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Comparative Timelines
The ESP Timeline (one of the site's most popular features) has been completely updated to allow the user to select (using the timeline controls above each column) different topics for the left and right sides of the display.
Select:
New Left Column
New Left Column
Dates
Decade
New Right Column
New Right Column
Genetics, Development, and Evolution
History
(no entry for this year)
1970
Dr. Clifton Wharton Junior is named president of Michigan State University on January 2. He is the first African-American to lead a major, predominantly white university in the 20th century.
5200 computers installed in Britain
Computer terminals in homes predicted for 1980
DEC introduces the PDP-8/E
IBM 370/145 introduced
Open University to install ICL 32K 1902A computer
Univac 1110 is introduced
UNIX is developed
Xerox opens the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
Five pairs of adult wall lizards are moved between two islands in Croatia. Over the next few decades, the lizards on the new island will evolve larger heads, stronger bites, and a greater tolerance for an herbivorous diet than the original lizard population.
1971
On January 12, the Congressional Black Caucus is formed in Washington DC.
Burroughs introduces L500 Visible Record Model
DEC launches Giant Mini PDP-11/45
DEC launches PDP-11/03
Decsystem 10 introduced
First Network Email sent by Ray Tomlinson
IBM's Thomas J Watson retires
Intel Introduces the World's First EPROM
Intel Launches the First Microprocessor - The 4004
Nixdorf merge with AEG-Telefunken
Olivetti launches P602 "minicomputer"
Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge publish their theory of punctuated equilibrium, stating that evolution often occurs in short bursts, followed by long periods of stability.
1972
In November, Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta become the first black Congressional representatives elected from the US South since 1898.
£1.3m RAF order for Cossor Terminals
370/125 and OCR reader from IBM
ARPA Network - UK gets link to major US network
ASC developed by Texas Instruments
Atanasoff Official "Inventor" of Computer
Atari Introduces Pong
Burroughs Launch L8000 Range of Computers
Burroughs launches L7000 range on UK market
C programming language developed
Clive Sinclair introduces the first pocket calculator
Development of standard OS to be halted
First e-mail program developed
First Infra-red Data Link transmission in the UK
Flat screen terminal introduced by Burroughs
Foundation of Cray Research Inc by Seymour Cray
Fujitsu and Hitachi in joint deal
GE Time Sharing Service
Hewlett-Packard introduces the HP-35
Honeywell's 700 range comes to the UK
IBM's DOS/VS
NCR 399
Problems with IBM 370/155 and 370/165
Sigma 6
SITA Network
Space Craft Pioneer 10 & 11 use Custom CPU in TTL
Terminal range boosted by Burroughs TC 3500
The Future of ICL as a British-controlled going concern
The Intel 8008 was introduced
The Magnavox Odyssey, the first video game console, is released
UK launch for Burroughs L8000 range
Worlds first IBM 370/135 installed in Britain
Integrated Photomatrix (Noble) demonstrates for 64 by 64 MOS active pixel array
Half in jest, Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel suggest that ancient aliens may have seeded the early Earth with DNA, and all life on this planet arose from that.
Peter and Rosemary Grant begin a long-term study of finches on the Galápagos Islands. In succeeding years, as they watch finches adapt to alternating wet and dry conditions, the Grants will uncover evidence that evolution proceeds more rapidly than what Darwin estimated.
Taking a line from Through the Looking Glass, Leigh Van Valen establishes the "Red Queen" hypothesis of coevolution between predator and prey: "it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
1973
In the late summer of 1973, Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew was under investigation by the United States Attorney's office in Baltimore, Maryland, on charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy. In October, he was formally charged with having accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000, while holding office as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and as Vice President of the United States. On October 10, 1973, Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of Vice President. Agnew is the only Vice President in U.S. history to resign because of criminal charges.
Thomas Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles in the modern era. He is reelected four times and thus holds the mayor's office for 20 years.
8" floppy & first "Hard Drive introduced by IBM
Bob Metcalfe invents Ethernet
Britain exports more computing equipment than it imports
Gary Kildall writes CP/M
IBM 370/145 product range released
IBM in Nigeria
IMSAI is founded. In 1973
The Micral was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer
Xerox Alto personal computer was developed at Xerox PARC
Fairchild Semiconductor releases the first large image forming CCD chip: 100 rows and 100 columns of pixels.
(no entry for this year)
1974
Under mounting impeachment pressure resulting from the Watergate break-in, Nixon becomes the first president ever to resign from presidency.
Gerald Ford becomes thirty-eighth president of the United States.
GA LSI 12/16 and LSI16
introduction of Intel 8080 2MHz microprocessor
MITS completes the first prototype Altair 8800 microcomputer
NCR 250-6000
Philips P852M
The Z-80, 8 bit processor is designed by Zilog Corp
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center designed the Alto
Mary-Claire King and Allan Wilson publish their finding that human and chimpanzee DNA sequences differ by roughly 1 percent, meaning humans have more in common with chimps than chimps do with gorillas. King and Wilson suggest that humans and chimps differ largely in the DNA that switches on and off genes.
