Buzz
When we think of 'technology,' our minds often jump to things like computers, smartphones, or even the surprisingly convenient electric nose hair trimmer. But it's easy to forget that many of the simple, everyday items we use now were once revolutionary innovations, and the world didn’t always have things like cars, radios, and car radios. Here are ten remarkable technological milestones:
10. The First Public Radio Broadcast January 13, 1910
Lee DeForest didn’t invent radio itself but made vital contributions, including the invention of the Audion tube, which advanced the technology. He also coined the term 'radio.' By 1907, DeForest was testing ship-to-shore communications and claimed he would soon broadcast opera to New York City. In 1910, he did just that, cementing his place in radio history.
The inaugural public radio broadcast took place on January 13 of that year, transmitted from the Metropolitan Opera House. The broadcast featured performances of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, with the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso. A five hundred watt transmitter sent the signal, which reached listeners as far as Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Although the audio quality was understandably poor—New York Times even noted that the static 'kept the homeless song waves from finding themselves'—reporters were still impressed. The growing interest in radio quickly followed as a result.
9. Mary Ward, The First Victim of a Car Accident
Mary Ward was an early female scientist at a time when the field was largely male-dominated. Her childhood fascination with small creatures led her to sketch ants and insects through a magnifying glass, and she soon advanced to using microscopes. By her twenties, she had published her drawings of the tiny world in 'Sketches With The Microscope.' Her family had a deep scientific legacy as well, with cousins who had built one of the first steam-powered cars, which they drove at speeds of up to five miles per hour. One fateful day, while riding in the car, Mary was thrown out as it rounded a corner, landing beneath the wheel and tragically becoming the first person to die in an automobile accident.
While Mary Ward's death was undeniably significant, her life was equally remarkable. She was a trailblazer in the field of microscopy and broke barriers for women in science.
8. WTBS, The First Basic Cable Network
In 1972, HBO made history as the first-ever pay cable network. It was also the first to implement a newly approved satellite distribution system, sending its signal to cable operators across the nation. HBO was the sole network to use this system until 1975, when a local UHF station in Atlanta, owned by Ted Turner, decided to get involved.
Originally known as WCTG, Turner’s station became the first non-pay network to broadcast via satellite on December 17, 1976. The signal was transmitted to four cable operators in Nebraska, Virginia, Alabama, and Kansas, showing an episode of Deep Waters, already 30 minutes into the program.
In 1979, the station changed its call letters to WTBS, which stood for Turner Broadcasting System. It became the first 'Superstation,' meaning a local station broadcast via satellite to cable networks. TBS, without the 'W,' remains a staple in most cable packages today and holds the distinction of being the very first basic cable channel.
7. Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, The First Album Released On CD
For many of you, the Compact Disc was the dominant music format during your youth. Vinyl records, which had been the preferred medium for over three decades until the 1980s, were outsold by CDs for the first time in 1988. CDs continued to reign supreme until 2011, when digital releases (just slightly) overtook them.
The CDP-101, the first-ever commercially available CD player, was launched in Japan on October 1, 1982, coinciding with the release of the first CD: Billy Joel’s 1978 album 52nd Street. It wasn’t until five months later that additional titles (sixteen in total, all from CBS Records) were made available, marking the US debut of the player.
It's a bit of a mystery why Sony picked Billy Joel to introduce their new technology to the Japanese market, but in hindsight, they could have made a worse choice. 52nd Street features timeless tracks like Big Shot, Honesty, and My Life, making it a fantastic album that still resonates today.
6. Telstar I, The First Communications Satellite
On July 10, 1962, the first privately funded space mission launched, paving the way for the first-ever global television broadcast just two days later. Telstar 1, a satellite owned by AT&T, was sent into orbit by NASA at Cape Canaveral. This historic event resulted from a groundbreaking collaboration between NASA, AT&T, Bell (who built the satellite), the UK’s General Post Office, and France Telecom.
The first images were transmitted between Andover, Maine, and Brittany, France, and were broadcast across both sides of the Atlantic for 18 minutes. The very first image was of a waving American flag, followed by segments from a press conference with President Kennedy and footage of a Phillies-Cubs baseball game.
