B

1900

Nikola Tesla develops frequency hopping, now known as spread spectrum (an important concept in telecommunications)

1901

The first radio message is sent across the Atlantic Ocean in Morse code

1902

3M (formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) is founded

1903

Wilbur and Orville Wright both take the first flight December 17, 1903.

1904

John Ambrose Fleming creates the first commercial diode vacuum tube

1906

The IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is founded in London England

1907

Lee De Frost files patent #879,532 on Jan 29, 1907 for the vacuum tube triode. This is later used as an electronic switch in the first electronic computer.

IBM files for its first U.S. patent, #998,631 October 11, 1907

1908

The film "A Visit To The Seaside" becomes the first film commercially produced in natural colour in December of 1908

1910

Henry Babbage, Charles Babbage's youngest son, completes a portion of the Analytical Engine which was able to perform basic calculations

1911

Company now known as IBM on is founded June 16, 1911 in the state of New York as the Computing - Tabulating - Recording Company (C-T-R), a consolidation of the Computing Scale Company, and The International Time Recording Company.

IBM is granted its first patent #998,631 July 25, 1911.

1912

G. N. Lewis begins work on the lithium battery

1918

Panasonic is founded March 18, 1918 in Japan

1919

Olympus is established on October 12, 1919 by Takeshi Yamashita

1920

First radio broadcasting begins in United States, Pittsburgh, PA

1921

Czech playwright Karel Capek coins the term "robot" in the 1921 play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots)

The first Radio Shack store is opened by two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann

1922

MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is established

1923

Jack St. Clair Kilby, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the Integrated Circuit, handheld calculator, and thermal printer is born November 8, 1923

1924

The Computing - Tabulating - Recording (C-T-R) company is renamed to IBM on February 14, 1924

1927

Philo Taylor Farnsworth becomes the first person to successfully transmit a Television signal on September 7, 1927

1928

September 25, 1928, The Galvin Manufacturing Corporation begins operations - the company will later be known as Motorola

1930

Galvin Manufacturing Corporation Auto radios begin to be sold as an accessory for the automobile. Paul Galvin coins the name Motorola for the company's new products, linking the ideas of motion and radio

Citizen (a large well known manufacturer of various computer components) is founded

1933

Canon (one of the largest computer printer, floppy drives and video equipment manufactures) is established

1934

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is established

The US Communication Act becomes operative

1935

The Polygraph Machine (the lie detector) is used for the first time

1936

Germany's Konrad Zuse creates the Z1, the first electro-mechanical binary programmable computer and a machine that could be controlled through a punch tape

Dvorak receives a patent for the Dvorak Keyboard May 12, 1936

Henry F. Phillips receives a patent for the Phillips screw and screwdriver July 7, 1936

Alan Turing develops the Turing Machine a device that printed symbols on paper tape in a manner that emulated a person following a series of logical instructions

1937

Iowa State Colleges John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry begin work on creating the binary-based ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer) - considered by most to be the first electronic digital computer.

Alec Reeves develops PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) - the basis of digital audio formats such as audio CD's, DVD's, and Blu-Ray discs

1938

The company now known as Hewlett Packard creates its first product the HP 200A

Chester Carlson produces the first electrophotographic image October 22, 1938, which later becomes the Xerox machine

Orson Welles and Houseman broadcast H.G. Welles War of the Worlds on the airways October 30th as a Halloween spoof

BBC creates the first science fiction television program

1939

George Stibitz completes the Complex Number Calculator capable of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing complex numbers. This device provides a foundation for digital computers

Iowa State Colleges John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry create a prototype of the binary-based ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer)

Hewlett Packard is founded by William Hewlett and David Packard. The name is decided on the flip of a coin toss.

1940

The first handheld two-way radio called the "Handy Talkie" is created by Motorola for the U.S. Army Signal Control

1941

German Konrad Zuse finishes the Z3, a fully program-operational calculating machine. The computer is publically introduced in Berlin May 12, 1941

Chester Carlson gets the patent for electric photography more commonly known today as photocopying October 6, 1941

1943

The Colossus, the first eclectic programmable computer developed by Tommy Flowers is demonstrated in December 1943

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first general-purpose electronic digital calculator begins to be constructed. This computer is considered to be the first electronic computer

Dan Noble with Motorola designs a "Walkie Talkie" the first portable FM two-way radio. It was a backpack version that weighed 35 pounds

1944

The Harvard Mark I computer is officially presented at Harvard University on August 7, 1944. The relay-based Harvard-IBM MARK I a large programmable-controlled calculating machine provides vital calculations for the U.S. Navy

1945

The Von Neumann Architecture, the first description of a general purpose electronic digital computer with a stored programs is introduced in John von Neumann's report of the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)

The term bug as computer bug was first used by Grace Hopper when programming the MARK II

1946

Freddie Williams applies for a patent on his cathode-ray tube (CRT) storing device in December. The device that later became known as the Williams tube is capable of storing between 512 and 1024 bits of data

Konrad Zuse writes the first algorithmic programming language called 'Plankalkül'

The ENIAC computer (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) is completed

The Selectron Tube, capable of storing 256 bits of information, begins development

1947

On January 25, 1947, Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. file patent #2,455,992 describing one of the first computer games played on a CRT

Freddie Williams memory system known as the Williams tube, becomes operational. The device was capable of storing between 512 and 1024 bits of data

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is founded as a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 140 countries

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is established September 18, 1947

John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley invent the first transistor at the Bell Laboratories on December 23, 1947

1948

IBM builds the SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator) containing 12,000 tubes

Andrew Donald Booth creates magnetic drum memory, which is two inches long and two inches wide and capable of holding 10 bits per inch

The 604 multiplying punch, based upon the vacuum tube technology, is produced by IBM

1949

Claude Shannon builds the first machine that plays chess at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The concept of a computer program capable of reproducing itself was first mentioned by John von Neumann in his 1949 "Theory of self-reproducing automata" essay

The Harvard-MARK III, the first of the MARK machines to use an internally stored program and indirect addressing, goes into operation again under the direction of Howard Aiken

The first computer company, Electronic Controls Company is founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who helped create the ENIAC computer.

The EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) performs its first calculation on May 6, 1949.It is considered to be the first stored program electronic computer and was the computer to run a graphical computer game, nicknamed "Baby"

Popular Mechanics predicts: "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

The small-scale electronic machine (SSEM) is fully operational at Manchester University.

The Australian computer CSIRAC (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer) first ran. It is considered the fifth electronic stored program computer ever developed

1950

The United States Government receives the UNIVAC 1101 or ERA 1101 in 1950. This computer is considered to be the first computer that was capable of storing and running a program from memory.

The first electronic computer is created in Japan by Hideo Yamachito

Konrad Zuse completes and sells the Z4 on July 12, 1950, becoming the first commercial computer

Alan Turing publishes his paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence in October. This paper helps create the Turing Test which proposes that if a computer can pass for a human during a test then it could be said to be able to "think."

The NICAD battery begins its commercial use

1951

The first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) is completed by T. Raymond Thompson, John Simmons and their team at Lyons Co

The first commercial computer, the "First Ferranti MARK I" becomes fully functional at Manchester University

The first ISO is published with the title, "Standard reference temperature for industrial length measurement."

UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) was introduced. It is an electrical computer containing thousands of vacuum tubes that utilizes punch cards and switches for inputting data and punch cards for outputting and storing data

The EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) begins performing basic tasks. It is one of the first electronic computers that utilizes the binary system

Jay Forrester applies for a patent for magnetic core memory, the first random access memory (RAM) May 11, 1951

The Nixie tube which is capable of displaying numbers 0 through 9 is first introduced

Grace Hopper develops A-0 (Arithmetic Language version 0), the first Arithmetic language

1952

A complaint is filed against IBM in January 1952 alleging Monopolistic practices (The government's antitrust investigations and trial against IBM will drag on for thirty years, finally being dismissed in 1982. IBM will cautiously monitor its microcomputer business practices, fearful of a repeat of government scrutiny)

Geoffrey Dummer a British radar engineer introduces the concept of the integrated circuit at a tech conference in the United States

Fairly reliable working magnetic drum memories for use in computers begin to be sold by Andrew Donald Booth and his father

RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is established to help standardize recording techniques and specificationhs

Alexander Sandy Douglas created the first graphical computer game of Tic-Tac-Toe on an EDSAC computer known as "OXO"

NSA (The National Security Agency) is formed on November 4, 1952

1953

IBM introduces the 701 to the public on April 7, 1953 as it's first electric computer mass produced computer. It is used by the scientific community and a total of 19 are produced and sold.

The UNIVAC predicts the presidential election during a televised news broadcast

A magnetic memory smaller and faster than existing vacuum tube memories is built at MIT

1954

IBM produces and markets the IBM 650. More than 1,800 of these computers are sold in an eight-year span, with 120 installations in the first year

The first version of FORTRAN (Formula Translator) is published by IBM

Texas Instruments announces the start of commercial production of silicon transistors

IBM becomes the first company to translate Russian into English using a computer

CERN (Conseil Europen pour la Recherche Nuclaire) is established on September 29, 1954

IBM introduces its first calculating machine that uses solid-state transistors instead of vacuum tubes October 7, 1954

The first commercially produced transistor radio, the Regency TR-1 is announced October 18, 1954

1955

MIT introduces the Whirlwind Machine March 8, 1955, a revolutionary computer that was the first digital computer with magnetic core RAM and real-time graphics

Tom Watson, IBM's president is featured on the front of Time Magazine March 28, 1955

John McCarthy coins the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 1955 at Dartmouth University

Dartmouth Colleges John McCarthy coins the term "artificial intelligence."

IBM introduces the first IBM 702

Bell Labs introduces its first transistor computer. Transistors are faster, smaller and create less heat than traditional vacuum tubs, making these computers more reliable and efficient.

The ENIAC is turned off for the last time. Its estimated to have done more arithmetic than the entire human race had done prior to 1945.

1956

The TX-O (Transistorized Experimental computer) the first transistorized computer is demonstrated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The first ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) device was used to recognize single digits spoken by a user (it was not computer driven)

On September 13, 1956 the IBM 305 RAMAC is the first computer to be shipped with a hard disk drive that contained 50 24-inch platters and was capable of storing 5 million characters and weighed a ton

Wen Tsing Chow develops PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory)

The programming language FORTRAN is introduced to the public October 15, 1956

1957

IBM announces it will no longer be using vacuum tubes and releases its first computer that had 2000 transistors

Fairchild Semiconductor is founded by Andy Grove, Eugene Kleiner, Gordon Moore, Jerry Sanders, Robert Noyce.

