PreviousDays✦THE WIKI
← All historyTHE ARCHIVE · 11 STORIES

1946–1999

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MOMENTS FROM THIS ERA

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11 illustrated stories · growing daily
A silver robotic dog approaches a bright ball as a person reaches to pat its head in a Japanese home.Technology

Sony announces the first AIBO robotic pet

Sony introduced AIBO on 11 May 1999 as a four-legged home entertainment robot. Its launch announcement combined an unusual domestic proposition—a responsive robotic companion—with a limited first release sold exclusively through the Internet.

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A young programmer works at a beige desktop computer in a modest Helsinki student room.Technology

Linus Torvalds announces his operating-system hobby

On 25 August 1991, a Usenet message invited suggestions for the personal project that became Linux, while expressing strikingly modest expectations.

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A hand places a silver compact disc into the open tray of an early black hi-fi player.Technology

Sony launches the CDP-101 compact-disc player, 1 October 1982

Sony's CDP-101 brought laser-read digital audio into the Japanese consumer market. The machine depended on a shared disc standard and a supply of recordings, linking optical engineering with a new way of selling recorded music.

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A bearded researcher tilts his head beside a glowing computer terminal in a 1980s university office.Technology

Scott Fahlman proposes the sideways smiley for online jokes

On 19 September 1982, Carnegie Mellon researcher Scott Fahlman proposed a sideways punctuation face to mark jokes on an electronic bulletin board. His dated message survives and documents a small, influential response to misunderstandings in written online conversation.

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A blue-and-silver portable cassette player, wired headphones and a blank cassette on a shop counter.Technology

Launch of the Sony Walkman TPS-L2 in Japan

Sony’s first Walkman went on sale in Japan on 1 July 1979. Its lightweight headphones helped make music portable and private, but two headphone sockets and a conversation button also made the original model surprisingly sociable.

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A cashier passes a wrapped grocery package across a large 1970s supermarket scanner.Technology

The first commercial UPC barcode scan in Troy, Ohio

On 26 June 1974, a supermarket transaction turned a packet of chewing gum into a technological milestone. The first commercial UPC scan demonstrated how standardized product numbers and optical readers could transform the checkout.

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A suited engineer holds a large early handheld telephone on a 1970s Manhattan sidewalk.Technology

Motorola’s 1973 handheld cellular telephone demonstration

Motorola demonstrated its handheld cellular telephone system in New York on April 3, 1973. Martin Cooper later recalled marking the occasion with a call to a rival at Bell Laboratories, a memorable human detail in a larger engineering achievement.

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Illustration of a seated audience watching a mechanical family in an old-fashioned kitchen on a curved theatre stage.Technology

Carousel of Progress opens at the 1964 New York World's Fair

On 22 April 1964, General Electric's Progressland introduced a mechanical family and an unusual theatre. The audience revolved around a stationary stage while household inventions carried the story through successive decades.

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Two visitors operate handheld controllers beside a glowing circular tennis display in a 1950s laboratory.Technology

Tennis for Two debuts at Brookhaven National Laboratory

On 18 October 1958, visitors to Brookhaven played electronic tennis on a small oscilloscope. The temporary demonstration turned laboratory computing equipment into an early experiment in interactive entertainment.

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A dry noodle cake beside a steaming bowl as water is poured from a metal kettle in a Japanese kitchen.Technology

Chicken Ramen launches in Japan

Launched on 25 August 1958, Momofuku Ando’s Chicken Ramen turned cooked noodles into a dry, portable cake that could become a hot meal again with water.

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An imagined 1948 laboratory with valve racks, exposed wiring and a glowing cathode-ray tube.Technology

The Manchester Baby runs its first program: June 21, 1948

On June 21, 1948, the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine successfully executed a program held in electronic memory. Nicknamed the Baby, it demonstrated a practical electronic stored-program computer. Its immediate purpose was to test a memory technology that could support more capable computing machines.

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