Writing develops as a means of communication when people try to convey messages to others by cave paintings (Ruchira Bajaj)

The Ancient Egyptians develop the first known paper-like substance. (Susan Williams)

First writing in China, on bones (Zan Brixey)

Phoenician alphabet established (Diana Thomson)

Earliest known map (Christina Walker)

Ashurbanipal's Royal Library at Nineveh comprising cuneiform tablets is developed as the world's largest collection for reference and research (Susan Lugo)

Elder Sophists (J. W.)

You mean I don't have to use my fingers? (Vinh Vu)

General Lysander defeats Persia with secret code (Gregory Cash)

The Academy, the first university, is established in the city of Athens. (Mark Williams)

One of the Earliest Major Medical Schools Make Breakthroughs in the Study of Anatomy (Theodora Bakker)

The Rosetta Stone represents a simple but very effective technology, which revolutionized the knowledge about Egypt after its discovery in 1799 (Ulrike Gretzel)

The invention of paper (David Kim)

"Arabic" Numerals developed by the Hindus (Mary Oberlander)

Spread of Papermaking (Tony Byungho Lee)

Cyrillic Alphabet is Invented (Megan Sapp)

Beowulf--manuscript written (Jill Gage)

Invention of the reading stone (Ellen Knutson)

Musical notation (John Zata)

Moveable type was invented by Bi, Sheng in China (Wei Li)

The printing of the Bible with moveable type by Gutenberg transforms society (Marilyn Hudson-Tremayne)

Graphite is discovered (Kristin Zage)

Hans Lipperhey's patent application for the telescope to the government of Zeeland (Robbin Garber-Slaght)

The first book on teaching sign language to deaf people published (Andrew Baker)

Sign language invented (Michael Ryan)

Founding of Boston Latin, the first public school in the US (Shamus Regan)

John Dury invents the modern library (Jennifer Robins)

The advent of the first novelPamela by Samuel Richardson (Katrina Pollitt)

Charles Linnaeus introduces binomial nomenclature (Dave Mockaitis)

The first English dictionary (Patricia Park)

Rubber Erases Pencil Marks (Liz Erzinger)

Nicholas-Jacques Conte of France discovers the process of mixing graphite with clay (Kristin Zage)

Blackboard chalk becomes common in the classroom as class size increases. (Linda Keys)

Jewelry (Anar Patel)

Chalkboards arise in U.S. Military schools (Jerry Wojenski)

Rene T.H. Laennec invents the stethoscope so he can listen to the sound of a female patient's heart without placing his head directly upon her chest (Jeanne Link)

Braille invented (Jonathan Kozolchyk)

The first photograph (Paris Fotos)

Invention of Braille system (ShinJoung Yeo)

Michael Faraday makes one of his greatest discoveries - electromagnetic induction (Jeffrey Sichaleune)

Penny Postage in Mid-Nineteenth Century Britain (Rebecca Busen)

The First Public Library (Genevieve Chelmecki)

Samuel Finley Breese Morse invents Morse code (Brian Berner)

"What hath God wrought!" is the first message transmitted through the telegraph (Jeffrey Sichaleune)

Chalkboard and eraser (Kevin Musiorski)

Chemical wood pulp for the making of paper is patented (Jordan Seymour)

The Pony Express (Katy Wheatley)

QWERTY: Christopher Sholes develops a machine to print the alphabet (Elizabeth Sanford)

Efficiency is not always the goal!! -- QWERTY is developed by Christopher Sholes (Santanu Rahman)

The invention of the Jacquard loom is arguably the first instance of a computer (Kathryn Simpson)

Telephone invented (Paul Stankus)

first stapler invented (Christine Litas)

Sales take off after the Remington No. 2 hits the shelf (Elizabeth Sanford)

Edison puts everything into perfecting the lightbulb (Christopher Nanney)

Waterman patents the fountain pen (Jonathan Legendre)

Marconi makes first wireless transmission (Michael Machula)

Dr. Miller Reese Hutchison invents the first hearing aid (Steve McCann)

The Invention of the Radiotelegraph (Jonathan B. Peacock)

The first spoken words using radio are heard (Eric Larson)

Marconi sends a radio signal across the Atlantic (Zan Brixey)

The invention of the air conditioner (Karla Gonzalez)

John Ambrose Fleming develops the Fleming valve (Michael Machula)

