List of IEEE milestones

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This list of IEEE Milestones describes the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) milestones, representing key historical achievements in electrical and electronic engineering.

• Prior to 1800
  • 1751 – Book Experiments and Observations on Electricity by Benjamin Franklin
  • 1757–1775 – Benjamin Franklin's Work in London
  • 1799 – Volta's Electrical Battery Invention
• 1800–1850
  • 1836 – Callan's Pioneering Contributions to Electrical Science and Technology
  • 1828–1837 – Schilling's Pioneering Contribution to Practical Telegraphy
  • 1838 – Demonstration of Practical Telegraphy
• 1850–1870
  • 1852 – Electric Fire Alarm System
  • 1861–1870 – Maxwell's Equations
  • 1861 – Transcontinental Telegraph
  • 1866 – Landing of the Transatlantic Cable
  • 1866 – County Kerry Transatlantic Cable Stations
• 1870–1890
  • 1876 – First Intelligible Voice Transmission over Electric Wire
  • 1876 – First Distant Speech Transmission in Canada
  • 1876 – Thomas Alva Edison Historic Site at Menlo Park
  • 1882 – Vulcan Street Plant
  • 1882 – First Central Station in South Carolina
  • 1884 – First AIEE Technical Meeting
  • 1886 – Alternating Current Electrification (demonstrated by William Stanley, Jr.)
  • 1887 – Thomas A. Edison West Orange Laboratories and Factories
  • 1888 – Richmond Union Passenger Railway
  • 1889 – Power System of Boston's Rapid Transit
• 1890–1900
  • 1890 – Branly Coherer
  • 1891 – Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant
  • 1893 – Battery Industries in Japan
  • 1893 – Mill Creek No. 1 Hydroelectric Plant
  • 1895 – Popov's Contribution to the Development of Wireless Communication
  • 1895 – Adams Hydroelectric Generating Plant
  • 1895 – Marconi's Early Wireless Experiments
  • 1895 – Krka-Šibenik Electric Power System
  • 1897 – Chivilingo Hydroelectric Plant
  • 1898 – Decew Falls Hydro-Electric Plant
  • 1898 – Early Developments in Remote-Control (demonstrated by Nikola Tesla)
• 1900–1920
  • 1900 – Georgetown Steam Hydro Generating Plant
  • 1901 – Transmission of Transatlantic Radio Signals
  • 1901 – Reception of Transatlantic Radio Signals
  • 1899–1902 – First Operational Use Of Wireless Telegraphy
  • 1902 – Poulsen-Arc Radio Transmitter
  • 1903 – Vucje Hydroelectric Plant
  • 1904 – Alexanderson Radio Alternator
  • 1904 – Fleming Valve
  • 1906 – Pinawa Hydroelectric Power Project
  • 1906 – First Wireless Radio Broadcast by Reginald A. Fessenden
  • 1907 – Alternating-Current Electrification of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
  • 1909 – Shoshone Transmission Line
  • 1911 – Discovery of superconductivity
  • 1914 – Panama Canal Electrical and Control Installations
• 1920–1930
  • 1920 – Westinghouse Radio Station KDKA (AM)
  • 1924 – Directive Short Wave Antenna (Yagi-Uda antenna)
  • 1924–1941 – Development of Electronic Television
  • 1928 – One-Way Police Radio Communication
  • 1929 – Shannon Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State
  • 1929 – Yosami Radio Transmitting Station
  • 1929 – Largest Private (dc) Generating Plant in the U.S.A.
• 1930–1950
  • 1930–1945 – Development of Ferrite Materials and Their Applications
  • 1933 – Two-Way Police Radio Communication
  • 1934 – Long-Range Shortwave Voice Transmissions from Byrd's Antarctic Expedition
  • 1937 – Westinghouse "Atom Smasher"
  • 1939 – Atanasoff–Berry Computer
  • 1939 – Single-element Unidirectional Microphone - Shure Unidyne
  • 1940 – FM Police Radio Communication
  • 1941 – Opana Radar Site
  • 1939–1945 – Code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II
