Media Timeline: Key Events

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1605: First regularly published weekly newspaper appears in Antwerp.

l1650: Leipzig publishes the first daily newspaper.

l1690: After one issue Publick Occurrences, first colonial newspaper, is suppressed.

l1702: The first daily newspaper in the English language, the Daily Courant.

l1783: Pennsylvania Evening Post, the first daily newspaper in America.

l1794: Nearly flat rate U.S. postal law mails most newspapers for a penny stamp.

l1797: In England, a heavy tax is levied on newspapers to limit the radical press.

l1801: Joseph-Marie Jacquard loom uses punch cards, anticipates computers.

l1827: First African-American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal.

l1828: First Native American newspaper, Cherokee Phoenix.

l1833: A penny buys a newspaper, the New York Sun, opening a mass market.

l1834: Babbage conceives the analytical engine, forerunner of the computer.

l1870: More than 5,000 newspapers are published in the U.S.

l1843: Byron’s daughter, Ada Lovelace, explains concept of computer programming.

l1898: Newspapers, led by Hearst and Pulitzer, help push U.S. into war with Spain.

l1900: U.S. has 2,150 daily newspapers, 478 tri- or semi-weeklies, 14,717 weeklies.

l1900: Total newspaper circulation in U.S. passes 15 million daily.

l1900: 562 cities in U.S. have more than one daily newspaper; New York City has 29.

l1914: 1,300 journals, 140 daily newspapers in U.S. targeted to ethnic populations.

l1930: Lowell Thomas begins first regular U.S. network newscast.

l1930: BBC transmits a play by television, 240 lines/sec of resolution.

l1930: Vannevar Bush’s partly electronic computer can solve differential equations.

l1933: U.S. newspapers pressure AP to cut service to radio, start “Press-Radio War.”

l1933: FDR begins radio Fireside Chats, bypasses hostile newspapers.

l1936: BBC starts world’s first regular television service, three hours a day.

l1938: CBS World News Roundup ushers in modern newscasting.

l1941: Radio networks on 24/7; heavy on news.

l1942: Atanasoff and Berry in Iowa build the first electronic digital computer.

l1944: NBC presents first U.S. televised network newscast, a curiosity.

l1944: Harvard’s Mark I, first digital computer to be put in service.

l1946: University of Pennsylvania’s ENIAC heralds the modern electronic computer.

l1948: CBS and NBC begin nightly 15-minute television newscasts.

l1948: WFIL-FM, owned by Philadelphia newspaper, transmits fax editions twice a day.

l1949: Hollywood studios begin to produce television programs.

l1949: The United States has 98 television stations.

l1950: Nielsen’s Audimeter tracks television audiences.

l1951: Color television sets go on sale.

l1951: Univac I is the first mass-produced computer.

l1952: Television sets in about 19 million U.S. homes.

l1954: 54% of American homes have television sets.

l1957: Many television programs switch to color.

l1958: The microchip; it will enable the computer revolution.

l1959: Television sets in more than 46 million U.S. homes.

l1960: 90% of American homes have television sets.

l1961: The time-sharing computer is developed.

l1961: FCC Chairman Newton Minow calls television a “vast wasteland..

l1963: TV is now principal source of news in U.S., according to Roper Poll.

l1963: Douglas Engelbart gets a patent for the computer mouse.

l1963: TV news “comes of age” in reporting JFK assassination.

l1963: Julia Child cooks on television as The French Chef.

l1967: Newspapers, magazines start to digitize production/computers in operation

l1968: 60 Minutes starts ticking, proves than news on TV can be profitable.

l1965: FCC rules bring structure to cable television.

l1969: UCLA computer sends data to Stanford computer, foreshadowing Internet.

l1972: Philadelphia Inquirer builds a computer database for a news story.

l1972: The Xerox Alto, first computer with mouse and graphical interface.

l1974: U.S. newspapers start to replace reporters’ typewriters with terminals.

l1975: On television, Saturday Night Live.

l1975: In Los Angeles, the first computer store; it sells assembled computers.

l1975: Microsoft founded

l1976: Apple Computer founded

l1976: Barbara Walters becomes first woman to anchor a U.S. TV nightly network newscast.

l1979: News groups arrive on the Internet.

l1980: A 25 lb. portable computer is favorite of reporters who send news from field. RS TRS- 80

l1980: CNN, 24-hour news channel, begins reports.

l1981: The laptop computer is introduced by Tandy.

l1982: USA Today is a newspaper influenced by television news style.

l1983: Time names the computer as "Man" of the Year for 1982.

l1983: Apple's Lisa, the first microcomputer with a graphical user interface.

l1984: Apple Macintosh and IBM PC AT are introduced.

l1983: Computer chip holds 288,000 bits of memory.

l1983: TCP/IP becomes standard for Internet communication between computers.

l1983: Internet domains get names instead of hard-to-remember numbers.

l1985: America Online founded as Quantum Computer Services.

l1991: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) written; helps create the World Wide Web.

l1992: Number of newspapers offering online news rises to 150.

l1993: Graphical user interface, Mosaic, is developed for the World Wide Web.

l1994: Two million computers connected to the Internet.

l1994: Almost 1/3 of all American homes have a computer.

l1994: Radio HK, a 24-hour Internet-only radio station.

l1995: U.S. population continues to increase, but newspaper readership declines.

l1995: 30 million Internet users worldwide.

l1995: Amazon.com starts selling books online, will become Web’s hottest retailer.

l1996: From Microsoft: Hotmail.com, a Web-based email site.

l1996: 45 million Internet users, including 30 million in U.S.

l1996: More than 100,000 Web sites, and growing fast.

l1996: Computer makers sell flat-panel displays.

l1996: A pocket telephone/computer comes on the market.

l1996: Several large newspapers offer Web access to archives.

l1997: Streaming audio and video are available on the Web.

l1997: 2,600 U.S. newspapers have Internet sites or dial-up connections.

l1997: 43% of U.S. homes have computers.

l1998: Drudge Report, an online website, breaks news of Clinton-Lewinsky affair.

l1998: 3,250 newspapers, 1,280 TV stations now have online websites.

l1998: Google

l1998: 150 million Internet users estimated at year’s end, half in the U.S.

l1998: Estimated number of World Wide Web pages: 300 million.

l1998: Estimated number of Web pages added each day: 1.5 million.

l1998: Apple unveils the colorful iMac computer.

l1999: Number of U.S. daily newspapers drops to 1,483; total 56 million circulation.

l1999: Nielsen, Arbitron start World Wide Web rating service.

l1999: 150 million Internet users can access more than 800 million web pages.

l2002: Google News, an automated service without human editors.

l2000: Seventy million computers connected to the Internet.

l2002: Friendster sets up Internet social contact network.

l2002: On the Web, creators of online journals, or "web logs," now "blog on."

l2003: 239 million computer games are sold.

l2003: From Apple Computer: the browser Safari.

l2003: Cell phones add computer and Internet capabilities.

l2004: Facebook

l2006: TV networks place their most popular programs on the Web.

l2006: Battle in Congress over "net neutrality" regarding website access.

l2009: Major U.S. newspapers face bankruptcy as readers, income erode.

l2007: iPhone surfs Web, emails, plays videos, iTunes, makes phone calls, takes pictures.

l2007: Twitter

l2010: iPad brings multi-touch email, books, movies, maps, apps.