| 2400 | The counting board much like the later Abacus is believed to be first used by the Babylonians circa. |
| 300 | The abacus much like the device we know today begins being used. |
| 100 | The Antikythera mechanism is probably the first mechanical analog computer. It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. |
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| 0 | Should be: 14 billion 20.. after the BB. |
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| 1440 | Johannes Gutenberg completes his development of the Gutenberg press, the first printing press. |
| 1492 | Leonardo da Vinci makes drawing of 13-digit cog-wheeled adder. |
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| 1588 | First British manual bookkeping. |
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| 1600 | William Gilbert coins the term electricity from the Greek word elecktra. |
| 1617 | John Napier introduced a system called ‘Napiers Bones’, made from horn, bone or ivory the device allowed the capability of multiplying by adding numbers and dividing by subtracting. |
| 1622 | The circular slide rule is invented by William Oughtred. |
| 1623 | The first known workable mechanical calculating machine is invented by Germanys Wilhelm Schickard. |
| 1642 | Frances Blaise Pascal invents a machine, called the Pascaline, that can add and subtract. |
| 1674 | Germanys Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz creates a machine that can add, subtract, multiply and divide automatically. |
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| 1725 | An early form of punch cards begin to be used in textile looms. |
| 1774 | The first telegraph is built. |
| 1780 | American Benjamin Franklin discovers electricity. |
| 1791 | Charles Babbage is born. |
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| 1804 | Frances Joseph-Marie Jacquard completes his fully automated loom that is programmed by punched cards. |
| 1820 | Thomas de Colmar creates the first reliable, useful and commercially successful calculating machine. |
| 1821 | Charles Babbage invents the Difference Engine. |
| 1826 | The earliest known surviving photograph is taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce – a view of a courtyard from his window. |
| 1827 | George Simon Ohm introduces Ohm’s law in the book ‘Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet’. |
| 1831 | Joseph Henry of Princeton invents the first working telegraph. |
| 1832 | Semen Korsakov uses punch cards for the first time to store and search for information. |
| 1838 | Samuel Morse invents a code – later called Morse code – to transmit messages. |
| 1847 | Siemens & Halske was founded by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske on October 12. |
| | George Boole is the inventor of the prototype of what is now called Boolean logic, which became the basis of the modern digital computer. Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of digital electronics. |
| 1851 | Western Union was founded. |
| 1857 | The phonautograph – phonograph – is patented March 25 by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. The device was capable of transcribing sound to a medium. |
| 1861 | The first known permanent color photograph is taken of a Tartan Ribbon by the photographer Thomas Sutton. To achieve a color image he took a photo of the ribbon three times, each time with a different color, a method developed by James Clerk Maxwell. |
| 1866 | The first successful Trans-Atlantic cable is laid from Ireland to Newfoundland. |
| 1868 | Christopher Sholes invents the typewriter in the United States utilizing the QWERTY keyboard. |
| 1871 | Charles Babbage passes away October 18. |
| 1875 | Tanaka Seizo-sho is established in Japan and later merges with another company called shibaura Seisaku-sho to form Tokyo Shibarura Denki. Later this companies name is shortened to Toshiba. |
| 1876 | Alexander Graham Bell is often credited as inventing the telephone. |
| 1877 | The microphone is invented in the by Emile Berliner. |
| | Thomas Edison invents and announces on November 21 the first phonograph capable of recording and replaying sounds. |
| 1879 | James Jacob Ritty patents the worlds first cash register November 4. |
| 1880 | ASME is founded. |
| 1888 | Eastman Kodak is founded. |
| 1883 | American Thomas Edison discovers the Edison effect, in which an electric current flows through a vacuum. |
| 1885 | American Telegraph and Telephone company – AT&T – is incorporated. |
| 1888 | Nikola Tesla patents the rotating field motor May 1 and later sells the rights to George Westinghouse. This invention helps create and transmit AC power and today is still a method for generating and distributing AC power. |
| | William S. Burroughs patents a printing adding machine. |
| | Friedrich Reintzer discovers liquid crystal. |
| 1890 | Herman Hollerith developed a method for machines to to record and store information onto punch cards to be used for the US census. He later formed the company we know as IBM today. |
| 1891 | Phillips is founded. |
| 1897 | Karl Ferdinand Braun invents the Cathode-Ray Oscilloscope. |
| 1898 | Alcatel is founded. |