Lee de Forest develops the audion tube (Michael Machula)

First "broadcast" radio signal with the human voice (Michael Machula)

Ford's Model T is introduced to the public (Mike Papahronis)

Edwin Howard Armstrong develops electronic regeneration. (Michael Machula)

First 3D movie airs to paying audience with 3D glasses (John Ballestro)

Electronic video (aka television) is invented by a farm boy (maybe). (Pamela Galion)

The telephotography machine was used to send political convention photos long di (Rachel Zinger)

First electronic television transmission. (Michael Machula)

The first edition of the Oxford-English Dictionary is completed. (Sarah Langenberg)

August Dvorak creates a keyboard that is easier to learn (Elizabeth Sanford)

"talking books" were developed by the American Foundation for the Blind (Kristen Rinkenberger)

Edwin Howard Armstrong develops FM. (Michael Machula)

World's first drive-in movie theater (Alisyn Rathje)

Binary Computer is Engineered (Grant Kien)

Spring into Action with SLINKY! (CJ Underside)

Grace Hopper is responsible for the term 'bug' for a computer fault. (Marty Sierra-Perry)

ENIAC Begins its first set of computations. (Michael Machula)

The Library School teaches about audio-visual materials and equipment (Gwladys Spencer)

North American Numbering Plan (NANP) introduced in U.S. by AT&T and Bell (Rhiannon Almasi)

The first transistor was created in 1947 by Brattain and Bardeen (Misti Gerber)

Mass production of calculators begins. (Lydia Harris)

First Color Television Broadcast (Keren Moses)

Dummer conceives the IC (Kerry McCrory)

Skinner's Teaching Machine and Programmed Learning Theory (Nichole Wleklinski)

FORTRAN, The First High-level Programming Language Developed (Dave Linderman)

USSR launches Sputnik, first artificial earth satellite (Alicia Oryhon)

Introduction of "Haloid Xerox 914" the first photocopier based on xerography that can be used for practical purposes (Bernhard Jungwirth)

An early CAI system, PLATO, is initiated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later developed by Control Data Corporation (Mihye Won)

The first video game is invented (Scott Machalek)

Development of PLATO (Jason Naito)

Overhead projector invented (Christine Litas)

First stereo FM radio broadcasts (Melissa Salgado)

The PLATO instructional computing system is widely used in college and K-12 classrooms. (Amy Fahey)

Xerox puts out the first photographic copy machine (Saad Yusuf)

IBM brings out the MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter) (Khitam Alghazo)

Development of BASIC programming language (Colleen Casey)

Graphical User Interface Developed (Daisy Porter)

"Compact Cassette" patented by the Philips Company (Jennifer Jones)

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is established as a national information system (Jamyce Punch)

8-Track Tapes (Heidi Jane Schultz)

Logo is developed (Sara Barnett)

Texas Instruments develops the first hand-held calculator (Gloria Henke)

Douglas Engelbart introduces a prototype of the computer mouse, the "x-y position indicator for a display system" (Ava Jamshidi)

View 2 (Becky Trieger)

The Arpanet is constructed (Paulette Sallas). See also the Timetable of Internet Events

Scholar is developed by Jaime Carbonell, as the first Intelligent Tutoring System, or ITS (Junghyun An)

Unix Invented (Charles Weinberg)

Through the invention of the continuous wave helium-neon laser and enhancements to optical fiber, researchers develop 20dB/km fiber optics cable that is tested successfully in Britain (Jared Berrett)

The Arpanet goes online (Mike Sennert)

Phone "Phreaker" is arrested (Isaac Oates)

Electronic mail (Loan Nguyen)

LEXIS, the first commercial, full-text legal information service, is introduced (Michelle Rigual)

The first cellular telephone began operation (Oleh Volokhin)

The Altair 8800 leads the way for personal computers (Tamara Barcalow)

Ray Kurzweil and company create the Kurzweil Reading Machine and the first omni-font OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. (Linda Burke)

First digital recordings made (Melissa Salgado)

Apple introduces the Apple II. View 1 (George Gerrietts). View 2 (Jesse Guessford)

Japan Victor Company (JVC) introduces the VHS format video cassette recorder (Marie Marassa)

Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 (Martin Gray)

ATARI: the first home video system (Carrie Skura)

HyperStudio, a multimedia authoring tool that allows people to communicate ideas on diskette, CD-ROM or Internet.

