Timelines of History

[thepennyking]

timeline

The following pages are based on the timeline on the Caslon Analytics site and from individual profiles on this site.

They highlight major technological innovations and corporate developments.

1712-1860

1861-1900

1901-1925

1926-1950

1951-1975

1976-1990

1991-2000

2001-

indicators

The following figures are estimates only, from a range of academic and industry sources

1900 1.4 million telephones, 8,000 registered automobiles and 24 million electric light bulbs in US
1901 22,310 telephone subscribers in Australia
1909 pianos reach maximum market penetration in UK homes at one per ten people
1910 9,500 cinemas in US
1910 122,000 telephones in UK
1912 cinema attendance reaches 5 million per day in US
1913 37% of UK homes own a phonograph
1938 radio surpasses magazines as a source of ad revenue in US
1939 radio in 75% of German homes
1939 15,115 cinemas in US (v 14,952 banks)
1950 4 million tv sets in US
1951 US television advertising revenue exceeds radio ad revenue
1952 22 million tv sets in US homes
1956 71% of US homes have tv
1960 6,000 computers in operation in US
1960 60 million tv sets in US homes
1960 10% of French homes have tv
1967 200m telephones in world - half in US
1968 200 million tv sets in the world - 78m in US
1969 97% of US homes have tv
1976 15% of US homes have cable tv
1976 60% of US homes have microwave oven
1985 average US TV viewing peaks at 7 hours 10 minutes per day
1987 50% of US homes have cable tv
1990 99% of US homes have at least one radio
1991 75% of US homes have VCRs, 60% have cable TV
1992 10 million mobile phone subscribers in US
1992 US spends US$12bn to buy/rent videotapes v US$4.9bn on box office
1992 900 million tv sets in the world; 201 million in US
2002 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity
2002 2.4 billion people rely on primitive biomass (eg dried cow dung) for cooking and heating

benchmarks

At a global level points of reference are provided by the following figures from 1999 on take-up of information & communication technology and annual electricity consumption.

per 1,000 people PCs Internet Hosts Mobiles Main Lines kW pa
Australia 492 50.3 397 610 9.907
New Zealand 416 47.8 190 469 8.810
United States 538 136.7 314 709 13.451
Singapore 390 22.2 381 484 7.137
Hong Kong 360 66.4 551 559 5.178
Japan 325 16.7 382 551 8.130
Malaysia 94 2.8 145 219 2.640
Taiwan 260 20.0 493 569 5.530
S Korea 181 6.0 499 449 5.448
China 9 0.1 32 84 0.912
Thailand 40 0.5 39 84 1.404
Philippines 19 0.2 37 37 0.473
Indonesia 13 0.2 9.8 29 0.358
France 318 11 350 684 7.141
Germany 317 17.6 283 593 6.480
United Kingdom 379 28.4 409 570 5.901

http://www.ketupa.net/timeline.htm