PreviousDays✦THE WIKI
27 MOMENTS · ONE LIVING ARCHIVE

History.
All at once.

Every picture opens a door.
Wander through the years, then step into a story.

FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITYSee technology in the image atlas ↗
THE IMAGE ATLAS

Oldest to newest. Follow the years; watch the world change.

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME868 — 2024
A Tang-period craftsperson lifts a paper sheet from a carved printing block in a wooden workshop.Before 1500Before 1500The Diamond Sutra scroll dated 11 May 868Published An ink-stained printer arranges metal type beside a timber press and drying sheets in a medieval workshop.Before 1500Caxton dates the Dictes or Sayings of the PhilosophersPublished A priest and Portuguese courtiers watch a small paper balloon rise above a palace courtyard.1500–17991500–1799Bartolomeu de Gusmão’s balloon demonstration of August 1709Published Guests dine by warm lights beneath unfinished brick tunnel arches, with a separate workmen’s table visible alongside.The 19th centuryThe 19th centuryThe Thames Tunnel banquet of 10 November 1827Published An early wooden box camera stands beside a reflective metal photographic plate in a velvet-lined holder.The 19th centuryPublic disclosure of the daguerreotype process in ParisPublished A wooden pencil sharpened at both ends lies beside a penknife and wood shavings.The 19th centuryHymen Lipman’s Pencil and Eraser Patent of 1858Published An inventor leans over a hand-cranked phonautograph with an acoustic horn and a dark recording cylinder.The 19th centuryScott de Martinville records Au clair de la lune on paperPublished Dom Pedro II takes Alexander Graham Bell’s arm as exhibition judges approach an early telephone on a wooden bench.The 19th centuryDom Pedro II and Bell’s telephone demonstration on 25 June 1876Published Josephine Cochrane examines china held in wire racks inside an early copper dishwashing machine.The 19th centuryJosephine Cochrane’s 1886 dishwasher patentPublished A vast spoked wheel with long enclosed passenger cabins rises over visitors in nineteenth-century dress.The 19th centuryThe Original Ferris Wheel Opens at Chicago’s World’s FairPublished A hand holds a pencil above an empty diamond-shaped puzzle grid in an early twentieth-century newspaper office.1900–19451900–1945Arthur Wynne’s first newspaper crossword appears in 1913Published A baker wraps an evenly sliced loaf in a Missouri bakery, with early slicing machinery behind the counter.1900–1945Chillicothe's sliced-bread advertisement of July 6, 1928Published An imagined 1948 laboratory with valve racks, exposed wiring and a glowing cathode-ray tube.1946–19991946–1999The Manchester Baby runs its first program: June 21, 1948Published A dry noodle cake beside a steaming bowl as water is poured from a metal kettle in a Japanese kitchen.1946–1999Chicken Ramen launches in JapanPublished Two visitors operate handheld controllers beside a glowing circular tennis display in a 1950s laboratory.1946–1999Tennis for Two debuts at Brookhaven National LaboratoryPublished Illustration of a seated audience watching a mechanical family in an old-fashioned kitchen on a curved theatre stage.1946–1999Carousel of Progress opens at the 1964 New York World's FairPublished A suited engineer holds a large early handheld telephone on a 1970s Manhattan sidewalk.1946–1999Motorola’s 1973 handheld cellular telephone demonstrationPublished A cashier passes a wrapped grocery package across a large 1970s supermarket scanner.1946–1999The first commercial UPC barcode scan in Troy, OhioPublished A blue-and-silver portable cassette player, wired headphones and a blank cassette on a shop counter.1946–1999Launch of the Sony Walkman TPS-L2 in JapanPublished A bearded researcher tilts his head beside a glowing computer terminal in a 1980s university office.1946–1999Scott Fahlman proposes the sideways smiley for online jokesPublished A hand places a silver compact disc into the open tray of an early black hi-fi player.1946–1999Sony launches the CDP-101 compact-disc player, 1 October 1982Published A young programmer works at a beige desktop computer in a modest Helsinki student room.1946–1999Linus Torvalds announces his operating-system hobbyPublished A silver robotic dog approaches a bright ball as a person reaches to pat its head in a Japanese home.1946–1999Sony announces the first AIBO robotic petPublished A young man gestures beside an elephant enclosure while another visitor films him with a small camcorder.Since 2000Since 2000YouTube’s first video, Me at the zoo, is uploadedPublished An older woman and a young man swing white handheld game controllers in a 2006 living room.Since 2000Wii launches in North America with Wii SportsPublished A chef cooks a small beef patty beside a tasting plate and a laboratory culture dish.Since 2000The First Public Cultivated-Beef Burger Tasting in LondonPublished Bakers tend an exceptionally long baguette on a narrow outdoor support, with a metal oven enclosure behind them.Since 2000Suresnes’s Record Baguette and Its Moving OvenPublished
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