Timeline of Milestones in Communications History, 1900s

1901

Guglielmo Marconi sends first transatlantic wireless signals, 12 December.

1902

Poulsen-Arc Radio Transmitter invented.

1903

AIEE Committee on Telegraphy and Telephony formed. 

1904

John Ambrose Fleming invents the two-element "Fleming Valve".

1905

Marconi patents his directive horizontal antenna.

1906

Dr. Lee de Forest reads a paper before an AIEE meeting on the Audion, first of the vacuum tubes that would make long distance radiotelephony possible.

Reginald Fessenden broadcasts Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve from Brant Rock, MA

1907

The world's first transatlantic commercial wireless services is established by Marconi with stations at Clifden, Ireland and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

1908

I am convinced that nothing happened in communications history in 1908!

1909

Marconi shares the Nobel Prize in Physics, with Karl Ferdinand Braun for their work in the development of wireless telegraphy.

1910

The first commercial radios are sold by Lee de Forest's Radio Telephone Company.

References:

• Engineers & Electrons, John D. Ryder and Donald G. Fink, IEEE Press, 1984
• Events in Telecommunications History, AT&T Archives, 1992
• The Story of Telecommunications, George P. Oslin, Mercer University Press, 1992.
• Inventing The Internet, Janet Abbate, The MIT Press, 1999.