The Apple IIe is introduced (Margie Adkins)

The CD Player and hi-fi VCRs (Melissa Salgado)

Apple introduces the Macintosh (Jennifer Haberkorn)

Commodore introduces the Commodore 64 (Diane Fulton)

CD-ROM players for computers (Bryan Weinert)

The retinal biometrics are put to use, when the first retinal scan is made by EyeDentify. (Julie Pacheco)

The first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) (Ben Belzer)

Aldus PageMaker is released for the Macintosh and desktop publishing is born (Melissa Creech)

Microsft Windows program invented (Diana Mehl)

Apple begins shipping Hypercard, a programming system and multimedia authoring tool (Susan Cooper)

The World-Wide Web begins at the Conseil European pour la Recherche Nucleaire (Khitam Alghazo)

Tim Berners-Lee invents World Wide Web (Cory Olans)

The Introduction of CD-Recordable Format (Sooho Chae)

Invention of first digital camera. No more dealing with loading films! (Tina Chen)

Texas Instruments creates the popular TI-81 graphing calculator (Jennifer McNeilly)

PowerPoint for Windows launched (Brodie Bertrand)

The first search engine (Wei Li)

Whiteboards begin to erase the chalkboard from schools (Jerry Wojenski)

GNU/Linux conceived (Michael Brunelle)

The Trojan Room coffee machine (Karen Korhorn)

Mosaic Alpha 4.0 comes to Champaign Centennial High School

Apple's Newton MessagePad (Marc Wielansky)

Internet use throughout the world begins to increase at a substantial rate (Robert Moffett)

NJSTAR is created making it convenient to those who use Chinese, Japanese and Korean to surf the internet (Meng-Lung Lai)

Netscape offers a beta version of its Navigator browser on the Internet (Julie Veazie)

The first American Indian tribal web site goes online, May 3

Classroom Connect offers educational WebQuests for classrooms all over the world (Cynthia Clark)

Agreement on a single standard format called Digital Versatile Disc (Rae Ann Montague)

First public release of SMIL (Amy Fahey)

Children younger than the age of two are given cochlear implants (Robin Linn)

Electronic ink is first developed at MIT Media Lab (Dave Dash)

Computer names "Deep Blue" beats a human at chess match. (Karen Schopf )

U of I Online Begins (Kristiana Burtness)

Launching of one of the world's first user-generated, science-based, interactive soap-opera (Philip Wilder)

Merriam-Webster publishes Spanish-English dictionary. (Genevieve Carmichael)

High Definition Television (Melissa Salgado)

The CI 335/CS 317 classes at the University of Illinois initiate the Educational Technology Timeline

The Advanced Cluster Computing Consortium introduces a super computer built with off the shelf parts (Diane Fulton)

Electronic course management and online courses come to the elementary school. (Elizabeth Kickham)

IBM introduces a prototype of the world's smallest computer with "full screen" capability. (Gary Jones)

AIM version 3.0 launched (Melissa Papa)

NEATscape version 5.0 is released. Under the "decrypting wizard" button anyone can use any computer to read their native language (Meng-Lung Lai)

Technology developed for superior quality, large size electronic maps (Jane Harper)

Students in the Learning Technologies course at the University of Illinois add to what is now the Learning Technologies Timeline

PDA--Personal Digital Assistant (Mark Noble)

First silicon chip implanted in human nervous system (Janine Solberg)

First bionic eyes (Ellen Knutson)

Every museum and historical site sponsors its own online field trip (Cynthia Clark)

2001: A Space Odyssey? (Michael Machula)

A genome-wide scan for linkage to human exceptional longevity identifies a locus on chromosome 4 (Michelle Martin)

United States Rehabilitiation Act of 1973 finally helps people with disabilities access information (Jack Thomas)

SMART boards begin to make their mark on education ( Jerry Wojenski)

Apple releases its third generation iMac in teal with a built-in microphone. Students take it to class, and it records the lecture so that the student can organize the lecture to meet his/her learning style (Marty Sierra-Perry)

Big brother in high schools (installation of security cameras in HS)

PaperGraderXPress, a wand-like, wireless device, which reads and analyzes any type of student composition, typed or hand-written (Melissa Creech)

