TECHNOLOGY TIMELINE

1965-2004

1965 Minicomputer
Digital Equipment introduces the PDP-8, the world's first computer to use integrated circuit technology. Because of its relatively small size and its low $18,000 price tag, Digital sells several hundred units. (1)

1966 The first unmanned soft landing on the moon (Soviet Union). (3)

1967 The world's first heart transplant is performed in Cape Town, South Africa, by Christiaan Barnard, but the patient only lives 18 days. New York surgeon Adrian Kantrowitz performs the operation four days later, but his patient only lives a few hours. (2)

1968 The first cash dispensing machine is installed by First Philadelphia Bank, with Chemical Bank in New York following one year later. (2)

1969 Moon Landing
Millions watch worldwide as the landing module of NASA's Apollo 11 spacecraft touches down on the moon's surface and Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to set foot on the moon. President John F. Kennedy, who vowed to the world that the United States would put a human on the moon before 1970, has not lived to witness the moment. (1)

1970 Optical Fiber
Corning Glass announces it has created a glass fiber so clear that it can communicate pulses of light. GTE and AT&T will soon begin experiments to transmit sound and image data using fiber optics, which will transform the communications industry. (1)

1971 First space station, Salyut 1, and first space docking (Soviet Union). (3)

1972 Video Game
Pong, one of the first mass-produced video games, has become the rage. Noland Bushnell, the 28 year-old inventor of Pong, will go on to found Atari. (1)

1973 U.S. launched Skylab space station. (3)

1974 Barcode
The first shipments of bar-coded products arrive in American stores. Scanners at checkout stations read the codes using laser technology. The hand-punched keyboard cash register takes one step closer to obsolescence. (1)

1975 Microsoft
Old high school friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen form a partnership known as Microsoft to write computer software. They sell their first software to Ed Roberts at MIT, which has produced the Altair 8800, the first microprocessor-based computer. Gates soon drops out of Harvard. (1)

1976 Super Computer
Cray Research, Inc. introduces its first supercomputer, the Cray-1, which can perform operations at a rate of 240,000,000 calculations per second. Supercomputers designed by Seymour Cray will continue to dominate the market; the Cray 2, marketed in 1985, will be capable of 1,200,000,000 calculations per second. (1)

1977 Voyager spacecraft launched; contained recording of earth sounds, including music and greetings in 55 Earth languages. (3)

1978 The world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born in London to mom Lesley Brown. (2)

1979 Human-Powered Flight
Cyclist Byron Allen crosses the English Channel in a pedal-powered aircraft called the Gossamer Albatross. The flight takes 2 hours, 49 minutes, and wins a [sterling]100,000 prize for its crew, headed by designer Dr. Paul MacCready. Constructed of Mylar, polystyrene, and carbon-fiber rods, the Albatross has a wingspan of 93 feet 10 inches and weighs about 70 pounds. (1)

1980 Voyager I, a NASA probe, explores Saturn. (2)

1981 Space Shuttle
For the first time, NASA successfully launches and lands its reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle. The shuttle can be used for a number of applications, including launch, retrieval, and repair of satellites and as a laboratory for physical experiments. While extremely successful, the shuttle program will suffer a disaster in 1986 when the shuttle Challenger explodes after takeoff, killing all on board. (1)

1982 Artificial Heart
Dr. Robert Jarvik implants a permanent artificial heart, the Jarvik 7, into Dr. Barney Clark. The heart, powered by an external compressor, keeps Clark alive for 112 days. (1)

1983 PC
In January "Time" names its 1982 "man" of the year -- the personal computer. PC's have taken the world by storm, dramatically changing the way people communicate. IBM dominates the personal computer market, benefiting both from the production of its own machines as well as "clones" produced by other companies. (1)

1984 Apple Computer, founded by Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs, releases the Macintosh personal computer. (2)

1985 Genetic Engineering
The USDA gives the go-ahead for the sale of the first genetically altered organism. The rapidly growing biotech industry will seek numerous patents, including one for a tomato that can be shipped when ripe. (1)

1986 Electronic games from Nintendo debut. (2)

1987 In January of 1987 a research team at the University of Alabama-Huntsville substituted Yttrium for Lanthanum in the Müller and Bednorz molecule and achieved an incredible 92 K Tc. (5)