Digital Equipment Corporation is founded by Kenneth Olsen. The company will later become a major network computer manufacturer.

In response to Sputnik the United States creates the new agency ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Casio is established

1958

Control Data Corporation introduces Seymour Cray's 1604 for $1.5 Million, half the cost of the IBM computer

NEC builds its first computer the NEAC 1101

William Higinbotham creates the first video game called "Tennis for Two"

The programming language FORTRAN II is created (later FORTRAN III is created but never released to the public}

President Eisenhowers Christmas address is the first voice transmission from a satellite

The first integrated circuit is developed by Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments. It was demonstrated on September 12, 1958

1959

Hitachi is founded.

The Harvard-MARK I is turned off for the last time

Robert Noyce creates an integrated circuit with component connections made of aluminum lines of silicon

Leonard Kleinrock starts developing packetization, a method of distributing data over a network

Motorola produces the two-way, fully transistorized mobile radio

Panasonic is founded

1960

2,000 computers are in use in the United states

IBMs 1400 series machines, aimed at the business market begin to be distributed

The COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) programming language is invented

Psychologist Frank Rosenblatt creates the Mark I Perception, which has an "eye" that can learn to identify its ABCs

Bob Bemer introduces the backslash (to assist with expressing file paths)

Physicist Theodore Maiman creates the first laser May 16, 1960

AT&T introduces the dataphone and the first known MODEM (MODulator/DEModulator)

RS-232; a standard for computer data communications, is introduced by the Electronic Industries Association

IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) is founded.

Digital introduces the PDP-1 the first minicomputer.

1961

Hewlett-Packard stock is accepted by the New York Stock Exchange for national and international trading

Leonard Kleinrock publishes his first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" on May 31, 1961

The first IBM Selectric typewriter is released July 27, 1961

General Motors puts the first industrial robot the 4,000 pound Unimate to work in a New Jersey factory

Accredited Standards Committee is founded, this committee later becomes the INCITS (InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards)

P.Z. Ingerman develops a thunk, a function with no parameters that returns an address for the parameter that it was written for

ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) is established

The first transcontinental telegraph line begins operation on October 24, 1961

The programming language FORTRAN IV is created

1962

Steve Russell creates "SpaceWar!" and releases it in February 1962 -it is considered the first game intended for computers

Paul Baran suggests transmission of data using fixed size message blocks

J.C.R. Licklider becomes the first Director of IPTO (Information Processing Technology Office) and gives his vision of a galactic network.

Philips invents the compact audio cassette tape

Sharp is founded.

1963

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer) is founded.

ASCII (The American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is developed to standardize data exchange among computers

Bell Telephone introduces the push button telephone November 18, 1963

1964

Dartmouth Universitys John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Language) and run it for the first time May 1, 1964

Baran publishes reports "On Distributed Communications"

AT&T starts the practice of monitoring telephone calls in the hopes of identifying phreakers.

The TRANSIT system becomes operational on U.S. Polaris submarines. This system later becomes known as GPS (Global Positioning System)

On April 7, 1964 IBM introduces its System/360, the first of its computers to use interchangeable software and peripheral equipment.

The first computerized encyclopedia is invented at the Systems Development Corporation.

1965

Ted Nelson coins the terms Hypertext and Hypermedia to describe the linking of information

Digital Equipment Company's first successful minicomputer, the PDP-8 is introduced. The computer sold for $18,000 and over 50,000 were sold.

Donald Davies coins the word Packet to represent a segment of data sent from one computer or network device to another

Engineers at TRW Corporation develop a Generalized Information Retrieval Language and System that later develops to the Pick Database Management System used today on Unix and Windows systems

Texas Instruments develops the transistor-transistor logic (TTL)

Lawrence G. Roberts with MIT performs the first long distant dial-up connection between a TX-2 computer n Massachusetts and a Q-32 in California

Gordon Moore makes an observation in a April 19, 1965 paper that later becomes widely known as Moore's Law

1966

MITs Joseph Weizenbaum writes a program called Eliza that allows the computer act as a psychotherapist

Lawrence G. Roberts and Tom Marill publish a paper about connecting over dial-up

Stephen Gray establishes the first personal computer club, the Amateur Computer Society

Robert Taylor and Larry Roberts develop ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)

The programming language BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) is created and become popular because of its portability

1967

IBM creates the first floppy disk

The first Consumer Electronic Show is held in New York from the July 24 to 28, 1967

Donald Davies creates 1-node NPL packet net

The LOGO programming language is developed and is later known as "turtle graphics" a simplified interface useful for teaching computers to children

Ralph Baer creates "Chase", the first video game capable of being played on a television

HES (Hypertext Editing System) is developed at the Brown University

Nokia is formed

GPS becomes available for commercial use

ISACA (Information System Audit and Control Association) is established

1968

Intel Corporation is founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore

Hewlett Packard began marketing the first mass-marketed PC, the HP 9100A

The first Network Working Group (NWG) meeting is held

On June 4, 1968 Dr. Robert Dennard at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre is granted U.S. patent 3,387,286 describing a one-transistor DRAM cell

UCLA is selected to be the first node on the Internet as we know it today and serve as the Network Msmnt Center.

SHRDLU, a program for understanding natural language, is created

Seiko markets a miniature printer for use with calculators

Sony invents Trinitron which becomes widely used in computer monitors

Doug Englebart publicly demonstrates Hypertext on the NLS on December 9, 1968

1969

Control Data Corporation led by Seymour Cray, release the CDC 7600, considered by most to be the first supercomputer

AT&T Bell Laboratories develop Unix

The first totally artificial heart is placed into Haskell Carp on April 4, 1969 for 64 hours until a donor heart became available

AMD is founded on May 1, 1969

Gary Starkweather, while working with Xerox invents the laser printer

UCLA puts out a press release introducing the public to the Internet on July 3, 1969

At 4:17 Eastern Time the Apollo 11 space craft lands on the moon and Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon

Ralph Baer files for a US Patent on August 21, 1969 that describes playing games on a television and would later be a part of the Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first home video game console

On August 29, the first network switch and the first Interface Message Processor is sent to UCLA.

The first U.S. bank ATM went into service at 9:00am on September 2, 1969

Charley Kline a UCLA student tries to send the first message over ARPANET at 10:30 p.m on October 29, 1969. The system transmitted part of the message and then crashed making this both the first message sent over the Internet and the first network crash

CompuServe, the first commercial online service, is established

1970

Western Digital is founded

Steve Crocker and UCLA team releases NCP (Network Control Protocol) a communication protocol

Intel announces the 1103, a new DRAM memory chip containing more than 1,000 bits of information. This chip is classified as random-access memory (RAM)

The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is established to perform basic computing and electronic research

The Forth programming language is created by Charles H. Moore.

Henry Edward Roberts establishes Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970

U.S. Department of Defence develops ada (originally known as DoD-1) a computer programming language capable of designing missile guidance systems

The Sealed Lead Acid battery begins being used for commercial use

Philips introduces the VCR ( Video Cassette Recorder)

Centronics introduces the first dot matrix printer

Douglas Englebart gets a patent for the first computer mouse on November 17, 1970

IBM introduces the System/370, which included the use of Virtual Memory and utilized memory chips instead of magnetic core technology

1971

The first 8" floppy diskette drive is introduced

Ray Tomlinson sends the first e-mail - the first messaging system to send messages across a network to other users

The computer gets a voice, as the first computer is demonstrated with a synthesized voice

Bob Bemer publishes world's first warning on Year 2000 problem (the potential issues of IBM computers using a two-digit year date stamp)

The first laser printer is developed at Xerox PARC

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is first purposed as a way of sending and receiving files

IBM introduces its first speech recognition program capable of recognizing about 5,000 words

Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney create the first arcade game called "Computer Space"

SMC, a manufacturer of computer networking equipment, is founded

Steve Wozniak and Bill Fernandez develop a computer called the Cream Soda Computer

Schadt and Helfrich develop twisted nematic, a method of allowing liquid crystals in an LCD to have a better contrast

Niklaus Wirth invents the Pascal programming language

Intel with the help of Ted Hoff introduces the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 on November 15, 1971 which had 2,300 transistors, 60,000 OPS and cost $200.00

First edition of Unix is released on November 03, 1971 which includes over 60 commands (eg. boot=reboot system; chdir=change working directory; cp=copy file; ls=list directory contents etc )

1972

Intel introduces the 8008 processor on April 1, 1972

The first video game console called the Magnavox Odyssey is demonstrated May 24, 1972 and later released by Magnavox and sold for $100.00 USD

ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) is renamed to DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency)

The programming language FORTRAN 66 is created

Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs invents the C Programming Language

The compact disc is invented in the United States

Cray Research Inc. is founded to develop supercomputers

Atari releases Pong, the first commercial video game on November 29, 1972

First public demo of ARPANET takes place thereby beginning of what we consider the Internet today

Whetstone, a software benchmark originally written in Algol, is first released in November 1972

1973

The architecture used with the CP/M operating system becomes the standard for the next eight years (until MS-DOS is introduced)

Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn design TCP (The Transmission Control Protocol) as one of the core protocols of the Internet

ARPA deploys SATNET the first international connection

Dr. Martin Cooper makes the first handheld cellular phone call to Dr. Joel S. Engel April 3, 1973

Robert Metcalfe creates the Ethernet, a local-area network protocol, at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on May 22, 1973

The first VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) call is made

IBM introduces its 3660 Supermarket System, which uses a laser to read grocery prices and UPC bar codes

Interactive laser discs make their debut

The ICCP ( Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals) is founded.

U.S. Patent 3,906,166 is filed on October 17, 1973 for a radio telephone system, which helps paves the way for what we know today as a cell phone.

Judge declares John Vincent Atanasoff as the inventor of the first electronic digital computer (Atanasoff–Berry Computer) on October 19, 1973

1974

Intel's improved microprocessor chip is introduced April 1, 1974 and the 8080 becomes a standard in the computer industry

John Draper aka Captain Crunch discovers a breakfast cereal children's whistle creates a 2600 hertz tone. Using this whistle and a blue box hes uccessfully gets into AT&T's phone network to make free calls anywhere in the world

The IBM Multiple Virtual Storage, operating system is introduced

A commercial version of ARPANET known as Telenet is introduced and considered by many to be the first Internet Service Provider (ISP)

IBM develops SEQUEL, which today is known as SQL today

IBM introduces SNA.(System Network Architecture) as a communications format

Charles Simonyi coins the term WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)

Altair 8800 kits start going on sale December 19, 1974

1975

Bill Gates and Paul Allen establish Microsoft April 4, 1975

Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff announce Altair BASIC

MITS ships one of the first PCs, the Altair 8800 with one kilobyte (KB) of memory. The computer is ordered as a mail-order kit for $397.00

A flight simulator demo is first shown

Xerox exits the computer market on July 21, 1975

The IBM 5100 becomes the first portable computer is released on September 1975. The computer weighed 55 pounds and had a five inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9MHz PALM processor, and 64KB of RAM

EPSON enters the US market

IMS Associates begin shipping its IMSAI 8080 computer kits on December 16, 1975

1976

On February 3, 1976 David Bunnell publishes an article by Bill Gates complaining about software piracy in his Computer Notes Altair newsletter

Intel introduces the 8085 processor on March 1976

Steve Wozniak designs the first Apple, the Apple I computer in 1976, later Wozniak and Steve Jobs co-found Apple Computers on April Fools day

The first 5.25-inch floppy disk is invented

Microsoft introduces an improved version of BASIC

The First Annual World Altair Computer convention and first convention of computer hobbyists is held in New Mexico on March 26, 1976.