  • 1940–1945 – MIT Radiation Laboratory
  • 1942–1945 – US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory
  • 1945 – Merrill Wheel-Balancing System
  • 1945 – Rincón del Bonete Plant and Transmission System
  • 1946 – Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)
  • 1947 – Invention of the First Transistor at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.
  • 1947 – Invention of Holography
  • 1948 – Birth of the Barcode
• 1950–1960
  • 1950 – First External Cardiac Pacemaker
  • 1951 – Manufacture of Transistors
  • 1951 – Experimental Breeder Reactor I
  • 1946–1953 – Monochrome-Compatible Electronic Color Television
  • 1955 – WEIZAC Computer
  • 1956 – RAMAC
  • 1956 – The First Submarine Transatlantic Telephone Cable System (TAT-1)
  • 1957–1958 – First Wearable Cardiac Pacemaker
  • 1958 – First Semiconductor Integrated Circuit (IC)
  • 1959 – Semiconductor Planar Process and Integrated Circuit
• 1960–1970
  • 1960–1984 – IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
  • 1961–1964 – First Optical Fiber Laser and Amplifier
  • 1962 – Mercury spacecraft MA-6, Col. John Glenn piloted the Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft in the first United States human-orbital flight on 20 February 1962. (1)
  • 1962 – Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  • 1962 – First Transatlantic Transmission of a Television Signal via Satellite
  • 1962 – First Transatlantic Television Signal via Satellite
  • 1962 – First Transatlantic Reception of a Television Signal via Satellite
  • 1962 – Alouette-ISIS Satellite Program
  • 1963 – NAIC/Arecibo Radiotelescope
  • 1963 – First Transpacific Reception of a Television (TV) Signal via Satellite
  • 1963 – Taum Sauk Pumped-Storage Electric Power Plant
  • 1964 – Mount Fuji Radar System
  • 1964 – Tokaido Shinkansen (Bullet Train)
  • 1965 – First 735 kV AC Transmission System
  • 1962–1967 – Pioneering Work on the Quartz Electronic Wristwatch
  • 1968 – Liquid Crystal Display by George H. Heilmeier
  • 1968 – CERN Experimental Instrumentation
  • 1969 – Birth of the Internet
  • 1969 – Inception of the ARPANET
  • 1950–1969 – Electronic Technology for Space Rocket Launches
  • 1969 – Electronic Quartz Wristwatch
• 1970–present
  • 1965–1971 – Railroad Ticketing Examining System (developed by OMRON of Japan)
  • 1972 – Nelson River HVDC Transmission System
  • 1964–1973 – Pioneering Work on Electronic Calculators
  • 1971–1978 – The First Word Processor for the Japanese Language
  • 1972 – Development of the HP-35, the First Handheld Scientific Calculator
  • 1974 - Birth of CP/M Operating System
  • 1976 – Development of VHS, a World Standard for Home Video Recording
  • 1977 – Lempel–Ziv Data Compression Algorithm
  • 1978 – Digital Image from Synthetic Aperture Radar
  • 1978 – Speak & Spell, the First Use of a Digital Signal Processing IC for Speech Generation
  • 1979 – Compact Disc Audio Player
  • 1980 – International Standardization of Group 3 (Digital) Fax
  • 1981 – World’s First Monolithic 16-Bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) for Digital Audio
  • 1984 – First Direct-broadcast satellite Service
  • 1985 – Toshiba T1100 Laptop computer
  • 1987 – High Temperature Superconductor
  • 1987 – SPARC RISC Architecture
  • 1988 – Thin Film Transistor LCD (TFT-LCD)
  • 1988 – Solid State High Voltage DC Converter Station
• Special citations
  • Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) – Electrical Pioneer

References

• IEEE History Center: Milestones Introduction
• IEEE Global History Network: List of IEEE Milestones
• New IEEE Milestones Approved; Others in Progress