Messages sent via pipes in Great Wall
2000 BC
Homer describes fire used for signaling
1200 BC
Pigeons carry messages in ancient Greece
700 BC
From summits, Persians use flags, mirrors and smoke to send signals
522 BC
Athenian Pheidippides runs 150 miles in two days to seek help from Sparta
490 BC
Romans create postal service
11 BC
Bi Sheng thought to invent movable type printing press
1040
Gutenberg builds movable type printing press
1440
Sunspots first seen through Galileo’s telescope
1610
Claude Chappe presents Semaphore
1792
Morse ponders sending signals over electric wire
1832
Morse unsuccessfully runs for NY Mayor under anti-Catholic anti-immigrant banner
1836
First public demonstration of Morse Telegraph
1838
DC to Baltimore telegraph line opens
1844
First transatlantic cable laid
1858
Transatlantic cable fails after only 732 messages
1859
Pony Express connects Missouri with California
1860
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) formed
1865
Loomis sends signal between two Virginia summits using kites
1866
First successful transatlantic cable opens
1866
James Clerk Maxwell presents electromagnetic field theory
1873
Heaviside invents coaxial cable
1880
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz proves existence of radio waves
1888
Édouard Branly demonstrates radio-conductor to detect radio waves
1890
Edison patents 'transmission of signals electrically'
1891
Founding of Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Ltd
1897
Leslie Miller publishes article of DIY transmitter and receiver in Jan issue of 'The Model Engineer and Amateur Electrician'
1898
Term 'Ham' used by professional telegraphers as taunt of new amateur operators
1900
Marconi transmits wireless signal 2200 miles across the Atlantic Ocean
1901
Heaviside postulates ionosphere
1902
President Theodore Roosevelt sends wireless greetings to King Edward VII
1903
Medora Olive Newell, fills in as an operator on a trans-Atlantic voyage
1904
Marconi Co establishes CQD as 1st international radio distress signal
1904
Englishman J. A. Fleming develops first vacuum diode: the Fleming Valve
1904
First U.S. commercially built wireless telegraphy transmitters and receivers
1905
International Radiotelegraph Convention in Berlin makes SOS (· · · – – – · · ·) the worldwide standard distress call
1906
Dr Lee DeForest presents electrical vacuum tube
1906
Columbia U. Students form the Wireless Telegraph Club of Columbia University (now Columbia University ARC)
1908
1st radio rescue at sea by the British Royal Mail steamship Republic off Nantucket Island
1909
Radio Club of America formed
1909
Marconi and Braun awarded Nobel in physics
1909
Gernsback issues Wireless Blue Book: first compendium of 90 stations
1910
Amateurs of Australia formed (now Wireless Institute of Australia)
1910
Graynella Packer, United Wireless operator, aboard the Mohawk along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard
1910
Mabelle Kelso served as a United Wireless operator in the northeastern Pacific
1912
Mrs. Horace E. Soule of the Windber became the first female operator to work in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
1912
A well-designed kilowatt spark station has a range of approximately 100 miles
1912
"After Titanic sinks, US Congress passes Radio Act of 1912"
1912
International Morse introduced to replace both American Morse and Continental Morse
1912
After limitations of Radio Act of 1912 88% radio hobbyists in US drop practice
1912
First US federal licensing of amateur radio operators and stations
1912
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
1913
US Commerce Department issues first call letter rules
1913
Edwin H. Armstrong invents tube-operated regenerative receiver
1913
Wireless Society of London founded (now RSGB)
1913
Hiram Percy Maxim founds the American Radio Relay League
1914
First edition of QST magazine
1915
1st US transcontinental radio telephone message sent from U.S. naval radio station at Arlington, Virginia. to naval radio station at Mare Island, San Francisco
1915
First electric moving coil loudspeaker
1915
WWI US Congress orders amateur radio operators to cease ops and dismantle equipment
1917
House directs the U.S. Navy to end the prohibition on ham operations
1919
First transatlantic CW two-way contact between Fred Schnell 1MO plus John Reinartz 1XAL with French Léon Deloy 8AB
1921
Single sideband patent granted
1923