1975
Bill Gates and Paul Allen sign a licensing agreement with MITS
CP/M operating system finished
Cray 1A announced
First meeting of the Homebrew Club
Microsoft Founded
MITS Altair launched on the cover of Popular Electronics magazine
Bryce Bayer of Kodak develops the Bayer filter mosaic pattern for CCD color image sensors.
Overturning the classifications introduced by R. H. Whittaker seven years earlier, Carl Woese proposes to divide all living things into three categories: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya.
1976
Apple 1 Released
Burroughs introduce the large B7700 series
Dec System 20 introduced
Intel introduce SBC-80/10 "computer on a card"
Last slide rule manufactured today
Seymour Cray demonstrates CRAY-1 - The first vector-processor supercomputer
Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne Found Apple Computer Inc.
The 5 1/4" flexible disk drive was introduced
Steadicam becomes available.
Submersible vehicle Alvin reveals deep sea vents on the ocean floor that give rise to an ecosystem owing nothing to photosynthesis. This finding prompts speculation that life on Earth first arose in deep-sea, not shallow-water, ecosystems.
Fred Sanger and collaborators publish the first complete DNA sequence of an organism, a bacteriophage, or virus infecting bacteria.
1977
The eighth and final night for the televised miniseries based on Alex Haley's Roots is shown on February 3. This final episode achieves the highest ratings to that point for a single television program.
Commodore International shows its Commodore PET 2001
Radio Shack announces TRS-80 computer
Science of Cambridge Ltd Formed
The Apple II launched
The MK14 was introduced by Science of Cambridge
The RCA CDP1802 microprocessor was used in the Galileo spacecraft
Jimmy Carter becomes thirty-ninth president of the United States.
1978
Acorn Computers Ltd formed in Cambridge, UK
Texas Instruments introduced Speak & Spell
VisiCalc Spreadsheet is born
Fresh out of law school and short on cash, Robert Heggestad buys an antique cabinet on an installment plan from a Virginia antique shop. The cabinet turns out to contain some 1,700 plant and invertebrate specimens from the personal collection of Alfred Russel Wallace.
1979
"VisiCalc" introduced
Acorn System 1 Launched
Apple II+ Launched
Microsoft moves from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bellevue, Washington
On March 28, a partial core meltdown occurred in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg.
ESP Quick Facts
ESP Origins
In the early 1990's, Robert Robbins was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins, where he directed the informatics core of GDB — the human gene-mapping database of the international human genome project. To share papers with colleagues around the world, he set up a small paper-sharing section on his personal web page. This small project evolved into The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.
ESP Support
In 1995, Robbins became the VP/IT of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA. Soon after arriving in Seattle, Robbins secured funding, through the ELSI component of the US Human Genome Project, to create the original ESP.ORG web site, with the formal goal of providing free, world-wide access to the literature of classical genetics.
ESP Rationale
Although the methods of molecular biology can seem almost magical to the uninitiated, the original techniques of classical genetics are readily appreciated by one and all: cross individuals that differ in some inherited trait, collect all of the progeny, score their attributes, and propose mechanisms to explain the patterns of inheritance observed.
ESP Goal
In reading the early works of classical genetics, one is drawn, almost inexorably, into ever more complex models, until molecular explanations begin to seem both necessary and natural. At that point, the tools for understanding genome research are at hand. Assisting readers reach this point was the original goal of The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project.
ESP Usage
Usage of the site grew rapidly and has remained high. Faculty began to use the site for their assigned readings. Other on-line publishers, ranging from The New York Times to Nature referenced ESP materials in their own publications. Nobel laureates (e.g., Joshua Lederberg) regularly used the site and even wrote to suggest changes and improvements.
ESP Content
When the site began, no journals were making their early content available in digital format. As a result, ESP was obliged to digitize classic literature before it could be made available. For many important papers — such as Mendel's original paper or the first genetic map — ESP had to produce entirely new typeset versions of the works, if they were to be available in a high-quality format.
ESP Help
Early support from the DOE component of the Human Genome Project was critically important for getting the ESP project on a firm foundation. Since that funding ended (nearly 20 years ago), the project has been operated as a purely volunteer effort. Anyone wishing to assist in these efforts should send an email to Robbins.
ESP Plans
With the development of methods for adding typeset side notes to PDF files, the ESP project now plans to add annotated versions of some classical papers to its holdings. We also plan to add new reference and pedagogical material. We have already started providing regularly updated, comprehensive bibliographies to the ESP.ORG site.
ESP Picks from Around the Web (updated 06 MAR 2017 )
Old Science
Weird Science
Treating Disease with Fecal Transplantation
Fossils of miniature humans (hobbits) discovered in Indonesia
Dinosaur tail, complete with feathers, found preserved in amber.
Astronomy
Mysterious fast radio burst (FRB) detected in the distant universe.
