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Feb 5, 1446
Johannes Gutenburg introduces moveable type printing press in Germany
Johannes Gutenberg was born circa 1395, in Mainz, Germany. He started experimenting with printing by 1438. In 1450 Gutenberg obtained backing from the financier, Johann Fust, whose impatience and other factors led to Gutenberg's loss of his establishment to Fust several years later. Gutenberg's masterpiece, and the first book ever printed in Europe from movable type, is the “Forty-Two-Line” Bible, completed no later than 1455. Gutenberg died in Mainz in 1468. -
Feb 5, 1468
William Caxton produces a book in England with the first printed adveritsement
William Caxton, (born c. 1422, Kent, England—died 1491, London), the first English printer, who, as a translator and publisher, exerted an important influence on English literature. In 1438 he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a rich mercer, who in the following year became lord mayor of London. Large died in 1441, and Caxton moved to Brugge, the centre of the European wool trade; during the next 30 years he became an increasingly prosperous and influential member of the English trading communi -
Feb 5, 1500
printing books and pamphlets increase
Most of us tend to take printed materials for granted, but imagine life today if the printing press had never been invented. We would not have books, magazines or newspapers. Posters, flyers, pamphlets and mailers would not exist. The printing press allows us to share large amounts of information quickly and in huge numbers. In fact, it is so important that it has come to be known as one of the most important inventions of our time. It drastically changed the way society evolved. In this article -
First newspapers in Europe
William Caxton, (born c. 1422, Kent, England—died 1491, London), the first English printer, who, as a translator and publisher, exerted an important influence on English literature. In 1438 he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a rich mercer, who in the following year became lord mayor of London. Large died in 1441, and Caxton moved to Brugge, the centre of the European wool trade; during the next 30 years he became an increasingly prosperous and influential member of the English trading communi -
Puritans establish cambridge press
he Puritans were a group of people who grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral and societal reforms. The writings and ideas of John Calvin, a leader in the Reformation, gave rise to Protestantism and were pivotal to the Christian revolt. They contended that The Church of England had become a product of political struggles and man-made doctrines. The Puritans were one branch of dissenters who decided that the Church of England was beyond reform. -
Ben harris prints first colonial newspaper
...in 1690, Boston printer Benjamin Harris produced the first issue of Publick Occurrences, the first newspaper published in Britain's North American colonies. Readers were enthusiastic, but the governor was not. Under British law, "no person [was to] keep any printing-press for printing, nor [was] any book, pamphlet or other matter whatsoever" to be printed without the governor's "especial leave and license first obtained." -
James franklin exercises the privilege of editoral independence
As a printing apprentice, Franklin to his delight had access to a wide range of books that were being typeset. He also borrowed books from clients. He read voraciously and even began skipping meals and using the money he saved to buy books.
Early in his apprenticeship, young Ben took a fancy to poetry and began composing "occasional ballads" — little poems or songs based on newsworthy events. His brother James encouraged his writing and printed Ben's first two attempts. -
Ben franklin prints money after calling for paper currency
By far the largest part of Franklin’s business was his newspaper, his almanacs, and government printing; but the next largest source of income was what today we call job printing, that is occasional printing work for hire, where the customer paid for the whole edition and distributed it how he pleased. This case is devoted to three kinds of job printing Franklin did: First, what he called “little Jobs,” that is blank forms, lottery tickets, hand bills and other ephemera. -
National magazines
The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) today announced the National Magazine Awards 2015 finalists. For the second year, the nominations were first announced in an hour-long Twittercast. Known as the Ellies—for the Alexander Calder stabile "Elephant" given to each award winner—the National Magazine Awards will be presented on Monday, February 2, at the New York Marriott Marquis. -
First african american newspaper
Freedom’s Journal was the first African American owned and operated newspaper in the United States. A weekly four column publication printed every Friday, Freedom’s Journal was founded by free born African Americans John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish on March 16, 1827 in New York City. The newspaper contained both foreign and domestic news, editorials, biographies, births and deaths in the local African American community, and advertisements. -
First telegraph line set by samuel morse
Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse developed a code (bearing his name) that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines. -
First transatlantic cable
The telegraph was first developed by Samuel F. B. Morse, an artist-turned-inventor who conceived of the idea of the electric telegraph in 1832. Several European inventors had proposed such a device, but Morse worked independently and by the mid 1830s had built a working telegraph instrument. In the late 1830s, he perfected Morse Code, a set of signals that could represent language in telegraph messages. -
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), the Scottish-born American scientist best known as the inventor of the telephone, worked at a school for the deaf while attempting to invent a machine that would transmit sound by electricity. Bell was granted the first official patent for his telephone in March 1876, though he would later face years of legal challenges to his claim that he was its sole inventor, resulting in one of history’s longest patent battles. -
U.S -based spanish paper debuts
The country’s oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper, El Diario/La Prensa, began 2016 facing an uncertain future, as staff cuts and tensions between the union, the NewsGuild of New York, and the paper's owners compound an already difficult transition to the web.
