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     1960 to 1969

This page highlights ICT industry developments from 1960 to 1969.

It covers -

• 1960
• 1962
• 1964
• 1966
• 1968

Context is provided by the broader media and communications timeline elsewhere on this site.

     1960

• computer industry has first billion dollar year
• Control Data CDC 160A minicomputer
• UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries & Peoples
• IBM markets 1401 computer
• UNIVAC III marketed
• 6,000 computers in operation in US
• Clynes & Kline invent term 'cyborg'
• first demonstration of machine searching of full text information
• Echo I, US balloon in orbit, reflects radio signals to Earth
• McGregor's The Human Side of Enterprise

     1961

• Haloid Xerox becomes Xerox Corporation
• GEC buys Radio & Allied Industries (RAI), sells computer interests to ICT
• black box flight recorder invented
• first electronic game - Spacewars - from MIT
• US boxing match test shows potential of pay-TV
• Kleinrock's Information Flow in Large Communications Nets packet switching paper
• American Standards Association publishes first US accessibility standard
• patents registered by USPTO reach 3 million mark
• IBM introduces 'golf ball' typewriter
• time-sharing computer developed
• Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development founded
• Amnesty International founded
• Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities

     1962

• MEDLARS online bibliographical database
• Ross Perot founds Electronic Data Systems EDS
• Advanced Computer Techniques (ACT) founded
• California Analysis Centers, Inc (CACI) founded
• Informatics, Inc founded
• Olivetti acquires 95% of Olivetti-Bull
• ICT buys EMI's computer interests
• Harvard Business School allows women MBA students
• Telstar satellite transmits TV image across Atlantic
• Western Union offers Telex for international teleprinting
• first Visa credit card
• McLuhan's The Gutenberg Galaxy
• Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
• Machlup's Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the US
• Xerox acquires University Microfilms
• 8.5 phones per 100 Italians

     1963

• SRI establishes data link with SDC
• Boston Consulting Group formed
• Applied Data Systems (later ADPAC) founded
• Management Science America, Inc. (MSA) founded
• English Electric Leo formed through merger of English Electric computer operations with Leo Computers
• ICT buys Ferranti's computer interests
• MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis & Retrieval System) launched
• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) introduced
• Minsky's Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence
• CBS and NBC TV newscasts expand to 30 minutes in colour
• Polaroid instant colour photographs
• communications satellite is placed in geo-synchronous orbit
• est 81 million phones in US; world total est 159.2 million

     1964

• Dr Strangelove
• Baran's On Distributed Communications Networks paper
• Moore's Law about processing power
• IBM markets system 360 computer
• Informatics Inc buys Advanced Information Systems (AIS) from Hughes
• English Electric Leo merges with Marconi computer operations
• Kemeny invents BASIC
• Olympic Games in Tokyo telecast live globally by satellite
• Touch Tone telephones and Picturephone service
• first domestic videotape recorder
• Intelsat established
• Englebart develops the mouse
• Data Corporation (becomes Lexis Corporation) established
• General Electric buys Bull

     1965

• ITT Corporation buys Avis for US$51m
• Simon predicts "machines will be capable of doing any work a man can do" by 1985
• Intelsat I (Early Bird satellite)
• Ted Nelson coins the term 'hypertext'
• Licklider's Libraries of the Future
• McLuhan's Understanding Media
• Kodak offers Super 8 film for home movies
• Computer Corporation of America (CCA) founded
• Tymshare founded
• Keane, Inc software founded

     1966

• Xerox sells the Telecopier, first US fax machine
• first direct TV pictures from the moon
• first exchange via satellite of television signals between Australia and UK
• Nokia established
• International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

     1967

• Engelbart establishes ARPAnet NIC (Network Information Center) at Stanford Research Institute
• Engelbart gains US patent for computer mouse
• commercially available light pen for computers
• 200 million telephones in the world - half are in US
• Dialog nationwide online retrieval system in US
• Software Resources Corporation (SRC) founded
• Xerox's DATRIX is first commercial service to search database of over 120,000 dissertation citations
• OCLC established
• Atlantic Software founded
• Boole & Babbage Inc founded
• International Computer Programs (ICP)
• English Electric Computers formed through merger of Elliott-Automation with English Electric Leo
• IBM releases floppy disk
• GEC buys Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) (Metropolitan-Vickers, BTH, Edison Swan, Siemens Bros, Hotpoint and WT Henley)

     1968

• GEC buys English Electric (Elliott Bros, Marconi Company, Ruston & Hornsby, Stephenson, Hawthorn & Vulcan Foundry, Willans & Robinson and Dick Kerr)
• ICT merges with English Electric Computers as ICL
• Intel founded
• Cincom Systems founded
• Cullinane (later Cullinet) founded
• eight inch floppy diskette
• 200 million TV sets in the world - 78 million in US
• RAM chip reaches market
• Watson's The Double Helix
• ARPANet contract given to Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN)
• US Information Industry Association founded
• Control Data buys Custom Credit Corp
• Computer Science Corp. is first software house listed on NYSE

     1969

• Dialog online database launched by Lockheed
• launch of MEDLINE database in Australia
• first ARPANet node installed at UCLA Network Measurement Center
• Sony's U-Matic puts videotape on a cassette
• Seiko produces first quartz wristwatch
• television in 30 million USSR households
• Control Data files antitrust lawsuit against IBM
• US government lawsuit claims IBM guilty of "illegal monopolisation of computing industry"
• Siemens founds Kraftwerk Union and Transformatoren Union
  Microwave Communications Inc. (later MCI) gets license to operate long-distance service from St Louis to Chicago
• Honeywell releases H316 'Kitchen Computer'
• Xerox takes control of minicomputer group Scientific Data Systems (SDS)
• UNIX released
• Pansophic founded
• Advanced Micro Devices founded
• Steve Crocker launches Request for Comments (RFC) process later utilised by IETF
• Compuserve founded

   next page (1970 to 1979)