The first Public Key Cryptography known as the Deffie-Hellman is developed by Whitfield Deffie and Martin Hellman

The Intel 8086 is introduced June 8, 1976

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak demonstrate the first Apple computer at the Home Brew Computer Club

Professor at Bowling Green State University first uses the term 'Computer Ethics'

The original Apple computer company logo of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree is replaced by the well known rainbow colored apple with a bite out of it

Matrox is founded

DES (Data Encryption Standard) is approved as a federal standard in November 1976

Microsoft officially drops the hyphen in Micro-soft and trademarks the Microsoft name November 26, 1976

In December of 1976 Bill Gates drops out of Harvard to devote all his time to Microsoft

1977

Apple Computer becomes Incorporated January 4, 1977

Ward Christansen develops a popular modem transfer modem called Xmodem

Apple Computer Inc., Radio Shack, and Commodore all introduce mass-market computers

Peter G. Neuman coins the term Peopleware

Apple Computers Apple II, the first personal computer with colour graphics is demonstrated

ARCNET the first commercially network is developed

Zoom Telephonics is founded

Commodore announces that the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) will be a self-contained unit, with a CPU, RAM, ROM, keyboard, monitor and tape recorder all for $495.00

Microsoft sells the license for BASIC to Radio Shack and Apple and introduces the program in Japan

Apple releases the Apple II series of computers on June 10, 1977

Tandy announces it will manufacture the TRS-80 Model 1, the first mass-produced computer on August 3, 1977. This computer is commonly referred to as the Trash 80

BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) is introduced as an idea / operating system developed at the Computer System Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California at Berkeley

1978

Dan Bricklin creates VisiCalc as the first spreadsheet type program

The first BBS (Bulletin Board System) is put online February 16, 1978 allowing multiple users to communicate with each other, share software and information and play games

TCP splits into TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) driven by Danny Cohen, David Reed, and John Shoch to support real-time traffic. This allows the creation of UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

Epson introduces the TX-80, which becomes the first successful dot matrix printer for personal computers

OSI (Open System Interconnection) is developed by International Organization for Standardization.

Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle create the first MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), an online, text-based, virtual environment

The first spam e-mail was sent by Gary Thuerk in May 1, 1978 an employee at Digital who was advertising the new DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T on ARPAnet

Microsoft introduces a new version of COBOL

The 5.25-inch floppy disk becomes an industry standard

In June of 1978 Apple introduces Apple DOS 3.1, the first operating system for the Apple computers

Electronic Technicians Association is founded

John Shoch and Jon Hupp at Xerox PARC develop the first worm

1979

Robert Williams of Michigan became the first human to be killed by a robot at the Ford Motors company on January 25, 1979. Resulting in a $10 million dollar lawsuit.

Epson releases the MX-80 which soon becomes an industry standard for dot matrix printers

The Intel 8088 is released on June 1, 1979. The 8088 was available in speeds from 4.77 MHz and 8MHz and used a 16-bit architecture capable of accessing up to 1MB of RAM

Texas Instruments enters the computer market with the TI 99/4 personal computer that sold for $1,500.

Hayes markets its first modem that becomes the industry standard for modems

Atari introduces a coin-operated version of Asteroids

More than half a million computers are in use in the United States

Oracle introduces the first commercial version of SQL

The Motorola 6800, an 8-bit processor is released and is later chosen as the processor for the Apple Macintosh

Virtual Memory Systems is introduced as a a multi-user, multitasking operating system

CompuServe becomes the first commercial online service offering dial-up connection to anyone September 24, 1979

The following companies were founded during 1979: Oracle, Saitek, Seagate, Bit 3, Phoenix, Novell, 3COM, SCO (Santa Cruz Operation, Inc), Sierra

1980

On January 3, Hewlett Packard introduces its HP-85, a microcomputer with 16kB of RAM and a 5-inch CRT display

IBM introduces RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer)

IBM hires Paul Allen and Bill Gates to create an operating system for a new PC. The pair buy the rights to a simple operating system manufactured by Seattle Computer Products and use it as a template. IBM allows the two to keep the marketing rights to the operating system, called DOS (Disk operating system)

IBM hires Microsoft to develop versions of BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, and Pascal for the PC being developed by IBM

Microsoft licenses Unix and starts to develop a PC version, XENIX

The programming language FORTRAN 77 is created

The first Tandy Colour computer is introduced

The following are founded during 1980: AST, FIC, Iomega, Quantum

Atari becomes the first company to register a Copyright for two computer games "Asteroids" and "Lunar Lander" on June 17, 1980

ARPANET experiences first major network crash causing it to go down for four hours October 27, 1980

1981

Jeff Dailey, a 19-year old becomes the first person to die from computer gaming after dying from a heart attack after posting a score of 16,660 on Berzerk

Satya Pal Asija receives the first U.S. patent for a computer software program May 26, 1981

Microsoft buys the rights for QDOS (Quick and Dirty Disk Operating System) from Seattle Computer Products (SCP) for $25,000 on July 27, 1981

MS-DOS 1.0 is released on August, 1981

ANSI (American National Standards Institute) is was founded.

IBM joins the computer race by announcing the IBM Personal Computer on August 12, 1981, which runs the new MS-DOS operating system and has a starting price of $1,565

Kermit, a file-transfer and terminal protocol, is developed at the Columbia University in New York

Xerox introduces the Graphical Star workstation, a computer which greatly influences the development of Apple's future computer models, Lisa and Macintosh, as well as Microsoft's Windows

VHDL ((Very High Speed Integrated Circuit) is proposed and begins development

VMEbus (VERSAmodule Eurocard bus) is developed

Hayes Introduces the Smartmodem 300 with its standard setting AT command set and an operating speed of 300 bits per second

Adam Osborne introduces the Osborne I, the first successful portable computer, which weighs 25 pounds

Hewlett-Packard introduces the Superchip the first 32-bit chip

Commodore ships the VIC-20, which later becomes the worlds most popular computer costing only $299.95

The following are founded in 1981: Adaptec, Diskeeper, BITNET, Gemlight, CTX, Kensington, Logitech

Hayes releases the Smartmodem 1200 with transfer rates of 1,200 bits per second

1982

Peter Norton creates Norton Utilities

Sony releases its first Trinitron monitor

The following are founded in 1982: SGI Maxtor, Hercules, Labtec, Number Nine, Symantec, Lotus Development Corporation, Diamond Multimedia, Adobe, BTC, Sun, Compaq Computer Corp

The Intel 80286 is introduced February 1, 1982

Disney releases the movie Tron on July 9, 1982, the first movie to use computer generated special effects

A Philips factory in Germany creates the world's first compact disc on August 17, 1982

Microsoft releases FORTRAN for the PC COBOL for MS-DOS, and Multiplan for the Apple II and CP/M machines

WordPerfect Corporation introduces WordPerfect 1.0 a word processing program that will become one of the computer markets most popular word processing program

The first luggable computer, weighing around 15 to 30 pounds, is introduced

The Commodore 64 an 8-bit computer with 64 kilobytes of memory and Commodore BASIC begins to be sold.

The HX-20 becomes the first notebook-sized portable computer is introduced by Epson

MS-DOS version 1.25 is released

Apple Computer is the first personal computer manufacturer to hit the $1 billion mark for annual sales

Professor Scott Fahlman creates a post on bulletin board raising the idea of using a series of characters to represent a smiley face and frown face that later became known as emoticons

Sony begins selling the first Audio CD players October 1, 1982

The XT bus that had four DMA channels, was 8-bit, and had a bus speed of 4.77 MHz is introduced

Rich Skrenta a 15-year old high school student creates the first known computer virus known as The Elk Cloner

AutoCAD is introduced in December 1982

1983

Lotus 1-2-3, a spreadsheet program is introduced January 26, 1983

Apple releases the Lisa computer, the first commercial computer with a GUI (Graphical user Interface)

The IBM XT is first introduced on March 8, 1983

The first Apple Worldwide Developer Conference is held

Compaq introduces the first 100% IBM compatible computer the "Compaq Portable" in March of 1983

PC World magazine first appears on news stands in March 1983

BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) 4.2 is released and introduces pseudo terminals

Iomega introduces the Bernoulli drive

TIME magazine nominates the personal computer as the "machine of the year" December 26,1982, the first non-human ever nominated

The 414s, a group of hackers are caught by the FBI

Novell introduces Netware

The Apple IIe is introduced containing 64 kilobytes of RAM one megahertz 6502 processor, running Applesoft BASIC and selling for $1,400

ARPANET standardizes TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)

THX is established as a standard for sound in home theatre and computer games

More than 10 million computers are in use in the United States.

MS-DOS 2.0 is released in March, 1983

True BASIC is created and is a compiled, structured language. It doesn't require line numbers, as the original BASIC did, and includes the advanced control structures necessary for structured programming

The QIC (Quarter-Inch Cartridge) becomes the first standard in the computer history for tape drives

The GNU operating system is first announced by Richard Stallman September 27, 1983

IBM announces the PCjr (PC junior) computer November 1, 1983

Microsoft Windows is announced in November 10, 1983

The largest Bulletin Board System,Exec-PC goes online in November 28, 1983

1984

Docutel/Olivetti introduce the Olivetti PC, compatible with the IBM PC on January 3, 1984

The now famous Apple "1984" commercial is aired during Super Bowl XVIII January 22, 1984

On January 24, 1984 the Apple Macintosh is introduced

Hitachi announces it has developed the first memory chip capable of holding 1MB on January 5th

IBM's AT (Advanced Technology) computer is introduced with a 1.2MB floppy disk drive, 512k of RAM and a 20Megabyte disk drive

The first global Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) is developed and run across BITNET

Microsoft creates a new hardware and peripheral division March 29, 1984

The game Tetris is first released in the USSR June 6, 1984

Amiga is purchased by Commodore Business Machines on August 15th

ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) is first defined as a standard of network encoding and decoding

The 3.5-inch floppy diskette is introduced and later becomes an industry standard

Dell Computer is founded on May 3, 1984 in Austin Texas

Fox Software FoxBASE is introduced as the first database program

Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel introduce DNS Domain Name System or Domain Name Service)

Apple's AppleTalk networking protocol is introduced

IBM develops EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) with higher resolution, more colours, and a quicker response then previous video cards.

