By:
December 16, 2004
Previous: 1976 / Next: 1978
Intro and links to the other years in the timeline

TECHNOLOGY

  • The TRS-80 Model 1 microcomputer is released by Tandy and Radio Shack.
  • The Commodore PET personal computer is introduced. The PET (Personal Electonic Transactor) comes with two built-in cassette drives and 4K to 8K of memory.
  • The Apple II personal computer is introduced. It comes with 4K of memory and is one of the first PCs to use color graphics and floppy disks.
  • The Atari 2600 video game console is released in October 1977.
  • An electronic mail system is developed at the University of Wisconsin that provides e-mail to over 100 computer science researchers.

THE MEDIA

  • The Toronto Globe and Mail begins offering Info-Globe, the first commercially available full-text newspaper database.
  • In December 1977 Warner Communications starts an interactive cable system in Columbus, Ohio, called QUBE. (By the early 1980s QUBE had expanded to other cities around the country, but the innovative cable system began phasing out in 1984.)
  • News Examples:
    July 14, 1977 —
    “    Power Failure
    Blacks Out New York    ,”
    August 17, 1977 —
    “    Elvis Presley Dies,”
    New York Times.
    (Abstract available from
    the Infobank database service.)
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