Atomic Age
Nuclear weapons, computers, transistors, integrated circuits, satellites, organ transplants. The Cold War accelerates technology faster than any peacetime period in history.
Part of First
8 moments in this segment.
- - Transistor. Bell Labs (Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley) demonstrate the first point-contact transistor on December 23, 1947. Vacuum tubes' century-long reign is over; the silicon era begins.
- - Long-Playing Record (LP). Columbia Records introduces the 12-inch 33⅓ rpm vinyl LP, holding 22 minutes per side. The 78 rpm shellac record (3-4 min/side) is dead within a decade.
- - First Artificial Satellite (Sputnik 1). October 4, 1957: USSR launches a 58-cm aluminium sphere with two radio transmitters. The Space Age begins; NASA is founded in response 10 months later.
- - Integrated Circuit. Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments demonstrates the first IC, five components on a single germanium wafer. Robert Noyce at Fairchild does the same with silicon a year later.
- - Laser. Theodore Maiman builds the first working laser at Hughes Research Labs, a ruby rod pumped by a flashlamp. CD players, fiber-optic communication, surgery, holograms all follow.
- - Human Spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin). April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth once in Vostok 1, 108 minutes. The Soviet Union beats the US to crewed orbital flight by 23 days.
- - Moon Landing. July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 lands the Eagle on the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spend 21.5 hours on the lunar surface. 650 million people watch live.
- - ARPANET. October 29, 1969: the first ARPANET message, "LO", sent between UCLA and Stanford (the system crashed before "LOGIN" finished). The internet's direct ancestor.