Microsoft introduces MS-DOS 3.0 for the IBM PC AT and MS-DOS 3.1 for networks

The Tandy 1000 personal computer is introduced and becomes the best-selling IBM-compatible computer of the year

University of Southern California professor Fred Cohen creates alarm when he warns the public about computer viruses in his Computer Virus - Theory and Experiments paper.

The term cyberspace is first used and coined by William Gibson in his book Neuromancer.

Kings Quest 1: Quest for the Crown is released to the public by Sierra

The Yellow book of CD-ROM standards is written

ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) is expanded to 16-bit capability

1985

The WELL, a website that many credit as being the birthplace of the online community movement is founded in February 1985 by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant

On January 4th at Commodore introduces the Commodore 128 PC with 8502 processor 128 kB of RAM and ROM cartridge port

On January 4th Atari introduces the Atari 130XE, 130ST, 260ST, 520ST, 65XE, 65XEM, and 65XEP computers

The first Internet domain name symbolics.com is registered by Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company on March 15

The GNU manifesto is published by Dr. Dobb's Journal

The Amiga A1000 is introduced

Dell releases its first computer, the "Turbo PC"

Microtek introduces the world's first 300-dpi black-and-white sheet fed scanner

Microsoft and IBM begin collaboration on the next-generation operating system (OS/2)

CAT1 (Category 1) wiring is introduced

Intel introduces the 80386 processor in October

Paul Brainard of Aldus Corporation introduces Pagemaker for the Macintosh, a program that lets users mix type and graphics on the same page. The combination of this software and the new Apple LaserWriter laser printer helps create the desktop publishing field

The Mach Project begins at the Carnegie Mellon University

IBM develops the NetBEUI (NETBios Enhanced User Interface)

Microsoft Windows 1.0 is introduced in November and is initially sold for $100.00

Steve Jobs quits Apple on September 16

IBM introduces the Baby AT motherboard form factor

The following are founded in 1985: Corel, Gravis, Boca, ATI, Gateway 2000, Quantum Computer Services (which later becomes AOL)

The first C++ reference guide is published by Bjarne Stoustrup October 14

The Nintendo Entertainment System is released in North America October 18

Microsoft releases the first version of Microsoft Excel on the Apple Macintosh November 30

1986

The Hacker Manifesto is published in Phrack (Volume One, Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10) on January 8

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is formed January 16, 1986

Beny Alagem buys the Packard Bell name from Teledyne and starts the Packard Bell computer company

The term vaporware describing software that has been officially announced by a company, but has not officially been released is first used by Philip Elmer-DeWitt in a TIME magazine article

The following are founded in 1986: Gigabyte Pixar (co-founded by Steve Jobs), Aztech and Avid

Apple introduces the Mac Plus containing one megabyte of RAM, a new keyboard that contains cursors and numeric keypad and which is sold for $2,600

The AT or 101 key keyboard is introduced by IBM

Compaq introduces the first 386-based PC compatible computer

The NCSA (National Centre for Supercomputing Applications) opens

Microsoft is listed on the New York Stock Exchange selling shares to the public at $21 each, making Bill Gates one of the worlds youngest billionaires

The domain ibm.com comes online March 19, 1986

MS-DOS 3.2 was released in April, 1986

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is developed by Stanford University

Eric Thomas develops the first Listserv which delivers e-mails to everyone who has subscribed to the list

NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) is created

BITNET II (Because It's There Network) is created

IBM PC Division (PCD) announces it's first laptop computer, the PC Convertible, weighing 12 pounds, which is 18 pounds lighter than the earlier portable computer

CD-i (Compact Disc-Interactive) format is specified

Tandy announces the Color Computer 3 July 30, 1986

3D printing becomes a reality with the first patent for a stereo lithography apparatus (SLA) being issued to Charles (Chuck) Hull, who first developed his SLA machine in 1983

More than 30 million computers are in use in the United States

1987

Steve Wozniak ends his employment with Apple on February 6, 1987

The domain apple.com comes online February 19, 1987

CompuServe introduces the GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) standard and images

Microsoft purchases Forethought Incorporated the company that developed PowerPoint

Microsoft introduces Microsoft Works

.Dolby AC-1, the first digital coding technology is introduced

Microsoft and IBM release OS/2 1.0

The Mac SE is introduced at $2,900

Chipsets begin to be found on computer motherboards

IBM introduces the PS/2 personal computer that has improved graphics, a 3.5-inch diskette drive, and proprietary bus to help prevent clone makers competition, and a bidirectional 8-bit port

IBM sends clone manufacturers letters demanding retroactive licensing fees

IBM develops 8514/A a graphics display standard that supports resolutions of 1024x768 and is interlaced.

.MS-DOS 3.3 is released in April, 1987

IBM introduces MCA (Micro Channel Architecture)

Microsoft Shares hits $100 per share

The SPARC (Scalar Processor ARChitecture) processor is first introduced by Sun.

The first e-mail from China is sent to its connection in Germany September 20, 1987

IBM introduces VGA (Video Graphics Array)

Larry Wall introduces Perl 1.0

Microsoft introduces Windows 2.0 in December 9, 1987

The following are established in 1987: RealTek, Elitegroup Computer Systems, Oak Technology, VIA Technologies, Apogee

The domain cisco.com comes online May 14, 1987

1988

Apple files a copyright infringement against Microsoft for Windows 2.03 and Hewlett Packard for New Wave in comparison with their Macintosh operating system

About 45 million PCs are in use in the United States.

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is introduced.

Robert Morris releases the Morris worm November 22, 1988, becoming one of the first major worms to infect roughly 6,000 computers over the Internet and helps establish the CERT Coordination Centre

Creative Labs introduces the SoundBlaster, a sound card for the PC that contains an 11-voice FM synthesizer with text-to-speech, digitized voice input / output, a MIDI port, a joystick port and bundled software

Jarkko Oikarinen develops IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) is announced in September as an alternative to MCA

Morphing is first introduced in the movie Willow

Intel 80386SX is introduced

Motorola releases the 88000 processor

MS-DOS 4.0 is released July, 1988 and MS-DOS 4.01 is released November, 1988

NTP (Network Time Protocol) is introduced to help synchronize computer times

The following are established in 1988: Trend Micro, Xircom, Promise, OSF and CREN ( from a merger between Bitnet and CSNET)

1989

GriD Systems Corporation introduces the first pen-based computer

The Gif89a (animated gif) standard is introduced

SQL Server is introduced

Intel releases the 486DX processor, with more than 1 million transistors and multitasking capabilities

Orange book, which defines the standard for writable discs, is released by Philips and Sony

Poqet announces the Poqet PC the first pocket-sized MS-DOS compatible computer

The networking routing protocol OSPF is introduced

The following are founded in 1989: Citrix, S3 Inc, Asus ,ActionFront, PCMCIA Trade Association and ABIT

1990

Tim Berners-Lee, working with Robert Cailliau at CERN proposes a 'hypertext' system, starting the Internet as we know it today

Microsoft releases Windows 3.0 will sell more than 3 million copies in one year

Microsoft exceeds $1 billion in sales and becomes the first company to do so

Microsoft releases its first product for the Russian market Russian DOS 4.01

EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), a group of volunteer people who work to help protect everyone's digital rights is founded on February 16, 1990

The first search engine Archie, written by Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and Mike Parker at McGill University in Montreal Canada is released on September 10, 1990

The Hubble telescope goes into space

Norton sells his software business to Symantec

Creative Labs introduces the SoundBlaster Pro with enhanced features

The Multimedia Personal Computer (MPC) standards are developed by Tandy and Microsoft

Microsoft and IBM stop working together to develop operating systems

IBM introduces XGA (eXtended Graphics Array)

ARPANET replaced by NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network)

GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) standard is defined

The NiMH battery begins being used for commercial use

Intel releases the 80386SL processor which uses low power and is found in many portable computers

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is launched October 17, 1990

Gopher a menu-driven search-and-retrieval tool that helps Internet users locate information online is developed at the University of Minnesota

Tim Berners-Lee successfully sets up the first web server at info.cern.ch on December 25, 1990

The World, the first commercial Internet dial-up access provider comes online

Quarterdeck releases its memory management program QEMM386 version 5.1 which quickly becomes the fastest-selling software program in the Untied States

1991

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 0.9 is introduced 1991

National Science Foundation opens the Internet to commercial development

AMD introduces the AM386 microprocessor family in March

Intel introduces the Intel 486SX chip for $258.00 in April in efforts to bring a lower-cost processors to the PC market

Cell phone Lithium batteries begin being recalled in Japan after a phone explodes and burns a man's face

.Python, an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language, is introduced

Symantec releases Norton anti-virus software

The programming language FORTRAN 90 is created

Microsoft changes the name of OS/2 to Windows NT following its decision not to develop operating systems cooperatively with IBM

BSDi and id Software are both founded in 1991

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), a public key used for encryption, is released as Freeware by Philip Zimmerman

The computer Monkey Virus is first discovered in Edmonton, Canada.

The domain microsoft.com comes online May 2, 1991

Apple introduces System 7 operating system May 13, 1991

The DLT tape drive is released as a very reliable, high-speed and high-capacity tape drive solution

The Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) is developed by Intel, Xircom and Zenith Data Systems

TrueType, a scalable font is introduced and developed by Microsoft and Apple and is used on all Apple computers and PC computers running Windows

MS-DOS 5.0 is released in June, 1991

The London Science Museum completes the Difference Engine No 2 in June of 1991 for the bicentennial year of Charles Babbage's birth

The World Wide Web is launched to the public on August 6, 1991. Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at the European Partial Physics Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland develops the Web as a research tool

Linux is introduced by Linus Torvald in August 25, 1991

Apple QuickTime is introduced in December 2, 1991

1992

The Internet Society is formed

John Scully first uses the term PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) at Consumer Electronic Show while describing the Apple Newton on January 7, 1992

Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1 which sells more than 1 million copies within the first two months of its release

Intel releases the 486DX2 chip March 2 with a clock doubling ability that generates higher operating speeds.

