1904 The Fleming valve, the first vacuum tube, is patented by Sir John A. Fleming.

1905 Albert Einstein publishes the theory of relativity.

1915 The first transcontinental call, between San Francisco and NewYork, is placed by researchers working at AT&T.

1920 Czech author Karel Capek coins the word, "robot."

1924 The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company is renamed International Business Machines (IBM).

1934 Federal legislation is passed in the form of the Communications Act in an attempt to begin regulation of the telephone industry.

1939 The first digital computer prototype is created at Iowa State College by Clifford Berry and John Atanasoff. Hewlett-Packard is founded.

1941 Regular television broadcasting begins.

1947 Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley invent the first point-contact transistor at Bell Labs.

1948 Bell Labs unveils the transistor to the U.S. military and to the public at large.

1951 The UNIVAC 1, considered the first commercial computer, is sold to the U.S. Census Bureau by the Eckert and Mauchly Computer Co.

1956 Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain win the Nobel Prize for their work on the transistor. IBM researchers unveil the first hard-disk drive.

1958 The U.S. Dept. of Defense creates the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The first integrated circuit or "silicon chip" is invented.

1962 Dr. J.C.R. Licklider defines the concept of global networking in a pioneering thesis at MIT, "On-Line Man Computer Communications."

1965 Moore's Law is espoused for the first time by Gordon Moore.

1968 Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore form the Intel Corp.

1969 ARPAnet is created.

1970 Glass fiber, precursor to the development of fiber optics, is created at Corning Glass.

1971 Intel creates the first microprocessor.

1972 The concept of electronic mail is introduced, as is the concept of open-architecture networking.

1974 Barcoded products appear in U.S. stores and cashiers begin using scanners.

1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen form a partnership, naming their new business Microsoft.

1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer Co. Cray Research, Inc. unveils the Cray-1, a supercomputer with revolutionary speed capabilities.

1981 IBM introduces its personal computer.

1982 The TCP/IP protocol is developed.

1983 Microsoft Word is unveiled, as is the Windows operating system. Time magazine chooses the PC as its 1982 "Man of the Year."

1984 Apple Computer Co. introduces the Macintosh.

1985 The National Science Foundation establishes NSFNET, an enhanced version of ARPAnet.

1986 Microsoft Corp. conducts its IPO.

1989 BITNET is born.

1990 Microsoft Corp. revenues exceed $1 billion. ARPAnet is decommissioned and shut down.

1991 The World Wide Web comes into existence as the National Science Foundation's decree that prevents commercial use of the Internet dissolves.

1993 Graphics-based Web browser Mosaic is released. The U.S. Justice Dept. begins its antitrust investigation into Microsoft Corp.

1994 The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is established.

1995 Amazon.com goes online for the first time. The National Science Foundation's financial support of the Internet is terminated.

2000 Technology stocks plummet in value as the dot-com shakeout takes hold. Internet startups are hit hard and many fold or merge.

2001 Time Warner and America Online (AOL) finalize their mega-merger.