IT Industry History: 1960 to 1969

1960 to 1969

This page highlights ICT industry developments from 1960 to 1969.

It covers -

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
USPTO grants Noyce's 'monolithic' semiconductor patent application
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

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

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
first IBM System/360 shipped
Digital Equipment Corporation ships PDP-8 minicomputer (US$18k)
Computer Corporation of America (CCA) founded
Tymshare founded
Keane, Inc software founded
articulation of 'Moore's Law'

1966

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"
TRW spins off Space Technology Laboratories division as Bunker-Ramo
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)