Microsoft acquires Fox Software in June, maker of FoxPro, a database application

VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) local bus is introduced as the first to have direct access to the system memory at the speed of the processor

Radio Shack releases the M2500 XL/2 and M4020 SX personal computers which are the first personal computers based upon the MPC specification

The Re-usable Alkaline battery is first used for commercial purposes

EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port) version 1.7 is released

IBM introduces the ThinkPad, the industry's first notebook with a 10.4 inch colour TFT display and TrackPoint

Thrustmaster and GeCAD are both founded in 1992

TWAIN, a standard interface for scanning equipment is developed by the TWAIN consortium, as it was called, consisting of representatives from Aldus, Caere, Eastman, Kodak, Hewlett Packard and Logitech

Microsoft and Hewlett Packard develops ECP (Enhanced Capabilities Port)

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) standard is defined

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is developed by SQL Access Group

Jean-Loup Gaily and Mark Alder release GNU zip (Gzip), a compression software program on October 31, 1992

1993

Fifty World Wide Web servers are known to exist as of January, 1993

Winsock, an interface that allows communication between TCP/IP and Window, sis released January 1993

President Bill Clinton puts the United States White House online with a World Wide Web page and e-mail address for the President, Vice President and the first lady

Microsoft releases Windows NT, Microsoft Office 4.0 and MS-DOS 6.0

Intel develops PPGA (Plastic Pin Grid Array) as a solution to heat-related issues

The NCSA releases the Mosaic browser, the first widely used graphical World Wide Web browser, on April 22, 1993

Tandy sells its computer business to AST Research

Intel releases the Pentium Processor on March 22 1993. It is a 60 MHz processor, incorporates 3.2 million transistors and sells for $878.00

Microsoft and IBM introduce a Plug-and-Play Industry Standard Architecture (PnP ISA)

The first live streaming was done by the band Severe Tire Damage on June 24, 1993. The event was seen live in Australia and other locations over the Internet

Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 is released on July 27, 1993

Wine begins to be developed as a software program to enable users to run many Microsoft Windows applications under Linux

John Scully is named president of Apple Computers

The following are founded in 1993: Neomagic, FRISK software, IrDA, Funcom, PowerQuest and Efficient Networks

InterNIC (Internet Network Information Centre) is officially established in 1993 by the US National Science Foundation. InterNIC and is responsible for domain name and IP address allocation

Tim Negris, a VP at Oracle Corporation coins the term Thin client to represent a terminal that relies on another computer system (usually a server) to supply the operating system and software applications needed by the user

ADSI (Analog Display Service Interface) is developed at Bellcore as a protocol that allows for voice and data to be heard and displayed on devices

The Environmental Protection Agency, along with 50 computer companies, establish Energy Star guidelines that aim to decrease the amount of power a PC uses it is idle

Developed by IBM, Motorola and Apple the PowerPC processor for the Apple Power Mac is introduced and later included in the Power Mac

VideoCD (VCD) is introduced

The PC game DOOM by Id Software is released December 10, 1993 representing a turning point for first person shooters and for computer games in general

Broderbund releases the computer game Myst on September 24, 1993 which becomes one of the most popular, well known, and widely sold IBM and Apple Macintosh compatible titles

Microsoft Windows 3.11, an update to Windows 3.1, is released on December 31, 1993

1994

Commodore Computers files Bankruptcy

Vice President Al Gore makes a speech where he coins the term "Information Superhighway"

IBM releases OS/2 Warp

CDDI (Copper Distributed Data Interface) is adopted as a data transmission standard that uses either shielded twisted-pair (STP) or unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) copper wire

Intel releases the second generation of Intel Pentium processors on March 7, 1994

Netscape (Mosaic Communications corporation) is found by Marc Andreesen and James H. Clark April 4, 1994

Microsoft introduces SMS, now known as SCCM ( System Centre Configuration Manager)

Iomega releases its Zip disk drive and diskettes

The following are founded in 1994: Red Hat Linux, 3DFX, Sunbelt Software, Geek Squad

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is founded by Tim Bernes-Lee to help with the development of common protocols for the evolution of the World Wide Web

Microsoft releases its beta for Windows 95, code named Chicago

Rasmus Lerdorf creates PHP (Hypertext Pre-processor)

IBM PCD introduces the IBM ThinkPad 775CD, the first notebook with an integrated CD-ROM

Hotwired sells the first banner ad to AT&T on October 27, 1994 and begins running the first Internet banner ad campaign

A mathematical flaw in the Intel Pentium involving the Pentium not correctly performing floating-point calculations is discovered

YAHOO is created in April, 1994.

The e-mail hoax "Good Times virus" is first sent out in e-mail

Microsoft releases Windows 3.11 in February, MS-DOS 6.22 in April and Windows NT 3.5 in September

Intel introduces the Intel 486DX4 processor

Norway's telecom company, Telenor, starts a research project that later becomes Opera Software

Mosaic Netscape 0.9, the first Netscape browser is officially released October 13, 1994, introducing the Internet to Cookies

Perl 5.000 is released on October 17, 1994

Amazon.com domain is registered on November 1, 1994

WXYC (89.3 FM Chapel Hill, NC USA) becomes the first traditional radio station to announce broadcasting on the Internet November 7, 1994

Mosaic branches off the company Netscape on November 14, 1994 and Netscape version 1 is soon released

On December 24, 1994 Unisys and CompuServe announced that they expected licensing fees for software that creates and displays GIF images. This leads to the development of the PNG (Portable Network Graphic) format

1995

Apple allows other computer companies to clone its computer by announcing its licensed the Macintosh operating system rights to Radius on January 4, 1995

IBM introduces the butterfly keyboard which expands when the laptop lid is opened and collapses when the lid is closed

The dot-com boom starts

Code named Utopia, Microsoft Bob is introduced as a user friendly interface on January 5, 1995 by Bill Gates

The first Wiki is created

Yahoo.com domain is registered on January 18, 1995.

Netscape introduces SSL (Secure Socket Layer) in February of 1995 to aid security on the Internet

Apple develops FireWire

The first VoIP software (Vocaltec) is released allowing end users to make voice calls over the Internet

Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language) 5.001 is released March 13, 1995

The Opera browser version 1 is released April 1, 1995

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 1.0 on August 16, 1995

The domain ebay.com comes online August 4, 1995

Netscape goes public at $28.00 a share and by the closing ends at $58.00 a share

The first E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is held in Las Vegas Nevada

Intel introduces the SMBus (System Management Bus)

Microsoft and General Electrics NBC television network form a partnership

LiveScript is renamed to JavaScript

Java is introduced

The Iomega Jaz drive is introduced

Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 is released May 30, 1995

Microsoft releases Windows 95 and within four days the software sells more than 1 million copies

PHP, a scripting language designed for creating dynamic web pages and web pages that effectively work with databases, is publicly released June 8, 1995

Amazon.com is officially opened July of 1995

DSVD (Digital Simultaneous Voice Data) is released

WebTV Networks is founded allowing access to the Internet from a television

EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar

Hotmail is started by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 2.0 on November 22, 1995 and officially starts the browser war with Netscape

CD-E is introduced to the general public thereby enabling users to create, erase and reuse CDs

Ruby, an open source object-oriented programming language, is released

Microsoft releases DirectX 1.0 (4.02.0095) on September 30, 1995

EDO (Extended Data Out) memory is introduced

Intel releases the new ATX motherboard

Lotus becomes a part of IBM

The first computer network wiretap is authorized October 23, 1995 and leads later to the arrest of Julio Cesar Ardita

The USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard is released

Intel introduces the Intel Pentium Pro in November

Toy Story is released November 22, 1995 becoming the first movie that is completely computer generated

The HTML 2.0 standard is first published on November 24, 1995

Larry Page and Sergey Brin begin developing a search engine called BackRub with PageRank, technology that becomes part of Google

IBM unveils Deep Blue on December 5, 1995, a parallel computing system that will later play and beat the World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov on February 2, 1996

The Internet search engine AltaVista is launched on December 15, 1995

1996

The domain imdb.com comes online January 5, 1996

Intel releases the 200 MHz P6

The Telecom Act deregulates data networks

For the first time more e-mail is sent than postal mail in USA

The first Java Development Kit (JDK 1.0) codenamed oak is released January 23, 1996

The game Duke Nukem 3D is released January 29, 1996

The domain myspace.com comes online February 22, 1996

The movie Twister becomes the first featured film put on DVD March 25, 1996

Microsoft VBScript is introduced

Angelfire and Netgear are both founded in 1996

Microsoft releases DirectX 3.0 (4.04.00.0068) on June 5, 1996

A domestic sheep by the name of Dolly is born and becomes the first mammal to be cloned

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 is released July 29, 1996.

Li-polymer batteries first begin to be used

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 3.0 on August 13, 1996

Google is first developed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page

KDE (K Desktop Environment) begins to be developed by Matthias Ettrich

Macromedia purchases FutureWave and later releases Macromedia Flash 1.0

The first CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) specification, CSS 1, is published in December 1996

The Communication Decency Act amendment to the U.S. 1996 Telecommunications Act comes into effect on February 8, 1996 intending to protect children from obscenity on the Internet, but many argue that its language is too vague and it violates the rights of free speech

Microsoft Windows CE 1.0 is released as a portable operating system solution

Sony enters the PC market with the release of VAIO

Creative Labs introduces the 3D Blaster card its first graphics card to be released to the computer market

U.S. Robotics announced announces its first Palm Pilot

Microsoft introduces the IntelliMouse also known as a wheel mouse.

Acer America Corporation introduces its designer home PCs

Sun Microsystems releases its line of network computers.

Apple announces it will purchase NeXT for $429 million on December 20, 1996 and that it will acquire Steve Jobs, Apples cofounder, as a consultant.

The first Tomb Raider game is released November 14, 1996

United States patent 5,579,430 is granted November 26, 1996 for the digital encoding process of MP3 files

K56Flex is announced in November by Lucent and Rockwell providing an interoperable high speed modem protocol that revolutionizes Internet communications

The ATSC approves HDTV (High-definition Television) on December 24, 1996

1997

On January 7th Microsoft releases the final version of Internet Explorer 3.0 for the Apple Macintosh

The PNG (Portable Network Graphic) standard is introduced on January 10, 1997

IEEE releases 802.11 (WiFi) standard in June 1997

Mosaic development and support officially discontinued on January 7, 1997

The domain facebook.com comes online March 28, 1997

Several computer manufactures introduce computers that cost less than $1,000.00

Intel introduces the MMX (MultiMedia eXtension) chip

Unwired Planet develops HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language)

Intel introduces the Slot 1 processor and slot

Connectix introduces Virtual PC for the Macintosh

AOL faces several lawsuits from subscribers who are upset about the difficulties encountered when attempting to connect to its services

The dancing baby becomes one of the Internets first fads

Altavista introduces its free online translator Babel Fish

Microsoft announces plans to buy WebTV Networks in April for $425 million a deal which is later approved and completed in August.