The paper’s steady decline has continued in the four years since Argentina’s La Nación, a leading conservative daily, bought El Diario’s parent company ImpreMedia, promising to pump new investment into the struggling institution and u -
The jazz singer, first talkie
Before The Jazz Singer, there were silent films. Despite their name, these films were not silent for they were accompanied by music. Often, these films were accompanied by a live orchestra in the theater and from as early as 1900, films were often synchronized with musical scores that were played on amplified record players. -
Case of near v. Minnesota
This Landmark Supreme Court Cases and the Constitution eLesson focuses on the 1931 Supreme Court case Near v. Minnesota. In this landmark freedom of the press case, the Court struck down a state law allowing prior restraint (government censorship in advance) as unconstitutional. In so ruling, the Court applied the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom to the actions of state governments through the doctrine of incorporation. -
Audiotape is developed in Germany
The era of the phonograph also saw the introduction of an alternative recording technology that was little seen by the public but increasingly used in studios. Magnetic recording, which is today used for video and audio tape, was first introduced around 1899-1900 by the Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen. -
Pearl Harbor attack is reported by radio
For most Americans, news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came as an interruption to their favorite radio programs on an otherwise tranquil Sunday afternoon on December 7th, 1941. An Associated Press bulletin at 2:22 PM Eastern Standard Time first reported the attack to mainland news organizations and radio networks. After confirming the initial bulletin with the government, the major radio networks interrupted regular programming beginning at 2:30 PM, bringing news of the attack which was -
Rise of professional books
These long wars invite comparison, and some recall the eight years of U.S. war in Vietnam, but there is a more compelling distinction. It was a conscript Army that flew its Hueys over the jungles of the Mekong Delta; it is an all-volunteer force that drives its Humvees along the Tigris and in the shattered urban landscape of Kabul. -
Rise of FM radio
Although the technology had been around since the 1930s (the first FM radio for the car was introduced in 1952 by Blaupunkt and stereo broadcasting began in the US in 1961), the frequency spectrum languished in the shadow of immensely popular AM stations. -
60 Minutes debuts
Created by Don Hewitt and grounded in investigative journalism, 60 Minutes is television’s longest continually running prime-time series. The first of the so-called TV newsmagazines, the program has become the industry standard for television journalism and has influenced similar (but less successful) programs on other networks. 60 Minutes placed in Nielsen’s annual top 10 for a record 23 consecutive seasons and has won more Emmy Awards than any other prime-time program -
Sesame Street debuts
On this day in 1969, “Sesame Street,” a pioneering TV show that would teach generations of young children the alphabet and how to count, makes its broadcast debut. “Sesame Street,” with its memorable theme song (“Can you tell me how to get/How to get to Sesame Street”), went on to become the most widely viewed children’s program in the world. It has aired in more than 120 countries. -
Email is developed
Email is the direct translation of the interoffice, inter-organizational paper-based mail system. In 1978, the first email system was created at UMDNJ in Newark, NJ. Several technological components were critical to the invention of email. Following this invention, various other products starting in 1984, came into the commercial market as shown in the infographic below. After the Smithsonian's acceptance of the papers and artifacts documenting the invention of EMAIL, on February 16, 2012. -
Mircoprocessor is developed
The microprocessor owes its phenomenal success to a paradox created by the combination of technology and economics. Due to techniques that squeeze roughly twice as many circuits onto silicon every 18 months or so by decreasing line widths, increasing wafer diameters, and adding layers, each new generation eventually comes to market at around the same price as the last, but with twice the power. More compact circuitry makes microprocessors faster because electrons have less distance to travel. -
HBO is uplinked to satellite
Television could not exist in its contemporary form without satellites. Since 10 July 1962, when NASA technicians in Maine transmitted fuzzy images of themselves to engineers at a receiving station in England using the Telstar satellite, orbiting communications satellites have been routinely used to deliver television news and programming between companies and to broadcasters and cable operators. -
