A Timeline of Technology and Intelligent Watsons

How Did We Get Here? Wires, Wisdom, and Watsons.

January 6, 1838
Samuel Morse sends America’s first telegram across two miles of wiring.

July 27, 1866
The first translatlantic telegraph is completed, allowing the first transatlantic telegraphy communications.

March 10, 1876
Alexander Graham Bell places the first telephone call, answered by his assistant Thomas A. Watson. 

1878  
The first manual switchboard for telephone communication debuts in Boston.

1881
The first long distance phone service is available in the USA.

Winter 1887                    
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publishes A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, with narration from Dr.  John Watson.

June 16, 1911                 
Thomas J. Watson, Sr. founds the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR).

1924                                   
CTR becomes International Business Machines (IBM)

1944                                   
IBM co-develops its first computer, the Automated Sequence Controlled Calculator (Mark I) with Harvard University.

1946                                   
IBM provides a translation system for the Nuremberg trials.
The first mobile car-based telephone system is introduced. It weighed 80 lbs.

1952                                   
Thomas J. Watson, Jr. becomes president of IBM.

1956                                  
The term “artificial intelligence” is coined. 

1964-1966                        
ELIZA, and early natural language processing computer program, is created at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. ELIZA simulated conversation by using pattern matching to create the illusion that the program understood and could respond appropriately to human language.

1973                                   
The first non-car mobile phone (DynaTAC) appears.

1981                                   
The IBM Personal Computer 5150 debuts, a landmark in the transition of computing from the province of the military and big government to everyday people.

1989                                   
The first flip phone is released. It cost $3,000.

1996                                   
The first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system is introduced, allowing telephone calls to be made via the internet instead of analog telephone lines. There will be 1 billion VoIP users by the end of 2017.

1997
IBM’s Deep Blue beats Garry Kasparaov in a chess match.

2007        The iPhone debuts.

February 16, 2011        
IBM’s Watson computing platform defeats human champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy!

2014 and beyond         
IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence technology is being used in automobiles, healthcare, education, retail, business, and law enforcement applications around the world.