A new PLATO satellite system, in which students have small handheld devices which they carry with them to and from school (Amy Fahey)

Refrigerator with a memory (Michelle Rigual)

The New York Times ceases printing on newsprint (Jordan Seymour)

All public television stations must convert to digital (Jeffrey Sichaleune)

The future is digital (Paris Fotos)

Virtual reality training now a requirement for all healthcare professionals (Mary Oberlander)

The first three-dimensional online university is established. (Mark Williams)

Classroom chalkboard becomes electronic touchpad multi-task system (Kevin Musiorski)

DVD-RW drive prices drop to $100 (Sooho Chae)

A tactile learning interface is assembled to aid individuals studying the pulses (Jeanne Link)

DTTWWR announces full production of the Wrist Pilot (Susan Williams)

Copper cabling is obsolete in the communications industry, even in rural communities (Jared Barrett)

Electronic terrorist sentenced to death (Isaac Oates)

The Information War is the war to win (Paul Stankus)

Realtime web translation (Tony Byungho Lee)

Home health monitors and personalized care (Jonathan B. Peacock)

Personal Access and Display Device appears (Ruchira Bajaj)

Introduction of the first fully automated classroom (Shamus Regan)

The e-Trapper is introduced as the "all-in-one school tool" (Susan Cooper)

The Internet is accessed entirely through wireless, handheld, pocket computers. (Paulette Sallas)

The first widespread use of electronic textbooks in US schools (Jennifer McNeilly)

House Co. starts production on the fully automated house for the consumer market (Mike Sennert)

Children's Interactive Easy Reader Series debuts in book format (Jane Harper)

625 million homes now own DVD players (Rae Ann Montague)

A large amount of communication takes place using wireless instant messaging (Dave Mockaitis)

Fiber optics are the backbone of everything (Christopher Nanney)

Old-ink text books are coming to an end (Dave Dash)

Sandisk and Lexar release new Secure Digital EX cards (Sooho Chae)

Digital Cameras replaced by business size cards! (Tina Chen)

Book lovers finally won over (Janine Solberg)

They are stealing my thoughts! (Jason Naito)

There's a new voice in word processing. (Amaris Pettie)

Learning communities replace the traditional classroom (Elizabeth Kickham)

Complete Human Literacy Archive & 1st Collective Thought Recording Device buried next to the 2 recently finished N.Y. Universal Trade Center Buildings (Phil Wilder)

This will make you feel right at home... (Karen Korhorn)

Trieger Industries announces the arrival of TalkTech, a revolutionary, voice-activated technical assistant that can troubleshoot any technology related problem (Becky Trieger)

Using BK3 Technology at speeds of 2.0 megs/second, consumers now purchase and rent digital films and music solely through the web (Marie Marassa)

Smart space technology is now everywhere (Colleen Casey)

Cars are driving (Kathryn Simpson)

BeWell announces the beta version of its new product, the Memory Minder; its function is to re-mind people

First Brain Wave Computer Introduced (Xica C. Henley)

Macrohard releases Real Life, a combination wall-sized touch-screen LCD display unit and wall-mounted DVD player to recreate your home or classroom into any environment you choose (Bryan Weinert)

Houston ISD Opens Distance Education & Development Centers (Jamyce Punch)

Natural User Interface Developed (Daisy Porter)

Lamplighter School students use Logo to program a robotic teacher's aide (Sara Barnett)

AT&T introduces Desktop Learning (Jennifer Haberkorn)

The Individual Student Computer Automated Desk is introduced (Mike Sennert)

Virtual reality is the phase of the Internet (Khitam Alghazo)

Students learn history via virtual reality (Gloria Henke)

VowerLife first used in classroom (Brodie Bertrand)

Tim Berners-Lee invents World Hide Web (Cory Olans)

Electronic mail (Loan Nguyen)

World court finds parents guilty of raising illiterate children (Steve McCann)

The U.S. Government study prompts World Summit on Accessibility (Jack Thomas)

The new "real" e-book (Jonathan Legendre)

Most business and learning takes place in homes. The only large gatherings are for arts, sports, travel, and vacations (Zandra Brixey)

FUTRAN, The First Intuitive Programming Language Developed (Dave Linderman)

Universal Translation Markup Language (Marc Wielansky)

Future of Biometrics (Julie Pacheco)

Great Moments in Cinemetography in the future (Christopher Anderson)