VCRs are introduced
The first VCR to use VHS was the Victor HR-3300, and was introduced by the president of JVC at the Okura Hotel on September 9, 1976. JVC started selling the HR-3300 in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan on October 31, 1976.The Video Home System (better known by its abbreviation VHS) is a consumer-level analog recording videotape-based cassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan (JVC). -
VHS format videocassettes
What made video tape recorders unique were their ability to record and play back moving images and sound. They were recorded sound the same way as an audio-tape recorder, but did it in such a way that allowed for the majority of the width of the tape to be available for the video track. The 1970s was the period when major steps and improvement were made to video tape recorders, resulting in the eventual creating of the Video Home System standard. -
Fiber-optic cable
There are three types of fiber optic cable commonly used: single mode, multimode and plastic optical fiber (POF). Transparent glass or plastic fibers which allow light to be guided from one end to the other with minimal loss. -
IBM PC is introduced
Drawing on its pioneering SCAMP (Special Computer, APL Machine Portable) prototype of 1973, IBM's General Systems Division announced the IBM 5100 Portable Computer in September 1975. Weighing approximately 50 pounds, the 5100 desktop computer was comparable to the IBM 1130 in storage capacity and performance but almost as small and easy to use as an IBM Selectric Typewriter. It was followed by similar small computers such as the IBM 5110 and 5120. -
MTV debuts
On Saturday, August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, MTV launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," spoken by John Lack, and played over footage of the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia, which took place earlier that year, and of the launch of Apollo 11. -
CDs are introduced
Sony launched the Compact Disc format in Japan on October 1, 1982. The Compact Disc format changed the way we listened to music in the 1980s. Sony's first player, the CDP-101, went on sale on October 1, 1982, in Japan, and six months later here in the U.S. -
USA Today debuts
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clay Helton began his first signing day as Southern California's head coach with uncertainty about whether his Trojans would fill every available scholarship.
He ended it with another full deck of elite talent for the Trojans.
Helton's staff signed big names at several positions Wednesday, entirely filling their 13 remaining scholarships alongside seven early enrollees. The class was judged the Pac-12's best and the nation's ninth-best in a composite tally. -
Rise of talk radio
If we’re willing to disregard the complicating precedents of Joe Pyne and Alan Burke*, then the origins of contemporary political talk radio can be traced to three phenomena of the 1980s. Family listening to radio. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division Family listening to radio. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
The first of these involved AM music stations’ getting absolutely murdered by FM, which could broadcast music in stereo and allow -
Instant message service
nstant messaging services have grown beyond just real-time text chats. You can now use audio and video with your chats, share applications, transfer files, and more.
Visual representations Button Image Button Image Button Image of other people's availability, called online presence or status, permit you to instantly know if a person is online and available for a real-time conversation. Functionality varies among the instant messaging clients, including text chatting, audio. -
iTunes online music store
When the iTunes Music Store was unveiled to the world eight years ago, it was a big deal. Songs were only a dollar each. Most albums only ten dollars.
It was more or less the only game in town for legal music downloads.
Now there are other stores out there with catalogs that rival iTunes in size and absolutely destroy it in terms of price. -
Presidential debates on YouTube
The CNN/YouTube Debates were conceived of by David Bohrman, the Washington Bureau Chief of CNN, and Steve Grove, the Head of News and Politics at YouTube. YouTube was a new platform on the political scene, rising to prominence in the 2006 midterm elections after Senator George Allen's Macaca Controversy, in which the Senator was captured calling his opponent Jim Webb's campaign worker a "Macaca" on video, which went viral on YouTube and damaged a campaign that narrowly lost at the polls. -
Flying cars
Mankind's primordial dream of flight is taking off with a new twist as a Slovak prototype of a flying car spreads its wings. Inspired by the books about flying by French authors Jules Verne and Antoine de Saint Exupery, Slovak designer and engineer Stefan Klein has been honing his flying machine since the early 1990s.
