This document is by Dave Pape, and is released under a Creative Commons License.
| ???? 2,000,000 - 40,000 years ago | spoken language |
| ca. 32,000 BC | Cave paintings (Europe) |
| 33rd century B.C. | Ideographic writing (Sumeria) |
| 16th century B.C. | Alphabetic writing (Palestine) |
| 600 B.C. | Drama (Greece) |
| 6th - 9th century A.D. | Wood-block printing (China) |
| 1041 A.D. | Movable type (China) |
| ca 12th-15th century A.D. | Cheap, mass production of paper developed |
| 1440-1454 A.D. | Gutenberg press (Germany) |
| 17th century A.D. | Magic lantern (Europe) |
| 1792 | Robert Barker's panorama (England) |
| 1826 | Niepce's first photograph (France) |
| 1844 | Morse invents telegraph (U.S.) |
| 1876 | Bell invents telephone (U.S.) |
| 1877 | Edison invents phonograph (U.S.) |
| late 19th century | Crookes tube / Braun tube invented (England/Germany) |
| 1890s | Edison & Lumiere brothers invent film camera & projection (U.S./France) |
| 1890s | Tesla & Marconi invent radio (U.S./Italy) |
| 1927 | 1st long-distance TV transmission (U.S.) |
| 1930s | Audio tape recording invented (Germany) |
| 1937 | Carlson invents xerography (U.S.) |
| 1930s - 1940s | Programmable electronic computers developed (Germany / U.S. / England) |
| 1951 | Ginsburg (Ampex Corp) invents videotape recorder (U.S.) |
| 1969 | ARPAnet developed |
| 1975-1977 | Personal computers introduced |
| 1991 | World Wide Web created |