Media History Timeline: 1900s

20th Century: First Decade

Gallery

20-line selector phone
Sweden, 1900

Telephone manufactured
in Denmark, 1901

German telephone
1904

German telephone
1907

1900-1909


1900: 1900: The Oxford English Dictionary letters "A" to "H" are published.; 1900: Visitors to Paris Exposition fascinated by huge Muliplex Grand Graphophone.
1900: Artist Homer Winslow, On a Lee Shore.: 1900: English handwriting experts establish the art of calligraphy.; 1900: Theodore Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie, shocks public morality.; 1900: Rodin completes The Thinker.; 1900: Swedish playwright Johan Strindberg, The Dance of Death.; 1900: Lyman Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first of Oz book series.; 1900: First overseas phone call, from Key West to Havana.; 1900: Kodak's $1 Brownie puts photography in almost everyone's reach.; 1900: Michael Pupin's loading coil reduces telephone voice distortion.; 1900: Estimated 1,800 magazines are being published in the United States.; 1900: Total newspaper circulation in U.S. passes 15 million daily.; 1900:562 cities in U.S. have more than one daily newspaper; New York City has 29.; 1900: In Paris, the Guide Michelin.; 1900: Much of Europe and Japan begin to make movies.; 1900: Phonograph cylinders continue to outsell discs by wide margin.; 1900: Phonograph records add paper labels.; 1900: Eldridge Johnson produces double-sided phonograph records.; 1900: In London, the Daily Express.; 1900: Giacomo Puccini composes Tosca.; 1900: Joseph Conrad's novel, Lord Jim.; 1900: University of Wisconsin experiments with radio transmissions.; 1900: On Broadway, Floradora introduces what will become the chorus line.; 1900: Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams.; 1900: Start of modern music era.; 1900: Max Planck introduces quantum theory hypothesis.; 1900: Chekhov's play, Uncle Vanya.; 1900: Henri Matisse begins the Fauvist movement in painting.; 1900: In Finland, the tone poem Finlandia, composed by Jean Sibelius.

1901: 1901: Rudyard Kipling's Kim, an Irish orphan traveling through India.; 1901: Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington.; 1901: "Red Label" records of classical music go on sale, first in Russia.; 1901: At the Moscow Art Theater, Stanislavsky introduces his acting method.; 1901: Communication improves when the hearing aid is patented.; 1901: Andrew Carnegie begins to build public libraries across the U.S.; 1901: In Germany, Karl Braun discovers that a crystal can detect radio waves.; 1901: Pablo Picasso begins his "blue period."; 1901: Serge Rachmaninoff composes the 2nd Piano Concerto.; 1901: First electric typewriter, the Blickensderfer.; 1901: High school graduates face something new: College Board entrance exams.; 1901: Thomas Mann achieves fame with first novel, Buddenbrooks.; 1901: First Nobel Prize in Literature: poet Sully Prudhomme, France.; 1901: In Newfoundland, Marconi receives a radio signal, the letter "s", from England.

1902: 1902: Germany's Zeiss invents the four-element Tessar camera lens.; 1902: Etched zinc photoengravings.; 1902: William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, study of human nature.; 1902: Rural free delivery (RFD) becomes permanent part of U.S. postal service.
1902: In France, magician George Méliès' A Trip to the Moon tells fantasy in film.: 1902: Los Angeles theater succeeds by showing movies only, no vaudeville.; 1902: Germany's Arthur Korn displays photoelectric (non-contact) fax system.; 1902: Nobel Prize in Literature: historian Christian Mommsen, Germany.; 1902: Muckraking begins with a Lincoln Steffens article in McClure's Magazine.; 1902: Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles.; 1902: Images can be transferred by photoelectric scanning.; 1902: Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande brings impressionism to music.; 1902: Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, a play of hope and human flaws.; 1902: Maxim Gorky's novel, The Lower Depths.; 1902: Henry James' The Wings of the Dove contrasts European, American societies.; 1902: Oldest extant Biblical writing acquired: Ten Commandments on papyrus.; 1902: Owen Wister, The Virginian. "When you call me that, smile!"; 1902: U.S. Navy installs radio telephones aboard ships.; 1902: Film can be developed in a machine without a darkroom.; 1902: Alfred Stieglitz publishes Camera Work to promote photography as art.; 1902: Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories for children.; 1902: Vivaphone, Chronophone, and Kinetophone synchronize sound and film.; 1902: Edward Elgar composes Pomp and Circumstance.; 1902: Unable to find publisher, Beatrix Potter self-publishes The Tale of Peter Rabbit.; 1902: French novelist André Gide establishes reputation with The Immoralist.; 1902: Transpacific telephone cable connects Canada and Australia.; 1902: In Europe, 10-inch "Red Seal" records feature tenor Enrico Caruso.