Digital Video Discs / Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) begin to go on sale

The Intel Pentium II is introduced on May 7, 1997

IBM's Deep Blue computer defeats world champion chess player Garry Kasparov May 11, 1997 in their second six-game showdown, winning the tie-breaking game in only 62 minutes

Carsten Haitzler releases Enlightenment, a desktop windows manager

The following are established in 1997: E ink, Kaspersky, The TRUSTe organization, Nullsoft, Webroot Software, Cyrix, Internet2 consortium

CD-RW drives and media are introduced

Bill Gates is becomes the worlds richest businessman

The NASA Pathfinder Web site, which is running real-time images sent from the Pathfinder on Mars receives more than 100 million hits during its first four days setting new popularity records

Microsoft begins working on its own search engine

The google.com domain name is registered after Sergey Brin and Larry Page decide to change the name of their BackRub search engine to Google September 15, 1997

The domain craigslist.com comes online September 24, 1997

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 4.0 and Microsoft Office 97 and announces Windows 98

3Com buys U.S. Robotics for $6.6 billion making the consolidation the largest in the history of computer companies

Apple releases MAC OS 8

On August 6, 1997 Microsoft savs Apple by investing $150 million in Apple Computers Inc. and agreeing to continue creating software for Apple computers. Apple makes Microsoft Internet Explorer its browser of choice for Macintosh computers

The Li-Ion battery begins being used for commercial purposes

The Intel Pentium II 233 MHz processor is released

Intel releases the AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) for Video cards in August 1997

Steve Jobs rejoins Apple on September 16, 1997

Riven, the sequel to Myst, is released in October 1997

The domain netflix.com comes online November 10, 1997

Microsoft acquires Hotmail a free e-mail service in December 1997

1998

Internet weblogs (blogs) begin to appear

Intel releases the Celeron processor

Compaq Computer purchases Digital Equipment Corporation for $9.6 billion on January 26, 1998

Hearings open between Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice to whether Microsoft has a monopoly on the software market

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is passed as an addition to the U.S. copyright law making it illegal to circumvent any copy protection

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) 1.0 becomes a World Wide Web Consortium recommendation on February 8, 1998

The following are founded in 1998: Lite-on, eMachine, Rockstar Game, PayPal, Computer Hope

3DNow! is introduced by AMD

During the demonstration of a pre-release copy of Windows 98 an error message occurs while attempts are made to install a scanner

The V.90 modem standard is announced on February 6, 1998

Sun Microsystems begins shipping the JavaStation in March of 1998

Saehan's MPMan becomes the first MP3 player released in Japan to the public in spring of 1998

The Chernobyl virus is created and begins infecting computers by executing one year later on April 26, 1999, the same day as the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine on April 26, 1986

Koko, a gorilla ape and student of American Sign Language holds first interspecies live Internet chat April 27, 1998

SETI@Home ( Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is introduced on June 8, 1998

Microsoft Windows 98 is officially released on June 25, 1998

The "Solar Sunrise" attack is launched by two teenager hackers giving them access to more than 500 military and government computers

Google files for incorporation in California September 4, 1998

The CST (Computer Service Technician) certification is initiated by Electronic Technicians Association

Microsoft Internet Explorer passes Netscape in Internet browser market share for the first time

MySQL, an open source Relational DataBase Management System, is introduced

Amazon purchases IMDb ( Internet Movie Database)

Apple introduces the iMac, which helps bring Apple back on the computer scene as an easy and friendly computer

Sony introduces the Sony Memory Stick

In October of 1998 Microsoft announced that future releases of Windows NT would no longer have the initials of NT and that the next edition would be Windows 2000

Microsoft acquires the advertising company LinkExchange for $265 Million USD November 6, 1998

Half-Life, a popular First Person Shooter game, is released November 19, 1998

AOL announces it will acquire Netscape Communications for an estimated value of $4.2 billion November 24, 1998

1999

RIM releases the Blackberry on January 19, 1999

The TiVo is introduced at the Consumer electronics show in January 1999

Yahoo! buys GeoCities for $3.65 billion USD January 28, 1999

The Victoria's Secret fashion show becomes the first major webcast on the Internet attracting over 1.5 million visitors on February 5, 1999

The Intel Pentium III 500 MHz is released on February 26, 1999

Microsoft releases Windows CE 3.0

RDF Site Summary, the first version of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is created by Ramanathan Guha at Netscape in March of 1999

The popular multiplayer role-playing game EverQuest is released March 16, 1999

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 5.0 in March 18, 1999

The first Wiki is introduces with WikiWikiWeb on March 25, 1999

The Melissa begins infecting computers March 26, 1999 and quickly spreads around the globe via e-mail in hours

AMD releases the Slot A processor and slot

RSAC becomes part of Internet Content Rating Association, aimed at protecting children from potentially harmful material on the Internet

Yahoo purchases Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion April 1, 1999

Microsoft acquires Access software April 19, 1999

National Semiconductor announced it will exit the PC processor market. June 30, 1999

Apple introduces the Apple Airport, an way to connect wireless devices to a computer, on July 21, 1999

Microsoft introduces WMV (Windows Media Video) with WMV 7

IBM introduces the first Microdrive, the world's physically smallest hard drive capable of storing 170MB

The Intel Pentium III 600 MHz is released on August 2, 1999

Sony and Philips Electronics introduce SACD (Super Audio CD)

Pyra Labs launches the Internet service Blogger August 23, 1999

The Intel Pentium III 533B and 600B MHz is released on September 27, 1999

NVIDIA introduces the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

Amazon agrees to buy Accept.com, Alexa Internet (Alexa.com) and Exchange.com

AOL purchases Nullsoft Jun 1, 1999

Sun Microsystems acquires StarDivision, the developers behind the StarOffice suite of software

The Intel Pentium III Coppermine series is first introduced on October 25, 1999

The D programming language starts development

On December 1, 1999 the most expensive Internet domain name, business.com. was sold by Marc Ostrofsky for $7.5 million which was later sold on July 26, 2007 again to R.H. Donnelley for $345 million USD

RIAA sues Napster December 7, 1999

Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com is named Time Person of the Year December 27, 1999

2000

Computers continue to work and the world doesn't come to an end on January 1, 2000 as some feared might happen because of the Year 2000 bug

Microsoft Bill Gates relinquishes his title as CEO to Microsoft President Steve Ballmer on January 13, 2000

The domain twitter.com comes online January 21, 2000

EA releases The Sims, the best-selling PC game in history, on February 04, 2000

CNR (Communication and Network Riser) is introduced by Intel February 07, 2000

Microsoft Windows 2000 is released on February 17, 2000

U.S. Judge Thomas Penfield announced that ,after 2-years in the court, Microsoft will be split into two companies (although they can remain intact until the appeals process is exhausted)

On March 10, 2000 NASDAQ hits its record high and marks the turning point of the dot-com boom.

AOL acquires Time Warner and becomes AOL Time Warner

Microsoft Pocket PC 2000 is introduced April 19, 2000

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act becomes effective on April 21, 2000

ATI introduces their Radeon product line on April 24, 2000

Young Filipino students release the ILOVEYOU e-mail virus which becomes one of the most costly viruses ever, costing over $10 billion dollars in damage

On June 24, 2000 U.S. President Bill Clinton makes the first ever Presidential webcast announcing a new web site able to search all government resources

Google announces it has indexed over one billion pages making it the Internet's largest search engine

Microsoft releases Windows ME June 19, 2000 and also introduces C# to the public in June 2000

Nielsen announces on August 17 that, for the first time, more than half of the households in America have Internet access

Steve Wozniak is inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in September 2000

Google launches Google AdWords with 350 customers in October of 2000

AT&T announces in October it will restructure over the next two years into a family of separate publicly held companies: AT&T Wireless, AT&T Broadband, and AT&T

Microsoft release DirectX 8, November 9, 2000

The site egghead.com announces, on December 22 2000, that its site was hacked exposing the credit details of about 3.5 million customers

2001

Microsoft announces on January 1, 2001 that Windows 95 is now a legacy item and will no longer be sold or shipped

January 02, 2001 - Intel announced that it will recall its 1.13 GHz Pentium III processors due to a glitch. Users with these processors should contact their vendors for additional information about the recall

Linus Torvalds releases version 2.4 of the Linux Kernel source code on January 4th

Wikipedia is founded on January 15, 2001

Google acquires its first public acquisition, Deaj.com's Usenet Service on February 13, 2001, which later becomes Google groups

UsRobotics introduces the V.92 modem standard on February 27, 2001

Napster reaches over 26 million users in February 2001

Chip-making giant Intel Corp. agrees to acquire Xircom Inc., a maker of mobile computing gear, for about $748 million.

On March 08, 2001 AOL membership surpasses 28 Million

The HyperTransport standard is introduced

The Code Red worm begins infecting Windows computers in July 2001 with the intention of performing a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on the White House government web page

Jan de Wit aka OnTheFly is convicted for the Anna Kournikova virus May 27, 2001

Bram Cohen introduces BitTorrent on a public message board July 2, 2001

Google Image Search is introduced offering access to 250 million images in July

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 6.0 in August 27, 2001

The CDDB (Compact Disc Database) is officially renamed to Gracenote

Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.0 code named Cheetah which becomes available on March 24, 2001 and then Mac OS X 10.1, code named Puma on September 25, 2001

McAfee releases its first handheld virus protection software on March 09, 2001

Quantum sells its hard drive business to Maxtor to turn its full attention to higher-level storage products and services

Dell computers becomes the largest PC maker in April 2001

June 5, 2001, Nevada becomes the first U.S. state to vote to legalize online gambling.

Airlines begin to implement methods of gaining Internet access while flying.

SATA 1.0 is introduced in August 2001

USB 2.0 is introduced.

