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1926-1950
1951-1965
1966-1976
1977-1989
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1996-2000
2001-2005
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related:
networks &
the GII
the web
communication
revolutions
key IT
industry
dates
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1990 to 1995
This page of the timeline covers -
1990
World Wide Web described by Tim Berners-Lee
Telecom New Zealand privatised
through sale to Bell Atlantic and Ameritech for NZ$4.25bn
Telmex privatised through US$1.7bn sale to Grupo Carso,
Southwestern Bell and France Télécom
Documentum founded
Clear Communications begins competition against Telecom
NZ
Electronic Frontier Foundation founded
Americans With Disabilities Act in US
Mannesmann launches D2 mobile network in Germany
Operation Sundevil in US against hackers
first commercial provider of dial-up net access
first palmtop computers
IBM's revenue reaches US$68.9bn, with 400,000 employees
worldwide
99% of US households have at least one radio
7.1m phone subscribers in China
Elders IXL rebadged as Foster's Brewing Group Ltd
Dun
& Bradstreet pays US$333m for Management Science America
Moravec's Mind Children
US business uses 4 trillion pages of paper
Packer regains control of Nine television network
NZ Telecom sold to Bell Atlantic, Ameritech & Fay
Richwhite
International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical
Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human
Use
GEC buys parts of Ferranti
AMP buys Pearl (founded 1857)
ANZ buys National Mutual Royal Bank (founded 1986), Lloyds
operation in PNG, Bank of New Zealand operation in Fiji
and Town & Country WA Building Society
1991
Elsevier
buys Pergamon from Robert Maxwell
Matsushita buys MCA
Coase wins Nobel prize
in Economics
AT&T acquires NCR for US$7.3bn
GTE buys Contel for US$6.6bn
SITA establishes Scitor as global data services provider
UK government sells 25.8% of British Telecom
IBM's first revenue decline in 45 years
IBM sells ROLM to Siemens
patents registered by USPTO reach 5 million mark
Fosters buys Grand Metropolitan PLC brewing interests
Line Mode Browser - the first internet browser
ANZ buys 75% of Bank of Western Samoa
est 5 million fax machines deployed in US
Australia as An Information Society report
CNN dominates news coverage worldwide during Gulf War
Denver trial of VOD - over 1,000 titles but no profits
over 4 billion videocassette rentals in the US
75% of US homes reported to own VCRs, 60% have cable tv
8.7m phone subscribers in China
Zimmermann releases first version of PGP
US Telephone Consumer Protection Act
UN Draft Declaration of the Rights of the World's Indigenous
Peoples
Computer Associates buys Pansophic for US$300m
Feist copyright decision
by US Supreme Court
end of NSF's internet 'Acceptable Use' policy
1992
ERM financial crisis in EU
Maastricht Treaty on European Union
US cable television revenue reaches US$22 billion
US has 10 million mobile phone subscribers
China has 11.8m phone subscribers
LDDS merges with Advanced Telecommunications for US$850m
United Telephone renamed Sprint
900 million TV sets in the world; 201 million in the US
45.4% of Italian families have a VCR
Coles Myer spins off Progressive Enterprises, buys Vintage
Cellars and Tyremaster
first use of the phrase "surfing the net" by Jean Armour
Polly
first SMS to a mobile
phone
Moving Picture Experts Group agree on MPEG Audio Layer
III, aka MP3
at least 50 US cities have competing cable services
Australian Disability Discrimination Act
US Audio Home Recording Act
Maastricht Treaty on European Union
Gilder's Life After Television
TCI
chair John Malone predicts "500 channel universe"
US National Science Foundation appoints NSI to manage
dot-com, dot-net and dot-org domain names
Internet Society (ISOC) founded
Deutsche Bundespost Telekom and France Telecom form Eunetcom
Control Data spins off software arm, renames itself Ceridian
1993
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
merger of Elsevier
and Reed International
proposed merger of TCI and Bell Atlantic collapses
DVD invented by Toshiba
est 10 million fax machines deployed in US
V-chip proposed for TV content control
Mosaic - first graphical internet browser
Kodak and Apple produce
first digital still image camera for consumers
Cisco buys Crescendo for US$97m
Fosters buys Cascade
Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure
& Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime
GTE sells Sylvania lighting and materials operations to
