific Instruments
(1875)

The Electric Pen
(1875)

Bell Invents and Patents the Telephone
(March 10, 1876)

Invention of the Microphone
(March 4, 1877)

Edison Invents the Phonograph
(August 12, 1877)

Allowing the Typing of Both Upper and Lower Case Letters
(1878)

Edison Describes Future Uses for his Phonograph
(June 1878)

The Cash Register
(1879)

The Light Bulb
(1879)

One of the Earliest Systems of Television Transmission
(1880)

The First Separate Publication on Television
(1880)

The First Wireless Telephone Communication
(April 1, 1880)

Daimler Invents the Internal Combustion Engine
(1885)

The First Automobile
(1885)

Prayerbook Woven by the Jacquard Loom
(1886 – 1887)

The Flat Disc Gramophone
(1887)

One of the Most Dramatic Problems in the Preservation of Media
(1889)

The First Textbook of Mechanical Flight
(1889)

The First Production Automobiles
(1893 – 1894)

The First International Exhibition of Mathematical Devices
(September 1893)

The First Successful Gas-Engine Automobile Built in the United States
(September 21, 1893 – 1895)

The First Practical Moving Picture Camera
(1894)

The First Organized and Published Collection of Aviation Research
(1894)

Untitled
(1895)

Invention of Cinematography
(February 13, 1895)

First Automotive Assembly Line in America
(1901)

Invention of the Motorized Airplane
(September 18, 1901 – May 2, 1906)

The Beginnings of Modern Spaceflight Theory
(May 1903 – 1914)

Fleming Invents the Vacuum Tube
(1904)

Lee de Forest Invents the Triode
(1906)

Probably the Earliest Concept for CRT Television
(June 18, 1908)

The Wheeler Gift Catalogue
(1909)

An Early Sci-Fi View of the Internet and Virtual Reality
(November 1909)

First European Work on Theoretical Astronautics
(1913)

Teletype Invented
(1914)

Invention of the Regenerative Circuit
(1914)

Invention of SONAR
(1917)

Coordinating National Standards Development
(October 19, 1918)

The Earliest Practical Treatise on the Development of Rocketry for Space Flight
(1919)

Robot
(1920)

Using 64,000 Human Computers to Predict the Weather
(1922)

The First Electronic Television Camera
(1923)

The Enigma Machine is Introduced
(1923)

The Rocket in Interplanetary Space
(June 1923 – 1929)

The First Hi-Fi Sound Recording
(1924)

The Creation of Bell Labs
(1925)

The First Demonstration of Television
(January 26, 1926)

The First All-Electronic Television
(September 7, 1927)

The First Flight Simulator
(1929)

Foundation of Texas Instruments
(May 16, 1930)

An Electronic Machine for Searching Through Information
(December 29, 1931)

Origins of the X-Planes and the Space Shuttle
(1933)

The Hammond Electric Organ
(April 24, 1934 – April 1935)

Invention of Radar
(February 12, 1935)

The First Electronic Speech Synthesizer
(1936 – 1939)

"Modern Times"
(1936)

"The Most Significant Master's Thesis of the 20th Century"
(August 10, 1937)

Atanasoff Plans the ABC Machine
(Circa December 1937)

Carlson invents Xerography
(1938)

The Hinman Collator
(1945 – 1949)

From Analog to Digital
(Circa November 1945)

Invention of the Transistor
(December 1947)

The First Xerographic Copier
(1949)

The Bic Pen
(1950)

The First OCR System: "GISMO"
(1951)

Vaccuum Tubes Especially Designed for Digital Circuits
(1952)

Untitled
(1952)

First Commercial Transistor Radio
(1954)

The First Silicon Transistor
(May 10, 1954)

The First Video Tape Recorder
(1956)

Magnetic Ink Character Reading
(July 1956)

Sputnik is Launched
(October 4, 1957)

Kilby Conceives of the Integrated Circuit
(1958)

Manufacturing Integrated Circuits
(1958)

ARPA is Founded
(February 7, 1958)

Discovery of the LASER
(1959)

The Xerox 914
(September 16, 1959)

The First Self-Contained Internally Powered Artificial Pacemake Implanted in a Human
(1960)

The First Software Patent
(1960 – November 20, 1968)

Bionics
(September 13 – September 15, 1960)

The First Integrated Circuit Computer
(October 19, 1961)

The First Visible LED
(1962)

The Information Processing Techniques Office
(October 1, 1962)

The First CAD Program
(December 1962)

The First Commercial Computers to Use Integrated Circuits
(1964)

The Beginning of "Word Processing"
(1964)

The First Plasma Video Display (Neon Orange)
(1964)

First Consumer Product with an Integrated Circuit
(February 14, 1964)

The U.S. Postal Services Introduces OCR
(1965)

Optical Fibers Proposed as a Medium for Communication
(1965)

Moore's Law
(April 19, 1965)

The First Hand-Held Electronic Calculator
(1967)

Invention of the Computer Mouse
(June 27, 1967)

Replicants
(1968)

Foundation of Intel
(July 18, 1968)

The First Manned Apollo Flights Occur
(December 24, 1968)

A Sensor for Recording Images
(1969)

Optical Fibers for the Internet Backbone
(1970)

The First General Patent on the Microprocessor
(December 1970)

The First Microprocessor
(1971)

Intel 8008
(1971)

Phreaker Underground Telephone System Culture
(1971)

"A Calculator in Every Kitchen or Businessman's Pocket'
(September 17, 1971)

The First Microprocessor for the First Personal Computer
(March 1974)

Invention of the Digital Camera
(December 1975)

First Print-to-Speech Reading Machine
(1976)

The CD is Developed
(1976 – 1982)

Intel's 8086
(1977)

The First Speech Synthesis Chip
(June 11, 1977)

Making Small Portable Digital Telephones Possible
(1979)

The Printing Press as an Agent of Change
(1979)

Intel 8088
(July 1, 1979)

The First Commercial Electronic Camera--Not Digital
(1982)

The Intel 386
(1985)

The First Semi-Automatic DNA Sequencer
(1986)

One of the First Digital Cameras
(1989)

Voice Over Internet Protocol
(1998)

Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 and its Printer are Finally Constructed
(2002)

Origins of Cyberspace
(2002)

92% of Cameras Sold are Digital
(February 2006)

More than 80 Trillion Floating-Point Operations per Second
(February 13, 2007)

The Amazon Kindle
(November 19, 2007)

The Effect of Decay Fungi on Wood Used in the Production of Violins
(June 28, 2008)

Imaging a Molecule One Million Times Smaller Than a Grain of Sand
(August 28, 2009)

Confirmation that Fungally-Treated Wood Enables Great Violin Sound
(September 2009)