Microsoft announces on April 11, 2001 that it will no longer include Clippy with future releases of Microsoft Office

Hewlett Packard announces plans to buy Compaq on September 6, 2001

Apple introduces the iPod which goes on sale in October 23, 2001

On October 9, 2001 AMD announces a new branding scheme no longer identifying processors by their clock speed

Microsoft Windows XP home and professional editions are released in October 25, 2001

Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (Version 2002) for Itanium systems is released

Microsoft releases the original Xbox game console on November 15, 2001

Rhapsody, digital music service, is introduced in December of 2001

Dean Kamen unveils the Segway on December 3, 2001

By December 2001 the Google search engine is indexing over three billion web documents

2002

In February 2002 Google releases its first hardware device called the Google Search Appliance

Excite@Home, one of the largest ISP's files for bankruptcy and closes its doors on March, 02, 2002

Gentoo, a version of Linux is released March 31, 2002

Napster files for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 3, 2002

PCI Express is approved as standard

Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.2 code named Jaguar which becomes available on August 23, 2002

Cartoon turtle named "Dewie" introduced to help promote Internet safety and security

PayPal is acquired by eBay on October 3, 2002

Iomega discontinues the Jaz drive

Roxio acquires the Napster name and logo in a bankruptcy auction on November 25, 2002

Hitachi purchases IBM's hard disk drive operation for $2.05 billion

Microsoft releases DirectX 9, December 19, 2002

In December 2002 Google introduces Froogle, which allows users to search for items to buy

2003

The Slammer worm is first released in January 2003 and becomes the fastest spreading worm in history after infecting hundreds of thousands of computers in less than three hours

Google acquires Blogger on February 17, 2003

PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) announces the development of a new standard codenamed NEWCARD on February 19, 2003

Intel Pentium M is introduced in March

Puppy Linux, designed to be small, portable, and easy to use is introduced.

Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (Version 2003) for Itanium 2 systems is released on March 28, 2000

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 is released March 28, 2003

Apple opens the iTunes store on April 28, 2003

The first computer is infected with the Spybot worm on April 16, 2003

The first D Conference is held in May to discuss "all things digital"

The H.264 standard related to video compression and standards is completed in May 2003.

Internet site LinkedIn launches on May 5, 2003

Yahoo! acquires Overture for $1.63 billion on June 14, 2003

The game Second Life is released on June 23, 2003

Windows Mobile 2003 is released on June 23, 2003

The Safari Internet browser is released on June 30, 2003

The Mozilla Foundation is officially formed on July 15, 2003.

The Internet VoIP service Skype goes public on August 29, 2003

Valve introduces Steam to allow distribution of games in September 12, 2003

Intel announces the new BTX form factor to replace the ATX motherboard standard

Apple adds iTunes support for Microsoft Windows computers on October 17, 2003

Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.3 code named Panther October 25, 2003.

The Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) standard is announced on November 18, 2003 as a planned replacement for DVD

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2003 is released on December 18, 2003

Google releases Google Print in December 2003, which later becomes Google Book Search

2004

MySpace official site is launched January 2004

Google jumps into the Social Networking with the release of Orkut in January 2004

The Mydoom computer virus with 250,000 infected computer begins its attack on February 1, 2004

In February 2004 Google is indexing six billion items, including 4.28 billion web pages and 880 million images

Mark Zuckerberg launches Thefacebook on February 4, 2004, which later becomes Facebook

The photo sharing site Flickr is launched in March of 2004

Comcast purchases TechTV March 25, 2004 to form G4TechTV.

Google announces Gmail on April 1, 2004 - many people take it as an April Fools joke

The SymbOS/Cabir virus, the first known mobile phone virus, is discovered June 14, 2004 and is capable of spreading to other Symbian phones over Bluetooth

Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.4 code named Tiger at the WWDC on June 28, 2004

Apple introduces AirPlay which allows for wireless streaming of audio and other types of media between specific devices

COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) goes into effect in USA on July 1, 2004

Google acquires Picasa

Google's initial public offering (IPO) of 19,605,052 shares becomes available at $85 a share August 18, 2004

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is released on October 12, 2004

Google acquires Keyhole in October 2004, which later becomes Google Earth

The first version of Ubuntu is released October 20, 2004

Firefox 1.0 is first introduced on November 9, 2004

Blizzard's World of Warcraft game, the most popular and successful MMORPG is released November 23, 2004

IBM sells its computing division to Lenovo Group for $1.75 billion on December 08, 2004

2005

Google Maps is launched February 8, 2005.

YouTube is founded and comes online February 15, 2005.

Google acquires Urchin in March 2005, which later becomes Google Analytics

Verizon introduces FiOS (Fiber Optic Service), a type of data transmission technology utilizing laser light to create fiber optic networks

Yahoo announces that it will acquire the popular photo service Flickr on March 21, 2005

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is introduced on March 22, 2005

The first YouTube video entitled "Me at the zoo" is uploaded on April 23, 2005

Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is released on April 24, 2005

Google introduces its Personalized Homepage in May 2005, which is now known as iGoogle

Apple announces it plans on switching its computer to the Intel processors June 6, 2005

Microsoft announces it's next operating system, codenamed "Longhorn" will be named Windows Vista on July 23, 2005

IBM officially announces on July 14, 2005 that all sales of OS/2 will end on December 23, 2005 and that all support from IBM for OS/2 will end on December 16, 2005

MySpace is purchased by News Corporation for $580 Million US on July 18, 2005

On September 12, 2005 eBay acquired Skype for approximately $2.6billion

The Pandora Internet Radio service is launched August 25, 2005

Google releases Google Analytics in November 2005.

TeamViewer is founded enabling remote control, desktop sharing and file transfer between computers

Microsoft releases the Xbox 360, the second generation of their popular game console on November 16, 2005

Adobe completes its acquisition of Macromedia on December 3, 2005

Yahoo! buys del.icio.us for $20 million December 12, 2005

Maxtor is acquired by Seagate Technology December 21, 2005

2006

The blu-ray is first announced and introduced at the 2006 Consumer Electronic Show on January 4, 2006

On January 5, 2006 Intel introduces the Intel Core and Viiv

Google introduces Picasa

On March 2, 2006 Wikipedia volunteers create the article that passes the 1,000,000 article mark

Google announces acquisition of Writely in March 2006, which becomes the basis for Google Docs

Toshiba releases the first HD DVD player in Japan on March 31, 2006

Apple announces Boot Camp, which will allow users to run Windows XP on their computers April 5, 2006

Google launches Google Calendar in April 2006

Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E6320 (4M Cache, 1.86 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) on April 22, , the Core 2 Duo Processor E6300 (2M Cache, 1.86 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) on July 27 and the Intel Core 2 Extreme on July 29, 2006

Dell purchases Alienware on May 8, 2006

Toshiba releases the first HD DVD player in a computer with the introduction of the Toshiba Qosmio 35 on May 16, 2006

Twttr, now known as Twitter is officially launched July 15, 2006

On August 6, 2006 MySpace announces its 106 millionth account was created

Amazon.com opens its Amazon Web Service

Skype announced that it had over 100 million registered users.

The Microsoft XNA tool set is released August 30, 2006 providing templates for video game development

The GIF standard and pictures becomes officially free on October 1, 2006

Google announces plans to purchase YouTube for 1.65 Billion on October 9, 2006

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 is introduced October 18, 2006

Google launches its Custom Search Engine service on October 23, 2006

USA Patriot Act becomes law on October 26, 2006, giving law enforcement reduced restrictions on searching telephone, e-mail, and other forms of communication and records

Google acquires JotSpot on October 31, 2006, which later becomes Google Sites.

Sony releases the PlayStation 3 on November 11, 2006

On November 14, 2006 Microsoft released its portable Zune media player

Nintendo releases the Wii on November 19, 2006

Microsoft releases Microsoft Windows Vista to corporations on November 30, 2006

Google introduces Patent search December 13, 2006, which searches over 7 million patents

2007

Apple announces in January 1, 2007 that it will drop computer from its name as it becomes a company which deals with more than computers

Apple introduces the iPhone to the public at the January 9, 2007 at the Macworld Conference & Expo and releases it to the public on June 29, 2007

Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4300 (2M Cache, 1.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) on January 21, the Core2 Duo Processor E4400 (2M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) on April 22, 2007 and the Core2 Duo Processor E4500 (2M Cache, 2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) in July 22, 2007

Dropbox, a free online service that allows users to upload their pictures, documents, and other files to sharebetween multiple computers and mobile devices is founded

Microsoft releases Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 to the general public January 30, 2007

Estonia becomes the first country to conduct an election over the Internet March 4, 2007

Apple announces it will begin selling DRM-Free songs April 2, 2007.

Google announces it will purchase DoubleClick (an Internet advertising company) for $3.1 billion in cash

Google releases Google Trends on May 22, 2007 and Google Street View on May 25, 2007

Data Robotics introduces the Drobo in June enabling easy connection of multiple drives and improving data security and safety

DDR3 is introduced significantly improving RAM speed and capabilities

The Apple iPhone Jailbreaking method is introduced to the public on July 10, 2007

The Internet domain name business.com is sold on July 26, 2007 to R.H. Donnelley for $345 Million USD

Google releases Android on November 5, 2007

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is introduced to the public November 16, 2007

Amazon.com releases the first Kindle in the United States November 19, 2007

Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.5 code named Leopard October 26, 2007

2008

Acer officially acquires Packard Bell on January 31, 2008

The HD player war comes to an end when HD DVD calls it quits, making Blu-ray the victor on February 19, 2008

Microsoft release the WorldWide Telescope (WWT) program February 27, 2008

AOL ends support for the Netscape Internet browser on March 1, 2008

Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4700 (2M Cache, 2.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) March 2, 2008, the Core 2 Duo E7200 (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) on April 20, 200, the Core2 Duo Processor E7300 (3M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) August 10, 2008 and the Core2 Duo Processor E7400 (3M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) October 19, 2008

The Hulu website is released to the Public March 12, 2008 enabling the viewing of TV shows on the web

Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.6 code named Snow Leopard and MobileMe on June 9, 2008

The ATSC approves H.264 to be broadcast over television in July 2008

Apple introduces its latest line of Apple iMac computers on August 28, 2008

Google releases the first public version of Chrome on December 11, 2008

2009

Google voice, based off GrandCentral is launched on March 11, 2009

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is introduced on March 19, 2009.

Apple removes support for AppleTalk in August 28, 2009 with its introduction of Mac OS X v10.6 that also is the first version of the Mac OS that no longer supports PowerPC processors

Google announces plans to acquire reCAPATCHA

Facebook overtakes MySpace in Internet traffic

The Minecraft game is released

Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E7500 (3M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) January 18, 2009, the Core2 Duo Processor E7600 (3M Cache, 3.06 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) May 31, 2009

Microsoft launches the Bing search engine June 3, 2009

CompuServe shuts down on July 1, 2009

Google announces the Google Chrome OS on July 7, 2009.

After more than five years in beta, Gmail finally gets out of beta on July 7, 2009.

