Technology & innovation

digitally colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image, depicts a blue-colored, human white blood cell, (WBC) known specifically as a neutrophil, interacting with two pink-colored, rod shaped, multidrug-resistant (MDR), Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria

Robert Austrian, Jerome Gold, and colleagues develop world’s first pneumococcal vaccine

Peter Schulte / November 22, 1977

With the discovery of penicillin in 1928, interest in vaccines to prevent pneumonia waned. The assumption was that the problem would largely be eliminated by use of this antibiotic. Austrian and Gold, however, showed that, despite treatment with penicillin, deaths from pneumococcal pneumonia were unchanged in the first 96 hours of therapy. These efforts ultimately led to the licensing first of a 14-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide in 1977 followed by the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide in 1983.

Solar panel

China begins producing solar energy cells for first time

Peter Schulte / June 18, 1975

The first solar cell factories were located in Ningbo and Kaifeng. Annual national solar capacity installations were still low, as only 0.5 kW of photovoltaic capacity was installed. This increased to 8 kW in 1980, 70 kW in 1985, 500 kW in 1990, and 1550 kW in 1995. Soon, China would become the world’s undisputed leader in solar energy production.

800px Altair 8800 Computer

The Altair 8800 sparks the microcomputer revolution

Peter Schulte / January 1, 1975

The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by MITS and based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics.

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Construction begins on the Very Large Array in New Mexico

Peter Schulte / July 6, 1973

The Very Large Array is the most versatile, widely-used radio telescope in the world.

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Motorola employee Martin Cooper makes the world’s first cell phone call

Peter Schulte / April 3, 1973

Using a prototype of what would become the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, the world’s first commercial cell phone, Cooper placed a call to the headquarters of Bell Labs in New Jersey.

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Bill Bowerman invents the Waffle Trainer

Peter Schulte / February 22, 1973

The origins of the Oregon Waffle, afterwards named the Waffle Trainer, derive from Bowerman’s experiments with a simple waffle iron, the grooves of which proved to be a near perfect mold for a running shoe.

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Atari releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game

Peter Schulte / November 29, 1972

Pong quickly became a success and was the first commercially successful video game, which helped to establish the video game industry along with the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey.

Collection of plastic waste

World’s first plastic recycling mill opens in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

Peter Schulte / January 13, 1972

By the 1980s, plastic recycling was widely practiced in many communities across the United States.

Evolution 36 mail

Ray Tomlinson sends the world’s first ever email, to himself

Peter Schulte / September 9, 1971

The email was sent from one computer to another computer sitting right beside it in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but it traveled via ARPANET, a network of computers that was the precursor to the Internet.

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U.S. NASA’s Mariner 9 becomes the first articial satellite of Mars

Peter Schulte / January 17, 1971

Mariner 9 was launched successfully on May 30, 1971, and became the first artificial satellite of Mars when it arrived and went into orbit.