Quantum computers become common in schools and on corporate desktops (Amy Fahey)

Introduction of the artificial ear (Andrew Baker)

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first successful computer, Apple introduces the new Granny Smith III (Margie Adkins)

Targeted electrical stimulation of the human brain is now becoming a widespread technique in education and training for all ages (Bernhard Jungwirth)

Station to donate arms to the Smithsonian (CJ Underside)

Virtual Classroom, an artificial teaching environment developed by the Korean Artificial Intelligence System Research Institute, is displayed in a public middle school for the first time (Junghyun An)

Students use the Power Pencil, which stores the information that is written with it (Kristin Zage)

The invention of the Composition Room (Katrina Pollitt)

First total ear transplant on a human to restore complete hearing in deaf infant; human classroom teachers are assisted by robots to aid students in their work; virtual reality trips in history; the idea of a classroom has a new global boundary (Robin Linn)

Jan 1 heralds the world-wide ban on the printing of books (Eric Larson)

Mandatory accessibility (Jonathan Kozolchyk)

Organic artificial eye (Ellen Knutson)

Keyboards are now obsolete; the long-living QWERTY is extinct (Elizabeth Sanford)

Warning to Pental, Bic, Ticonderoga (Shinjong Yeo)

Use your common senses when you learn! -- Students learn history via virtual reality (Santanu Rahman)

Jewelry (Anar Patel)

Disappearance of Paper for Public Domain (Rebecca Busen)

Advances in military intelligence available to public (Brian Berner)

Biofeedback controlled computers available to public (Julie Veazie)

Congress announces the importance of computers in education (Robbin Garber-Slaght)

The first successful case of virtual mind loading is realized (Gary Jones)

No more cooking: The kitchen of the future (Carrie Skura)

People participate in computer aided mind games (Scott Machalek)

Xerox invents the first instant cloning machine (Saad Yusuf)

Holographic teaching (Jesse Guessford)

Wireless Helmet Introduced To Classroom (Nichole Wleklinski)

Advanced Quantum mechanics taught in elementary schools (Fleming Au)

Virtual Mind Loading: A Call To Arms (Patricia Park)

The first brain cellular modem began operation (Oleh Volokhin)

The first devices using the new cerebral interfaces released (David Kim)

A determination of the DNA Intelligence Potential is conducted before birth (Diane Fulton)

Tech cult ends in disbelief (Vinh Vu)

Artificial intelligence used to create decoder ring (Gregory Cash)

Children are taught by robots (Ava Jamshidi)

The radical group, once known as the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA), now called PAPA, Populace Against Pornography Advocates, has reaped a benefit from its multi-million dollar project to develop computer filters designed to completely block out all inappropriate sites for children (Lydia Harris)

Virtual helmet in Final Stages (John Ballestro)

Phone travel (Michael Ryan)

The year to be fool without risk----future search engine will help you! (Wei Li)

Virtual reality field trips are introduced to schools (George Gerrietts)

One world language established (Diana Thomson)

A new computer chip set that interfaces with the human brain (Robert Moffett)

Debate continues between HGH and chromosome 4 (Michelle Martin)

Using tissue from the brain and taking advantage of the speed of neuron firing computers are now capable of thinking (Martin Gray)

Chip implanted in every human's index finger becomes new "finger print" (Alicia Oryhon)

Holographic Teaching Aids are introduced into classrooms (Tamara Barcalow)

First Full Smell-O-Vision Broadcast (Keren Moses)

Ultimate Food Processor (Katy Wheatley)

Medical Students No Longer Take Gross Anatomy in a Class Room (Theodora Bakker)

Ansible Revolutionizes Communication (Megan Sapp)

The invention of knowledge transmitters for human brains redefines the concept of learning (Ulrike Gretzel)

The future of musical notation (Melissa Salgado)

CliffsNotes©3001 (Jill Gage)

Language becomes universal (Sarah Langenberg)

The Air Barrier has been successfully installed throughout the world (Karla Gonzalez)

Last reader dies in hospital, Objects.Books.Physical preserved (Michael D. Brunelle)

Guerrilla organization promotes the use of "papar" and speech while encouraging others to disband from the NETWORK (Misti Gerber)

Remembering the days when humans had bodies (Pamela Galion)

The New Old Era Began and Begins (Grant Kien)