On July 29, 2009 Yahoo! and Microsoft announced a 10-year search deal where the Yahoo! search would be replaced by Bing

Microsoft releases Virtual PC on September 19, 2009, Microsoft Security Essentials on September 30, 2009 and Windows 7 on October 22, 2009

Palm introduces WebOS a new operating system for smart phones

2010

Apple introduces the iPad on January 27, 2010

Google Buzz is released February 9, 2010

Apple announces over 10 billion tracks have been downloaded from iTunes

Hewlett Packard purchases the Palm company, and the rights to WebOS, in April 2010

Apple introduces the iPhone 4 on June 24, 2010

Amazon releases a press release on July 19, 2010 mentioning it is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books

The Document Foundation releases LibreOffice September 28, 2010

Intel releases the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) specification in October 2010

Microsoft announces plans to release Windows Phone 7 on October 11, 2010

First all-robotic surgery performed at Montreal General Hospital on October 13, 2010

OpenStack, an open source cloud computing service, is established.

MachinimaSports becomes the 1 billionth subscriber on YouTube on October 28, 2010.

United States Cyber Command achieves full operational capability on November 5, 2010.

Planet Calypso, a virtual planet in the game Entropia becomes the most valuable virtual item selling for $635,000.00 USD on November 12, 2010.

2011

Intel Sandy Bridge processor is released on January 9, 2011

Watson, an IBM Super computer beats the two best human Jeopardy players in a three day event with a score greater than the two human players combined on February 16, 2011

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 on March 14, 2011

Microsoft announces plans on May 10, 2011 to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion in cash

Microsoft introduces Office 365 on June 28, 2011

On June 29, 2011 Newscorp sells MySpace to Specific Media L.L.C for $35 million, around $473 million less than it initially paid

On August 18, 2011 Hewlett Packard announces an interest in selling its Personal Systems Group, including WebOS.

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple's CEO due to health reasons on August 24, 2011.

Motorola releases the Xoom, a 10 inch tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb

RIM releases the BlackBerry Playbook running BlackBerry Tablet OS, based on the QNX Neutrino

Dell showcases the Streak 7 tablet and announces it isworking on the 10 inch Streak 10

Apple announces the iPad 2

Toshiba unveils the Toshiba Tablet, a 10 inch tablet powered by a Tegra 2 processor and Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Samsung announces the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, the world's thinnest tablets, running Android 3.0 Honeycomb with a Touchwiz UX User Interface

HP releases the HP TouchPad with WebOS & withdraws it in August 2011, a couple of months later

2012

Raspberry Pi, a bare-bones, low-cost credit-card sized computer created by volunteers mostly drawn from academia and the UK tech industry, is released to help teach children to code. on February 29

Facebook buys Instagram for 1 billion dollars in cash and stock in April 2012

Google and several other companies migrate to IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) on June 6, 2012

Pinterest, a photo sharing site, is made available to everyone on August 10, 2012

Apple iPhone 5 goes on sale September 21, 2012

TDK demonstrates a 2 terabyte hard drive on a single 3.5-inch platter on October 4

YouTube breaks an Internet record as over 8 million concurrent live viewers watch Felix Baumgartner break his own record by jumping from the edge of space (128,100 feet) on October 15, 2012

Apple introduces the iPad mini October 23, 2012

Microsoft Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface is released October 26, 2012

The number of smart phones worldwide reaches 1 billion. It took 14 years to reach this number and it is estimated that it will take only 3 more years to reach 2 billion

Tablet computers become the fastest adopted technology hardware with a 10% adoption rate over 2.5 years

It wasn't the end of the world on December 21, 2012 as the Mayans predicted but the video Gangnam Style hit over 1 billion views on YouTube

2013

Microsoft announces in February that it will be moving away from Hotmail brand and begin moving over 300 million users to the new Outlook.com e-mail service

Sony officially announces the PlayStation 4, a replacement for the PS3 gaming console on February 20, 2013

On March 15, 2013 Microsoft discontinued Messenger in favour of Skype

Yahoo! announces it will purchase Tumblr for 1.1Billion on May 20th, 2013

Microsoft introduces the Xbox One on May 21, 2013, a new gaming console to replace the Xbox 360

Google announces it will purchase Waze, a popular mobile social map application for $1.1Billion on June 11, 2013

On July 6, 2013 Microsoft announced that they are shutting down MSN TV and will be officially closing the service September 30, 2013

IDG announces on July 10, 2013 that the August edition of PC World magazine will be the last print edition of the magazine

The Furusawa group at the University of Tokyo succeeds in demonstrating complete quantum teleportation of photonic quantum bits on September 11, 2013, bringing quantum computer even closer to reality

Apple introduces iOS7 on September 18, 2013

Microsoft releases Windows 8.1 on October 18, 2013

Sony releases the PS4 November 15, 2013

“In Q4 2013 the number of computers (Macs, iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads) sold by Apple was larger than the number of Windows PC sold globally,” Benedict Evans reports.
Read more at http://macdailynews.com/2014/02/12/apple-computers-outsold-windows-pcs-in-q4-2013/#fzfGrDXEVGjAig0X.99

In the fourth quarter of 2013 the number of computers (Macs, iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads) sold by Apple was greater than the number of Windows PCs sold globally for the first time

2014

Satya Nadella takes over as Microsoft CEO on February 4, 2014

On February 7, 2014 the Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox filed for bankruptcy after $460 million was reported stolen by hackers and another $27.4 million went missing from its bank accounts

The Nokia deal with Microsoft is completed April 25, 2014 making Nokia now Microsoft Mobile in a deal totalling $7.17 billion

Apple introduces the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch on September 9, 2014

The Macworld magazine announced it will cease all print production on September 10, 2014

Microsoft unveils Windows 10 on September 30, 2014

On October 1, 2014 a Japanese man is sentenced to two years in prison for manufacturing 3D printed guns becoming the first person to serve time for such an offence

Android version 5.0 (Lollipop) released November 3, 2014

2015

Microsoft reveals HoloLens , a high-definition holographic interface using a small, wireless headset. on January 21, 2015

RadioShack files for bankruptcy February 6, 2015

Apple officially releases the Apple Watch on April 24, 2015

Microsoft releases Windows 10 on July 29, 2015

Google splits into two companies on August 10, 2015

Android version 6.0 (Marshmallow) released October 5, 2015

Microsoft releases the Surface Book on October 26, 2015

Hewlett-Packard splits into two different companies on November 1, 2015

2016

Fixstars Solutions releases the world's first 13TB SSD on January 13, 2016

On March 4, 2016 scientists at MIT announce that they have created the first five-atom quantum computer with the potential to crack the security of traditional encryption schemes

In March, 2016 Google’s AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence system designed expressly to win the ancient Chinese game of Go, defeats grandmaster Lee Se-Dol four times during a five-game match.

Google announces that on March 15, 2016 it will shut down Picasa.

Pokémon GO is released July 6,for Android phones and iPhone and is downloaded more than 10 million times within a week becoming the fastest growing app in history,

Google releases Android version 7.0 (Nougat) August 22, 2016

On September 16 , 2016 Apple announces the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and how they have discontinued the 3.5mm headphone jack.

On October 4 , 2016 Google introduces the Pixel smartphone, new Wi-Fi routers, a virtual reality headset, new Chromecast devices, and the Google Home.

2017

AMD introduced the Vega on January 5, 2017

On January 11, 2017, Norway became the first country to start switching off FM Radio and switching to DAB, a digital broadcasting technology

Microsoft began to release the Windows 10 Creators Update to users in April 2017

On May 12, 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack began to infect computers running Microsoft Windows, affecting more than 230,000 computers in over 150 different countries, demanding $300 - $1,200 in bitcoin to unlock the computers encrypted data

Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro 2017 (fifth gen) and the Surface Laptop on June 15, 2017

Twitter officially expands everyone's character limit from 140 characters to 280 characters on November 7, 2017

On November 14, 2017, Mozilla announced the release of Firefox Quantum

Google begins releasing Google Assistant on smartphones

On July 11, 2017, Microsoft announced the immediate end of support for Windows Phone

On July 28, 2017, Apple announced it was discontinuing all iPod devices that were not running iOS. The iPod models marked as discontinued include the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle

Apple introduced the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 plus, with a new edge-to-edge iPhone X with Face ID on September 12, 2017

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) begins developing a new "Molecular Informatics" program that uses molecules as computers by using Chemistry to offera rapid, scalable information storage and processing

2018

Apple introduces the Apple HomePod on February 9

On May 21, 2018, Epic Games announces it would provide $100 million for Fortnite e-sports tournament price pools in the first year of competitive play

The European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) law comes into effect on May 25, 2018

Google introduces the Google Pay service for all Android and iOS devices on January 8, 2018

Microsoft releases the Surface Go on August 2, 2018

On June 4, 2018, Microsoft announces it would acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion

In July 2018, Radioshack is reborn, and sells its products within HobbyTown locations nationwide

On October 28, 2018, IBM announce its plans to acquire Red Hat for approximately $34 billion

2019

Computed axial lithography, a 3-D printing technology is developed by UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is announced in January

On January 9, Lexar announces the first SD cardwhich can store 1 terabyte

The first folding smartphones are introduced in February by Samsung (Galaxy Fold) and Huawei (Mate X)

Google introduced the Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL on May 7, 2019 and the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL on October 24, 2019

Hewlett Packard announced the purchase of Cray for $1.3 billion on May 17, 2019

Google begins drone based deliveries via Google Wing

Apple releases the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max in September 2019

Microsoft introduced the Surface Duo on October 2, 2019

Google announced it would be acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion on November 1, 2019

Disney+ is introduced in 2019

Samsung releases the Galaxy S10, S10e, and S10+ and Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ smartphones

IBM Q System One, the first commercial quantum computer from IBM, is announced

Google makes cloud gaming mainstream with Stadia

IPv4 internet addresses are exhausted

2020

On January 14, Windows 7 reached EOL (end-of-life) and Microsoft ceases providing any support or security updates for Windows 7, and strongly advised users to upgrade to Windows 10

On January 5, Samsung announced the Q950TS, a bezel-free 8K QLED Smart TV

On January 6, Amazon announced that its Fire TV video streaming devices exceeded 40 million global active users

On January 6, Lenovo announced the Yoga 5G, a 5G-capable laptop

On January 16, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, joined the "four-comma club," achieving a market valuation over $1 trillion. The other two members of the club at the time were Apple ($1.3 trillion) and Microsoft ($1.2 trillion). The next closest company, Amazon ($930 billion), briefly joined the club in 2018

On January 29, Facebook agreed to pay $550 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in Illinois regarding facial recognition data collected from users without their consent

In early February, the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus causes significant disruption to the worldwide technology industry. Google announces the temporary closure of all offices in mainland China, and all Apple stores in China are also closed indefinitely. Companies including Qualcomm, Nintendo, and Facebook Oculus announce major losses in production from their factories located in China. The Chinese government reported a 50% decrease in smartphone sales

On February 4, Twitter announced a commitment to detect and label deep-fakes, and other deceptive media, on its social media platform

In May, Giphy is purchased by Facebook