200 words related to the history of Radio

History of Television “Empire of the Air” Ken Burns/ PBS Class- I will be sending out your “homework assignment” within the hour. But please see the attached timeline study guide. Hopefully this will help you place events in the history of radio/TV in the context of history! Rev    

Empire Timeline

Contemporary Events

1887: Radio waves discovered. Queen Victoria celebrates Golden Jubilee; Sir

Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet.”

1895: Guglielmo Marconi performs simple experiments which convince him it is possible to send signals through the air using electromagnetic waves.

Gillette invents safety razor; Tchaikovsky, “Swan Lake” ballet; H.G. Wells, The Time Machine.

1900: De Forest patents device to improve weak signals.

Hurricane ravages Galveston, Texas; Commonwealth of Austria created; Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.

1901: Marconi transmits the telegraphic signal of the letter "S" a distance across the Atlantic Ocean.

First Nobel prizes awarded; President McKinley assassinated; Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery.

1902: Reginald Fessenden invents the “electrolytic detector”; De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company is formed.

Monet paints “Waterloo Bridge”, Aswan Dam completed; Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

1904: John Fleming invents the Oscillation Valve; DeForest wins gold medal at St. Louis World’s Fair for “spade detector.”

New York subway opens; Rolls Royce company is founded; Puccini composes “Madame Butterfly.”

1910: DeForest broadcasts Enrico Caruso from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

Halley’s comet observed; Mexican Revolution; Boy Scouts of America incorporated.

1912: Edwin Armstrong invents regeneration; wireless distress call from the sinking Titanic helps save many lives.

Bull Moose party formed; Picasso, “The Violin”; Arizona and New Mexico become states.

1913: Armstrong applies for a patent to use a vacuum tube as an oscillator.

Henry Ford introduces first moving assembly line; garment workers strike in NY and Boston; Armory Show introduces modern art to U.S.

1914: DeForest takes Armstrong to court — launches what will be the longest patent suit in history.

World War I begins; Panama Canal opens; first traffic lights are put up in U.S.

1916: While working as an employee for the Marconi Company, David Sarnoff proposes radio “boxes” as a household utility and business opportunity.

Frank Lloyd Wright designs Imperial Hotel in Tokyo; Jeannette Rankin becomes first woman elected to Congress; U.S. buys Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.

1917: America enters World War I; US government commandeers all wireless transmitters.

Russian Revolution begins; Puerto Rico becomes U.S. territory.

1919: Armstrong announces the first “superheterodyne”-- the set would be the new Radio Corporation of America’s biggest success.

Peace conference at Versailles opens; 18th Amendment begins U.S. prohibition.

1920: KDKA in Pittsburgh transmits the first commercial radio broadcast.

League of Nations established; U.S. women win right to vote; Rorschach devises “inkblot” test.

1921: Sarnoff is named general manager of RCA. British Broadcasting Corporation founded;

Sacco and Vanzetti trial; John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga.

1922: Armstrong invents “super-regenerative” receiver.

Insulin first given to diabetes patients; Lincoln Memorial dedicated; Mussolini marches on Rome, forms Fascist government.

1923: President Harding has a radio installed at the White House; Armstrong invents the first portable radio.

George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue”; Tokyo earthquake; William Butler Yeats wins Nobel Prize in Literature.

1926: NBC begins first network news on radio. Germany admitted to League of Nations;

Hirohito made Emperor of Japan; Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

1927: NBC links 50 stations to broadcast live Charles Lindbergh's return from Europe.

Economic system collapses in Germany; Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs; first pop-up toaster designed in U.S.

1930: Sarnoff is made president of RCA. Pluto discovered; gas turbine engine invented;

Grant Wood paints “American Gothic.”

1933: Armstrong introduces Frequency Modulation (FM); FDR makes the first four of his “fireside chats.”

Hitler appointed German Chancellor; FDR introduces “New Deal”; 21st Amendment repeals prohibition.

1934: Federal Communications Commission created by Congress.

Mao Tse-tung begins the Long March north with 100,000 soldiers; Dionne quintuplets born in Canada; U.S. First Class stamp is $.03.

1938: Orson Welles broadcasts his adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.”

Hitler marches into Austria; Don Budge wins Wimbledon; U.S. minimum wage established.

1941: Japanese attack Pearl Harbor; FDR speaks to the nation via radio broadcast.

US enters World War II; Orson Wells film “Citizen Kane”; Edward Hopper paints “Nighthawks.”

1942: With US in midst of World War II, Armstrong gives U.S. government all FM patents for free.

Declaration of United Nations signed in Washington, DC; “Casablanca” premieres; women’s military services established.

1950: 90 million radio sets, 10 million TV sets in use in U.S. homes.

McCarthy hearings begin; Brink's robbery in Boston; a computer is used to tally U.S. census.