1988 Graphic User Interface
Apple files a suit charging that Microsoft has pirated Apple's user-friendly graphical interface. The suit will fail, and Microsoft's star will continue to rise. By the mid 1990's, Apple will be experiencing a painful and public financial shakeout. (1)

1989 Voyager 2 photographed Neptune; discovered moons. (3)

1990 Hubble Telescope
The space shuttle Discovery deploys the Hubble Space telescope 350 miles above the Earth. Although initial flaws limit its capabilities, the Hubble will be responsible for numerous discoveries and advances in the understanding of space. (1)

1991 Discovery of the buried crater near the Yucatan Peninsula, dated at 65 million years old. (3)

1992 The Internet Society is chartered, and 1,000,000 host computers are connected in a network. The term "surfing the net" is coined by Jean Polly as an increasing number of people begin exploring the online world. (2)

1993 The Hubble Space telescope is repaired, and its flawed primary mirror replaced. (2)

1994 The Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) opens between Britain and France. (2)

1995 The first rendezvous of a NASA spacecraft with the Russian space station Mir occurs in a historic advance of the space program. (2)

1996 Data from NASA's Galileo probe at Jupiter revealed that the gas giant's moon, Europa, may harbor "warm ice" or even liquid water-key elements in life-sustaining environments. (4)

1997 Space exploration leaps forward as the NASA probe Pathfinder lands on Mars to research the fourth planet from the Sun. Traffic gluts the Pathfinder's Internet site, which airs live shots from the sturdy rover Sojourner. (2)

1998 12 Mar. Development of the X-38, a spacecraft design planned for use as a future International Space Station emergency crew return "lifeboat," passed a major milestone today with a successful first unpiloted flight test. (4)

1999 July 23 - Launch of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO; formerly known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility or AXAF), the last of NASA's `Great Observatories'. Chandra has an unprecedented ability to make high spatial-resolution X-ray observations, and additional capabilities using gratings to make high spectral-resolution observations, of celestial X-ray sources (still operational). (6)

2000 An international consortium of genetic researchers--collectively called the Human Genome Project--announce a scientific breakthrough: they had completely mapped the genetic code of a human chromosome, raising a plethora or medical, legal, and ethical questions. (2)

2001 President Bush announces that he will allow federal funding of research on the 60 stem cell lines already derived from human embryos, but will prohibit federal funding of research on stem cells from frozen embryos in labs across the country. Torn between pro-life advocates who believed the harvesting of embryos destroys human life, and those who argued that stem-cell research holds the key to cures for many diseases, President Bush walked a fine middle line. Bush also increased funding for research on stem cells derived from adults, umbilical cords, placentas, and animals. (2)

2002 The search for life on Mars took a giant leap forward, when the Mars Odyssey probe found huge reservoirs of ice just beneath the surface. If the ice melted, creating warm pockets of water, conditions could be suitable for life to develop. However, NASA scientists were cautious on the subject of finding life, pointing out that single-cell beings would be more likely to exist than little green men with attitude problems. (2)

2003 In 2003, scientists officially discovered the existence of "dark matter", sometimes referred to as "dark energy". The existence of such dark matter had been predicted but never proven until this year. All previously known particles emit or reflect light, which makes them relatively easy to observe and understand. However, these particles only comprise approximately 4 percent of the known universe, the rest of the space taken up by "dark matter."

On Wednesday, October 15 China made history by becoming only the third nation to send a man into space. By sending astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit, China followed Russia and the United States as the only countries to accomplish the feat. (2)

2004 NASA Mars Rovers - Spirit and Opportunity are on the red planet and begin exploration. (7)

Bibliography:

(1) PBS - The American Experience / Timeline (1752-1990)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/timeline/timeline_text.html

(2) History Channel - World Timeline

http://www.historychannel.com/timeline/index.jsp?year=2003

(3) A Chronology of Significant Events in the History of Science and Technology

http://www.crimsonbird.com/science/timeline.htm

(4) A CHRONOLOGY OF DEFINING EVENTS IN NASA HISTORY, 1958-1998

http://www.swim2000.org/Homework%20Help/nasa_history.htm#A%20CHRONOLOGY%20OF%20DEFINING%20EVENTS%20IN

(5) The History of Superconductors - http://superconductors.org/history.htm

(6) A Brief History of High-Energy Astronomy: 1995 - 1999

http://guinan.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/headates/1995.html

(7) Rocky Mountain News, various daily papers