(compiled by Prof. Jim McPherson, Whitworth College, 2002)
4000 B.C. – Sumerian stamp seals
3100 B.C. – Sumerian “writing” system on clay tablets
2000 B.C. – Phoenician alphabet
1900-1800 B.C. – Semitic alphabet in Egypt
600 B.C. – Egyptian papyrus scrolls
540 B.C. – Public library in Athens
105 A.D. – Chinese paper (didn’t arrive in West for centuries)
1450 – Gutenberg press (leads to Protestant Revolution, among other things)
1517 – Martin Luther nails “Ninety Five Theses” to church door in Wittenberg, Germany
1534 – first press in America (Spanish America)
1500s – Italian gazettes
1618 – Dutch Coranto (printed in English in 1620)
1638 – first press in what would become U.S. (Harvard College)
1644 – John Milton denounces licensing of the press in Areopagitica
1665 – Oxford Gazette (first English-language newspaper) in England
1690 – First American newspaper: Publick Occurrences (lasts one issue)
1704 – First successful American newspaper: The Boston News-Letter
1735 – John Peter Zenger trial
1741 – First American magazines
1783-1833 – Rise of Party Press
1791 – Bill of Rights (including First Amendment) ratified
1798 – Alien and Sedition Acts passed
1821 – Saturday Evening Post founded
1827 – First African-American newspaper in U.S.: Freedom’s Journal
1828 – First Native American newspaper in U.S.: Cherokee Phoenix
1828 – Noah Webster publishes first dictionary
1833s – New York Sun begins publication; rise of the Penny Press
1844 – Samuel Morse granted patent for telegraph. First message, May 24: “What hath God wrought?” Second message: “Have you any news?”
1848 – Associated Press founded
1860-1865 – Civil War brings home “necessity” of news
1877 – Thomas Edison invents the “talking machine”
1888 – Edison lab develops movie camera
1888 – George Eastman introduces the Kodak camera
1888 – Heinrich Hertz transmits wireless sound waves
1890 – Linotype machine introduced at newspapers
1891 –Edison patents Kinetoscope – first parlor opens 1894 in New York
1890s – first “New Journalism” period; “Yellow Journalism”
1890s – Edison develops mass market phonograph
1894 – Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World starts daily women’s page
1899 – “Stunt girl” Nellie Bly circles the world
1901 – Guglielmo Marconi sends and receives radio message across the Atlantic (Morse code, point to point)
1900s – Muckraking magazines
1905 – First “nickelodeon”
1906 – Reginald Fessenden broadcasts voice
1911 – Newsreels begin; continue into 1960s
1912 – Titanic sinks; leads to Federal Radio Act of 1912
1914-1918 – World War I propaganda, censorship, technology
1915 – D.W. Griffith releases Birth of a Nation, first full-length film to significantly impact culture
1917 – Charlie Chaplin becomes the first entertainer to earn $1 million
1919 – RCA founded
1920 – First radio stations in U.S. and Canada
1920s – “Jazz Journalism” tabloids
1922 – Reader’s Digest magazine founded
1923 – Lee de Forest shows first “talkie”
1923 – Time magazine debuts
1923 – A.C. Nielsen company begins
1923 – AT&T links two radio stations for first “network”
1927 – Federal Radio Act sets up commission to regulate airwaves
1927 – Philo Farnsworth applies for electronic TV patents
1927 – The Jazz Singer released
1928 – Academy Awards given for the first time (Wings wins Best Picture)
1930s & 40s – “Golden Age of Movies”
1933 – Eleanor Roosevelt insists on women-only press conferences (“the Roosevelt Rule”)
1934 – Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established
1936 – England is first country with regular TV broadcasts
1936 – Life magazine debuts
1938 – Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast
1939 – TV is a hit at the World’s Fair
1939 – First FM radio station started in New Jersey
1941 – First TV commercial advertises a Bulova clock
1941 – Welles’s Citizen Kane released; sometimes called the best movie of all time
1942 – John H. Johnson starts Negro Digest; would later found Ebony and Jet
1947 – Red Scare leads to congressional investigation of Hollywood
1948 – Supreme Court hands down Paramount Decision
1950 – Red Channels: The Communist Influence in Radio and Television ruins careers
1950s – “Golden Age of Television”
1951 – “I Love Lucy” debuts; uses film and three cameras
1952 – FCC lifts “the Freeze” imposed in 1948
1952 – Eisenhower runs 20-second campaign spot
1953 – TV Guide magazine debuts; Lucille Ball and her newborn son on first cover
1953 – Playboy magazine introduced; Marilyn Monroe is first centerfold
1954 – Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now” focuses on Joseph McCarthy
1954 – Elvis Presley discovered by Sam Phillips of Sun Records
1958 – videotape introduced
1959 – Quiz show scandal rocks television industry
1960 – Kennedy-Nixon debate
1963 – Network news expands from 15 minutes to 30 minutes
1963 – Betty Friedan writes The Feminine Mystique
1964 – New York Times v. Sullivan gives press new right to criticize public officials
1964 – The Beatles first tour America
1965-1970s – Second “New Journalism” period; literary journalism; underground newspapers
1967 – Congress passes Public Broadcasting Act; PBS formed
Late 1960s – Internet formed for exchange of ideas, not available to general public
1969 – Neal Armstrong walks on moon; we see it on TV
1969 – ABC introduces made-for-TV movies
1970 – Feminists stage sit-in at Ladies Home Journal
1972 – Ms. magazine launched
1972 – Life magazine died; came back as monthly from 1978 to 2000
1972 – Boylan v. New York Times sex discrimination lawsuit filed
1972 – Cigarette advertising banned from TV
1974 – Richard Nixon resigns, a result of Watergate coverage
1974 – People magazine introduced
1975 – Home Box Office (formed by Time, Inc. in 1972) begins satellite distribution of TV; Ted Turner starts first “superstation”
1975 – Sony Betamax home videocassette recorder introduced
1976 – Matsushita introduces VHS
1978 – laser disc player introduced; largely a failure, but opened door for CDs
1979 – Sony Walkman appears in Japan
1979 – Iranian hostage crisis leads to “Nightline” and loss by Jimmy Carter to a former radio broadcaster and movie actor
1980 – “Who Shot J.R.?” on “Dallas” is first TV season-ending cliff-hanger
1981 – MTV (Music Television) first airs; first video is “Video Killed the Radio Star”
1982 – USA Today begins publication
1982 – Home shopping network debuts
1983 – Sony introduces CD player
1990s – Internet access opened to general public; changes everything
1996 – Telecommunications Act of 1996 brings V-chip, deregulation, and dramatic increase in mergers and takeovers
What events since 1996 would you add to this list?