For four months, Telstar I was responsible for handling a multitude of transmissions, including broadcasts, phone calls, and faxes, until it became inoperable due to cosmic radiation. This radiation resulted from a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States the day before its launch, a detail that seems to have been overlooked.
5. The First Commercial Flight January 1, 1914
The first-ever commercial flight between two cities—and the first to carry a paying passenger—took place on January 1, 1914, between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida. What would have taken several hours by ship or at least four by train was completed in just twenty-five minutes. The lucky passenger was Abram Pheil, a St. Petersburg businessman and former mayor, who won his seat through an auction, paying an amount that would be the modern-day equivalent of five thousand dollars.
The pilot of this historic flight was Tony Jannus, a 25-year-old barnstormer and test pilot for military aircraft. Already somewhat famous, Jannus's involvement and the excitement surrounding the auction helped generate public interest in using the 'aeroplane' as a practical form of travel.
And honestly, we can’t blame you for that—heading home for the holidays is challenging enough without enduring a three-day trip on a steamship.
4. Xerox Alto, The First Graphical User Interface
In 1984, Apple released the first widely available home computer with a graphical user interface (GUI), complete with windows, folders, and a mouse. Of course, Microsoft quickly adapted (or, some would say, borrowed) this design for its Windows operating system. But don’t feel too sorry for Apple—credit for designing the interface goes to Xerox, not their engineers.
The Xerox Alto, unveiled in 1972, was ahead of its time with features that would become standard on modern PCs. It had bit-mapped graphics, icons, windows, and introduced the first-ever mouse. Additionally, the Alto was the pioneer of Ethernet, introducing the local area networking protocol that we still use today.
Xerox, predominantly focused on the photocopier business, made the decision not to launch the Alto into the market, choosing instead to concentrate on their core product. This decision, which at the time seemed like the right one, would later be praised by every major player in the personal computer industry.
3. CERN’s “World Wide Web Project,” The First Website
The first-ever website, created by Tim Berners-Lee—the inventor of the World Wide Web—was published on August 6, 1991. The site explained, 'The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents.'
Hosted originally at Info.cern.ch, the page was crafted on a NeXT workstation at CERN labs in Geneva, Switzerland. Its content was simple: it announced the existence of the 'Web,' listed key people involved in the project, and included some technical details.
Since only Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN had access to software that could function as web browsers, most of the world remained unaware of the groundbreaking invention until the release of the Mosaic browser in 1993.
The original page has been preserved, and while it might seem like something a child could create in a few minutes today, it led directly to every website ever created—including the very one you're reading right now. The server hosting it is still active at CERN, with a sign that reads, 'This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN!'
Indeed, do not power it down. We salute you, the father of all web servers.
2. Marsh Supermarket, The First Supermarket With A Barcode Scanner
Throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, various inventors attempted and failed to develop a functional automated product scanning system. In 1972, a Kroger store in Cincinnati tried out a 'bulls-eye' style code, but at that time, a committee was forming within the grocery industry to create a standard. IBM's proposal, which led to the creation of the UPC (Uniform Product Code), ultimately prevailed.
The first-ever UPC scanner was installed at a checkout station in Marsh’s Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in June of 1974. At 8:01 AM on June 26th, a ten-pack of Wrigley’s gum became the first item ever scanned. That same pack of gum is now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, prompting the question: who bought the gum, and why didn’t they eat it?
1. Video Station, The First Video Rental Store
In late 1977, Magnetic Video became the first company to offer theatrical releases on Betamax and VHS videotapes. Their initial library consisted of fifty films, including classics like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sound of Music, available in both formats. They quickly found success selling their videos through mail order.
George Atkinson owned Home Theater Systems, a Super 8 film and projector rental business in Los Angeles. Already involved in renting movies, Atkinson had a brilliant idea: he invested a considerable amount in one Beta and one VHS copy of each of Magnetic Video's fifty films, opened a small storefront on Wilshire Boulevard, and took out an ad in the L.A. Times announcing 'Videos For Rent'—the first time anyone had ever done so.
The initial cost was high: fifty dollars for a yearly membership, one hundred for a lifetime membership, plus ten dollars per day for each rental (remember, this was the late 1970s). But the business proved to be successful, and Atkinson eventually expanded, licensing over six hundred Video Station franchises, becoming the first-ever video rental chain.