1903: 1903: An entire Verdi opera is recorded on 40 single-side disks.; 1903: Henry James, The Ambassadors, serialized in magazine, then published as book.; 1903: Jack London, The Call of the Wild, one of his most popular adventure books.; 1903: The Story of My Life by the remarkable Helen Keller, blind and deaf.; 1903: Victor Herbert's operetta, Babes in Toyland.; 1903: Russian scientist K. Tsiolkovsky publishes theory of rocket propulsion.; 1903: Pacific Cable completed. Message circles the globe in 12 minutes.; 1903: The Life of an American Fireman begins narrative documentary, editing.; 1903: Technical improvements in radio, telegraph, phonograph, movies and printing.; 1903: Nobel Prize in Literature: poet Martinus Bj¿rnson, Norway.; 1903: London Daily Mirror now illustrates only with photographs, not drawings.; 1903: W.E.B. Du Bois writes The Souls of Black Folks, his best known work.; 1903: Arnold Schönberg's symphonic tone poem, Pelleas und Melisande.; 1903: Cheap crayons are mass produced in the United States.; 1903: The Great Train Robbery introduces editing, creates demand for fiction movies.

1904

1904: E.F. Alexanderson's huge alternator adds distance to radio signals.

1904: Ambrose Fleming invents the diode tube, improves radio communication.

1904: Offset lithography becomes a commercial reality.

1904: The comic book.

1904: Jack London, The Sea-Wolf, another of more than 50 books.

1904: Lincoln Steffens's The Shame of the Cities exposes municipal corruption.

1904: "Muckraker" Ida Tarbell's exposé, History of the Standard Oil Company.

1904: Giacomo Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly.

1904: Cabbages and Kings, the first collection of O. Henry's short stories.

1904: Lewis Hine shocks with photographs of America's immigrants, child labor.

1904: Advertising discovers hard-sell.

1904: Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, arguably his best novel.

1904: Nobel Prize in Literature: Frédéric Mistral, France; José Echegaray, Spain.

1904: Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.brings modern realism to the stage.

1904: The telephone answering machine.

1904: G.K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, one of his early novels.

1905

1905: Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen open photo art gallery in New York City.

1905: In Berlin, Isadora Duncan opens the first school of modern dance.

1905: German lyric poet Erich Maria Rilke, achieves fames with Das Stundenbuch.

1905: Painesville, Ohio, phone company transmits music recital to 1,000 listeners.

1905: In Pittsburgh the Nickelodeon movie theater opens; concept grows fast.

1905: In Vienna, Franz Lehar's operetta, The Merry Widow.

1905: Popular actors used to advertise a product, Murad Cigarettes.

1905: George Bernard Shaw's play, Man and Superman.

1905: Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, challenges Marx.

1905: Photography, printing, and post combine in the year's fad, picture postcards.

1905: In France, Pathé colors black and white films by machine.

1905: In New Zealand, the postage meter is introduced.

1905: George Santayana begins philosophical writing with The Life of Reason.

1905: Nobel Prize in Literature: novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, Poland.

1905: A small advance that holds: the fountain pen adds a pocket clip.

1905: Publication of Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

1905: Richard Strauss shocking opera, Salome presents the dance of the seven veils.

1905: Bus timetables are printed.

1906

1906: Phonograph records may be 6 2/3", 7", 8", 10", 11" 12", 13 3/4", or 14" wide.