Osram
Bay Networks formed through US$2.7bn merger of Synoptics
and WellFleet
LDDS buys Resurgens Communications Group and Metromedia
Communications for US$1.25bn to create fourth-largest
US long distance phone network
Primus Telecommunications founded
Australian MEDLINE network closes
UK government sells 21% of British Telecom for £5bn
France Telecom acquires most Compagnie Generale des Eaux
cable networks
Sprint merges with Centel to become only major US telco
providing long distance, local and wireless services
CANARIE established in Canada
Tucows founded as software download service
New Zealand Privacy Act
IBM posts US$8.1bn loss
Ameritech and Bell Atlantic reduce Telecom New Zealand
stake to a combined 49.6%
BellSouth NZ establishes mobile network in New Zealand
China has 17.8m phone subscribers
1994
LDDS buys IDB Communications Group for US$936m
MCI and BT form US$1bn Concert Communication Services
joint venture
BT takes 20% stake in MCI for US$4.3bn
Monster Board (later Monster.com) founded
Danish government sells 49% of Tele Danmark
MCI takes US$1.3bn stake in wireless service provider
Nextel Communications
Declaration of Chapultepec
Orange mobile network in UK launched
Australian Mobile Telecoms Association (AMTA) established
Elsevier
buys LEXIS-NEXIS
first digital TV service - DirecTV in the US by satellite
Netscape founded
Stac Electronics awarded US$120m damages for patent infringement
by Microsoft
Village
controls Austereo radio in Australia
establishment of International Seabed Authority (ISA)
Viacom
buys Blockbuster and Paramount
BCE
buys 20% of Mercury Communications
VoiceStream founded
135 million PCs worldwide
US government privatises internet management
first ads on the World Wide Web (ad for Wired magazine
claimed as first)
first demonstration of Java
Cyberspace & the American Dream manifesto
Pizza Hut sells pizzas over the net
US videogame industry establishes Entertainment Software
Rating Board (ESRB)
Herman Miller Aeron office chair
First Virtual, first cyberbank
Telecom Italia established
Rheingold's The Virtual Community
Birkerts' The Gutenberg Elegies
Guldberg Report on economic value of copyright industries
in Australia
Cordell proposes Byte Tax
Canter & Siegel's How to Make a Fortune on the Information
Superhighway
Goldstein's Copyright's Highway: The Law & Lore of
Copyright from Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox
interactive TV introduced in US
Compagnie des Machines Bull privatised
Adobe buys Aldus for US$525m
China has 27.2m phone subscribers, 5.1 mobile subscribers
RealNetworks founded
1995
est 25 million mobile phone subscribers in US
Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural
Objects
est 15 million fax machines deployed in US
LDDS buys WilTel (Williams Telecommunications Group) for
US$2.5bn, changes name to WorldCom
first US NTIA Falling Through The Net report
APEC Seoul Declaration for the Asia Pacific Information
Infrastructure
Amazon.com founded
craigslist founded
Virage founded
first
wiki site (for Portland
Pattern Repository)
Pearson
buys Grundy
Worldwide
Seagram
buys MCA
Fosters sells Courage brewing interests
GEC buys Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd (VSEL)
Westinghouse
buys CBS,
subsequently changes name to CBS
Singapore Telecom takes 24.5% in AAPT
AAPT acquires major shareholding in Newsnet ITN
ANZ buys remainder of Bank of Western Samoa
Westpac buys Challenge Bank
AAPT buys 50% of ISP
connect.com.au
Cisco buys Grand Junction for US$348m
Northern Telecom becomes Nortel
US mutual fund assets first exceed deposits in US commercial
banking system
Microsoft's Internet
Explorer browser
Sony demonstrates flat-screen TV set
Iomega markets Zip drive
Mondex introduced
RealAudio lets internet users hear in near real-time
Marty Rimm 'cyberpanic'
Negroponte's Being Digital
Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil
EU Data Protection Directive
AT&T announces split into AT&T communication services,
Lucent Technologies and NCR computing
Sun Microsystems introduces Java programming language
WebCrawler acquired by America Online
global Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property (TRIPS)
Compaq acquires NetWorth and Thomas-Conrad
Disney
buys ABC network
VeriSign founded
Deutsche Bundespost spins off Deutsche Telekom
portable CD player sales overtake cassette players
NSF transfers control of four major internet access points
to Ameritech, Sprint, MFS and PacBell
one lawyer for every 307 people in US
next page
(1996-2000)
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