istoryworld
Events relating to communication
Writing is developed, at Sumer, as cuneiform script on clay tablets
The Egyptian hieroglyphic script develops at much the same time as the Sumerian cuneiform
The invention of writing marks the transition, in academic terms, from prehistory to history
The delicate seals of the Indus civilization are in a script as yet undeciphered
The Chinese develop a form of scroll, made of strips of bamboo threaded together and rolled up like a wooden blind
The empress of Japan, in a remarkable start to the story of printing, commissions a million copies of a Buddhist charm
The world's first known printed book, a Diamond Sutra, is commissioned by a Buddhist monk in honour of his parents
The concept of movable type for printing is pioneered in China, using fired clay, but it proves impractical
The rulers of Baghdad harness homing pigeons as postmen.
The emperor Henry IV stands as a penitent outside the pope's castle at Canossa, so as to be released from excommunication.
Koreans establish the first type foundry, casting movable type in bronze
A copy of Europe's first book printed from movable type, the Gutenberg Bible, is completed in Mainz
The English admiral Robert Blake introduces a system of signalling at sea by means of flags
Napoleon, in response to his excommunication, has pope Pius VII arrested and kept in captivity in northern Italy and then France
US inventor Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration, in Philadelphia, of his electric telegraph
Rowland Hill introduces in Britain the world's first postage stamps - the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue
Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail complete the first telegraph line, between New York and Baltimore
US entrepreneur Cyrus W. Field succeeds in laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic, but it fails after only a month
Adelaide and Darwin are linked across the entire Australian continent by the Overland Telegraph Line
Italian US immigrant Antonio Meucci files a patent in New York for the invention of the telephone
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first practical use of his telephone, summoning his assistant from another room with the words 'Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.'
Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates his new invention, the telephone, at the US Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia
21-year-old Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in transmitting a radio signal more than a mile at his home near Bologna
22-year-old Guglielmo Marconi takes out a patent in Britain for the invention of radio
Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in transmitting a wireless telegraph message across the English Channel
