Mass media

Invention of Printing Press

Jan 1, 1440

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press that was used up until the 20th century.

Books

1455

Johannes Gutenberg printed the first of his Bibles using movable type.

Newspapers

1690

Ben Harris printed Publick Occurrences, the first newspaper in the English colonies.

Recording

1877

Thomas Edison introduced the phonograph, which could record and play back sound.

Motion Pictures/ Cinema

Apr 14, 1894

The first commerical exhibition of motion pictures was given in New York City using 10 Kinetoscopes.

Radio

1895

Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first message by radio wave.

First Commercial Radio Broadcast

Nov 2, 1920

Radio station KDKA in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania produced the first commercially recognized radio broadcast.

Time magazine

Mar 3, 1923

Briton Hadden and Henry Luce created the first weekly magazine in the United States.

Television

Jan 1, 1927

Philo Farnsworth is credited with inventing the current system of television.

First Satellite

Jan 24, 1957

Soviet Russia launched Sputnik 1; the first artificial satellite to be put in orbit. Satellites are used for a number of things including communication, military, weather, and research.

First Laptop

Apr 24, 1981

Adam Osborne developed the Osborne 1 which was considered to be the first actually portable laptop (it still weighed 24 pounds though).

Web

1989

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

Smartphones

Jan 1, 1993

IBM Simon was the first "smartphone" invented. It had a touchscreen and some familiar features like calendar and game functions.