Technology That Was Cutting Edge the Year You Were Born

We’ve come a long way, baby, when it comes to technology. But do you know the tech that was all the rage when you were born? Read on to see innovations that may seem quaint and commonplace today but were revolutionary at the time. 

At the beach, on the street, everywhere you went in 1950, someone was toting one of these portable radios around. Use of transistors rather than large vacuum tubes, allowed for the miniaturization of radios, TVs, and more.

The predecessor of the computers we use today was released this year. It weighed almost 7 tons!

This film technology, which used three cameras and a curved screen, made movies a lot cooler to see in the theater (assuming you lived near a Cinerama theater).

It’s hard to imagine a picnic without a cooler, but it wasn’t until 1953 that Richard C. Laramy received a patent for his innovative design, and the world was forever changed by chilled beverages.

The world came alive on television sets with the release of the RCA CT-100 model, which had a 12-inch screen. It cost $1,000.

In 1955, the brand Tappan released its first microwave oven, changing the game for home cooks all around the globe when it came to getting dinner on the table in a jiffy.

It’s hard to imagine that the first hard disk drive stored the equivalent of 3.75 megabytes on 50 disks!

Russia's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, opened the door to all kinds of questions about what we could do with the technology.

This year, the microchip was invented by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments, which paved the way for today's computers. He later won a Nobel Prize in Physics.

Xerox released its first commercial copier, changing the document copying game forever.

Here’s another technology that would come to be of great importance to us globally. It was invented at Hughes Research Laboratory in California.

Though robots were invented a decade before, it was this year that the patent was applied to the automotive and other industries.

The first computer game, Spacewar, was invented by an MIT grad student. Yes, even in the 1960s, students were wasting timeplaying games.

The Pennsylvania towns of Carnegie and Greensburg were lucky; they were the first to experience the touch-tone phone.

Where would we be without our computer mouse (mice?)? You can thank Douglas Engelbar of the Stanford Research Institute for that invention.

Music production got super funky in 1965, thanks to the invention of this commercial synthesizer.

This year, James Russell filed his patent for the first digital-to-optical recording and playback system.

London was the first home of an automatic teller machine. Today, we’ve got them on every corner!

While it wasn’t yet ready for the world, the first whirlpool tub received its patent in 1968.

Even more convenient than a regular cassette, the microcassette was 25% the size of its big brother.

Remember these? They’re what we put our college essays on before the cloud was born.

This is the year that Intel came out with the Intel 4004, the first microprocessor that would change the world of computing.

The first video game released by Atari, Pong was table tennis at its finest.

Yes, cell phones were invented in the 1970s, though they were a far cry from the tiny computers we carry around today.

They’re everywhere today, but barcodes got their start in 1974 when Wrigley’s Chewing Gum started using them.

Xerox announced its Xerox 1200 laser printer this year, which could print 60 pages per minute. Wow!

The Video Home System was released this year, opening up a whole world of watching videos and recording television.

Apple released its first mass-produced home computer. By 1993, 5 million to 6 million computers were sold.

Yes, the Global Positioning System we use today with Google and Apple Maps got its start decades ago with the launch of Navstar/GPS satellite.

Sony came out with its portable music player, making it easy to carry your tunes with you.

While it wasn’t his first video recording device, it was the camcorder that made inventor Jerome Lemelson a star. He got his patent for the camcorder in 1980.

Computers became a household appliance when the IBM Personal Computer (PC) came out.

While the patent for compact discs was filed in the ‘60s, it wasn’t until 1982 that they hit the market.

Word quickly became the go-to software at work, school, and home, thanks to Microsoft.

Not to be outdone by IBM, Apple launched its own personal computer this year.

Microsoft launched its first operating system with Windows 1.0.

Fujifilm released the QuickSnap camera, one that used film but that could be thrown away after use.

Stephen Wilhite invented something that we’ve used more and more over the years while working at CompuServe. Oh, and it’s pronounced like Jif, the peanut butter.

Though it was initially released in Japan as the Mega Drive gaming system, by the time it reached the U.S., the name had changed to Sega Genesis.

This was a big year for technology; the World Wide Web was born. It was designed to be a "universal linked information system."

The space shuttle Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into space in 1990, where it’s been orbiting and exploring ever since.

Who would have imagined that this invention would revolutionize virtual meetings during and after the pandemic?

In 1992, the first SMS (that’s short message service) was sent. We wonder what it said…

Apple launched its first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), which could send faxes, take notes, and store contacts. Now, if only we could call people on it…

Sony’s PlayStation got its start in 1994 and quickly became a worldwide phenomenon.

Though it didn’t take off, Nintendo entered the virtual reality market with its Virtual Boy platform.

The new kid on the block, the DVD, quickly overtook the VHS when it came to video format.

No longer were wires required to enjoy internet browsing, thanks to the advent of wi-fi.

Another huge year for the internet: Google was invented as a tool that would search the millions of documents found on the World Wide Web.

While the U.S. saw MP3 players enter the market at the end of 1998, in 1999, they became ubiquitous worldwide.

Korea was the first country to start taking pics with their phones when Samsung launched the SCH-V200.

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