1st radio telegraph message from Netherlands to Dutch East Indies
1923
WWV starts broadcasting time and frequency
1923
First quartz crystals used in ham radios
1924
Spark banned on 80/20/40/5 meters
1924
IARU - International Amateur Radio Union - founded
1925
Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) formed
1926
Yagi and Uda invent the beam now known as a Yagi
1926
Brandon Wentworth, 6OI works and confirms all continents
1926
Spark banned on all amateur bands
1926
First International Radio Telegraph Conference in DC
1927
Radio Act of 1927 passed and Federal Radio Commission created
1927
ARRL International Relay Party launched
1927
ARRL Sweepstakes contest introduced
1930
AT&T patents coax previously invented by Heaviside in 1880
1931
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) formed
1932
First panadapter showing signals visually
1932
R/9 magazine publishes Robert Moore, W6DEI article: Single Sideband Transmission for Amateur Radiophones
1933
Communications Act of 1934 transfers amateur radio to FCC
1934
Edwin Armstrong presents FM transmission concept paper
1935
Hiram Percy Maxim and Guglielmo Marconi SK
1936
ARRL announces DXCC program
1937
RG/U cabling established
1938
FCC prohibits U.S. hams from contacting foreign stations
1940
Priest Maximilian Kolbe SP3RN arrested and sent to Auschwitz accused of using radio for espionage
1941
After Pearl Harbor all U.S. amateur radio stopped and moved to the War Emergency Radio Service
1941
Special 'Defense edition' of ARRL Handbook
1942
Launch of 6 and 2 meter bands for amateurs
1945
Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) founded
1947
U.S. ham’[s average age is 34
1949
Bell Labs develops first bipolar junction transistor
1950
"Novice, Technician, and Amateur Extra licenses announced by FCC"
1951
First Hamvention in Dayton
1952
No new Advanced licenses
1952
15 meter band added to amateur service
1952
"Ross Bateman, W4AO, and Bill Smith, W3GKP working from Virginia station hear echoes of their own 2-meter signal reflected from the Moon"
1953
Philco develops first high-frequency transistor
1953
"First production transistor radio (receiver), the Regency TR-1"
1954
Amateurs regain 160 meter band
1955
First transatlantic telephone cable
1956
Drake’s first ham product: 1A receiver
1957
11 meters taken from amateur use to create Citizens Band (CB)
1958
Atalla and Kahng invent MOSFET
1959
First logged two-way contact via the Moon on 1296 MHz
1960
OSCAR 1, first orbital amateur radio satellite launched
1961
Fairchild Semiconductor builds first integrated-circuit transistor
1961
Armstrong and Aldrin land on Moon
1969
At UCLA, students and professor send first message over ARPANET
1969
Three new bands (30, 17, 12 meters) established: At World Administrative Radio Conference in Geneva
1979
FCC permits ASCII modes in the US
1980
Peter Martinez G3PLX, creates AMTOR, first amateur HF digital mode offering error-free communication
1982
During Falklands War, Les Hamilton GM3ITN, relays crucial info from Bob McLeod and Tony Pole-Evans
1982
Cell service begins in USA
1983
Creation of Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP), considered the birth date of the Internet
1983
"Owen Garriott W5LFL, brings 2-meter rig to space station and completes nearly 300 QSOs"
1983
Volunteer Exam Co-ordinator (VEC) program launched
1984
Tim Berners-Lee invents modern internet at CERN in Geneva
1991
"ARRL proposes code-free Technician license with access to bands above 30 MHz. FCC agrees spurring licensing growth reaching over 700,000 US licensees by the end of the 90s"
1991
GPS becomes operational
1993
Joseph Taylor awarded Nobel in Physics
1993
Peter Martinez G3PLX introduces PSK31
1998
FCC introduces current three-class licensing model
2000
Initial release of WSJT
2001
Amateur radio operators mobilize to assist 9/11 rescue efforts
2001
D-Star concept published by JARL
2001
World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC) in Geneva votes to allow ITU member countries to eliminate Morse code
2003
Amateur radio operators mobilize for Hurricane Katrina
2005
Morse code eliminated from US amateur radio examinations
2007
Amateur radio operators mobilize for Sichuan earthquake
2008
Parks on the Air launched
2010
Amateur radio operators mobilize for Hurricane Maria
2017
Most hamfests cancelled due to Covid-19
2020
Most hamfests cancelled due to Covid-19
2021
Most hamfests come back
2022