1906: In Michigan, yellow pages advertise business listings. (move from 1905)

1906: In Chicago, the jukebox, playing flat records, is invented.

1906: The Victrola turns the phonograph into furniture.

1906: International Radiotelegraph Union is founded.

1906: Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit, book of short stories by Joel Chandler Harris.

1906: Motion picture screen aspect ratio of 1.33 : 1 accepted as international standard.

1906: Maxim Gorky"s novel The Mother awakens revolutionary feelings in Russians.

1906: In Britain, new process colors books cheaply.

1906: Kinemacolor movie process enjoys some success.

1906: Lee De Forest's three-element vacuum tube, the audion, puts voices on the air.

1906: Nobel Prize in Literature: poet Giosuè Carducci, Italy.

1906: 75.000 subscribers cancel The Ladies Home Journal over VD articles.

1906: Dunwoody and Pickard build a crystal-and-cat's-whisker radio.

1906: Phonograph records become thinner, less scratchy.

1906: An animated cartoon film is produced, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces.

1906: Jack London continues adventure novel successes with White Fang.

1906: Fessenden plays violin over radio and talks to startled ship wireless operators.

1906: An experimental sound-on-film motion picture.

1906: Upton Sinclair's The Jungle exposes filthy, dangerous meat packing industry.

1907

1907: Bell and Howell develop a film projection system.

1907: Multiple-reel films are produced.

1907: A photograph is transmitted by wire across France.

1907: Commercial fax system for photos operates between Paris, London, and Berlin.

1907: Franz Kafka's first writing; most will be published after his death in 1924.

1907: Lumire brothers invent still color photography process.

1907: De Forest broadcasts music from phonograph records.

1907: Pure Food and Drug Act passed after exposé Collier's magazine article.

1907: Marconi starts transatlantic radio service with Ireland to Newfoundland leg.

1907: A photocopier is marketed.

1907: Canadian Robert Service publishes verse like "The Cremation of Sam McGee."

1907: Irish playwright John Synge, The Playboy of the Western World.

1907: Irving Berlin publishes the first of more than 800 tunes.

1907: George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara satirizes unbridled capitalism.

1907: Christmas stamps are sold to raise money for tuberculosis research.

1907: In Russia, Boris Rosing develops theory of electronic television.

1907: Florenz Ziegfield sets Broadway ablaze with first annual Follies.

1907: Rudyard Kipling receives the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1908

1908: A trust, the Motion Picture Patents Co., is set up to control U.S. movie making.

1908: Nobel Prize in Literature: philosopher Rudolf Eucken, Germany.

1908: In France, Gabriel Lippmann improves color photography, wins Nobel Prize.

1908: The Christian Science Monitor begins publication.

1908: Movie makers set up shop in California at a place called Hollywood.

1908: With Schönberg and Ives, atonality influences classical musical composition.

1908: Safety film replaces highly flammable cellulose nitrate base for stills.

1908: Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows introduces Toad and companions.

1908: Artist Gustav Klimt, The Kiss.

1908: D.W. Griffith starts to introduce variety in movie film composition.

1908: Lucy Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, life on Prince Edward Island.

1909

1909: In Paris, Serge Diaghelev begins modern ballet with the Ballets Russes.

1909: Sergei Rachmaninov composes Piano Concerto No. 3 for American tour.

1909: Tschaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite is recorded and packaged, the first album.

1909: Radio distress signal saves 1,700 lives after ships collide.

1909: In France, Charles Pathé creates the newsreel.

1909: The New York Times publishes the first movie review.

1909: Isaac Albéniz composes Iberia for piano.

1909: Mann Act passed after "Daughters of the Poor" published in McClure's.

1909: First woman to win Nobel Prize in Literature: Selma Lagerlšf, Sweden.

1909: Marconi and Braun share Nobel Prize in Physics for wireless development.

1909: First broadcast talk; the subject: women's suffrage.

1909: Major revision of the U.S. Copyright Act protects authors, composers.

1909: Founding of McGraw-Hill, book publishers.