Pop culture history timeline
The films, shows, games, toys and crazes that everyone was talking about.
152 events, oldest first.
Timeline of Pop culture history
-
c. 2100 BC
The Epic of Gilgamesh is written down
It includes a great flood story strikingly similar to Noah's Ark.
-
1871
The first cat show is held in London
It was held at the Crystal Palace.
-
1887
Buffalo Bill performs for Queen Victoria
His Wild West show played to royal guests at her Golden Jubilee celebrations.
-
1889
Charlie Chaplin is born
He was born in London four days before Adolf Hitler, whom he later mocked in The Great Dictator.
-
1895
The Lumière brothers' first public film show
Their programme of ten short films lasted about 20 minutes.
-
1901
Walt Disney is born
He was born in the same year that Queen Victoria died.
-
1902
A Trip to the Moon is released
In Georges Méliès's film, a rocket famously lands in the Man in the Moon's eye.
-
1902
The teddy bear is named after Theodore Roosevelt
It was inspired by a cartoon of the president refusing to shoot a captive bear.
-
1903
Crayola crayons go on sale
The first box held eight colours and cost a nickel.
-
1913
The first crossword puzzle is published
Arthur Wynne's puzzle in the New York World was diamond-shaped.
-
1922
Betty White is born
She was born six years before sliced bread went on sale.
-
1923
The Hollywood sign is put up
It originally read 'HOLLYWOODLAND' and advertised a housing development.
-
1927
The Jazz Singer brings talking pictures
It was the first feature film with synchronised spoken dialogue.
-
1928
Steamboat Willie introduces Mickey Mouse
One of the first cartoons with synchronised sound, it featured Walt Disney himself voicing Mickey.
-
1929
The first Academy Awards
The ceremony lasted about 15 minutes.
-
1929
Tintin first appears
Hergé created him for the children's supplement of a Belgian newspaper.
-
1931
Frankenstein is released
Boris Karloff spent hours in the make-up chair every day.
-
1933
King Kong is released
The giant ape was mostly a model only about 45 cm tall.
-
1935
Parker Brothers publishes Monopoly
It descends from The Landlord's Game, created by Lizzie Magie to criticise greedy landlords.
-
1937
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres
Many predicted 'Disney's Folly' would bankrupt the studio.
-
1937
The Dandy comic is launched
Its star, Desperate Dan, eats cow pies with the horns still on.
-
1938
Errol Flynn plays Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood was one of the first Technicolor epics.
-
1938
The Beano is launched
Dennis the Menace first appeared in it in 1951.
-
1938
The War of the Worlds radio broadcast
Newspapers greatly exaggerated the panic that Orson Welles's drama caused.
-
1939
Batman makes his debut
Bob Kane and Bill Finger created him, though Finger's credit came decades later.
-
1939
Gone with the Wind premieres
Adjusted for inflation, it is still the highest-grossing film ever.
-
1939
The Wizard of Oz film is released
Dorothy's slippers were silver in the book; the film made them red to show off Technicolor.
-
1940
Bugs Bunny makes his official debut
His first line was 'Eh, what's up, Doc?'
-
1940
Tom and Jerry first appear
In their first cartoon, the cat was called Jasper.
-
1941
Citizen Kane is released
Orson Welles was only 25 when he made it.
-
1941
Wonder Woman first appears
Her creator also helped develop an early lie detector.
-
1942
Casablanca is released
The line 'Play it again, Sam' is never actually said in the film.
-
1945
The Slinky goes on sale
Engineer Richard James got the idea after watching a spring tumble off a shelf.
-
1950
Peanuts first appears
Charles Schulz drew nearly 18,000 strips by himself.
-
1950
The first TV remote control is sold
Zenith's 'Lazy Bones' was attached to the TV by a long cable.
-
1951
I Love Lucy first airs
It pioneered filming sitcoms with three cameras in front of a live audience.
-
1951
The Archers first airs on BBC radio
It is the world's longest-running radio drama.
-
1952
Mr Potato Head is advertised on TV
It was the first toy advertised on TV, and early sets made you supply your own potato.
-
1953
Elizabeth II's coronation is televised
It was the first British coronation shown live on television.
-
1954
Elvis Presley records his first single
'That's All Right' was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis.
-
1954
Godzilla first stomps onto cinema screens
His roar was made by rubbing a resin-coated glove along a double bass's strings.
-
1955
Disneyland opens
Opening day was so chaotic that staff nicknamed it 'Black Sunday'.
-
1955
'Rock Around the Clock' tops the charts
It became a hit a year after release, thanks to the film Blackboard Jungle.
-
1956
Play-Doh is sold as a toy
It started life as a wallpaper cleaner.
-
1956
The first Eurovision Song Contest
Only seven countries took part, and Switzerland won.
-
1957
John Lennon meets Paul McCartney
They met at a church fete in Woolton, Liverpool.
-
1957
The BBC's spaghetti harvest hoax
Viewers phoned in asking how to grow their own spaghetti trees.
-
1957
West Side Story opens on Broadway
It moved Romeo and Juliet to the streets of New York.
-
1958
Blue Peter first airs
It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world.
-
1958
The Lego brick is patented
A Lego brick from that year still fits together with one made today.
-
1959
Asterix first appears
The comic has been translated into more than 100 languages and dialects.
-
1959
Barbie is launched
Her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
-
1960
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is released
It is said to be the first American film to show a toilet being flushed.
-
1960
Coronation Street first airs
It is the world's longest-running TV soap opera.
-
1960
The Flintstones first airs
It was the first animated series shown in prime time on American TV.
-
1962
Spider-Man first appears
He debuted in the final issue of a comic called Amazing Fantasy.
-
1963
Disney's The Sword in the Stone is released
It was the last Disney animated film released in Walt Disney's lifetime.
-
1963
Doctor Who first airs
The first episode aired the day after President Kennedy was assassinated.
-
1964
G.I. Joe is launched
Hasbro called it an 'action figure' so boys would play with a doll.
-
1964
Mary Poppins is released
Author P. L. Travers disliked the film's animated sequences.
-
1964
The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show
About 73 million Americans watched.
-
1965
Bob Dylan goes electric at Newport
Part of the folk crowd booed.
-
1965
The Sound of Music film is released
The real von Trapp family escaped Austria by train, not over the mountains.
-
1966
Star Trek first airs
It was cancelled after three seasons and only became a huge hit in reruns.
-
1966
Twister is launched
Critics accused it of being 'sex in a box', but sales soared after it appeared on TV.
-
1967
The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper
Its cover features dozens of famous faces, from Marilyn Monroe to Karl Marx.
-
1968
Planet of the Apes is released
Its make-up designer received an honorary Oscar for the ape faces.
-
1969
Scooby-Doo first airs
His name was inspired by Frank Sinatra singing 'doo-be-doo-be-doo'.
-
1969
Sesame Street first airs
Caroll Spinney played Big Bird for nearly 50 years.
-
1969
The Woodstock festival takes place
It was held on a dairy farm in Bethel, about 40 miles from the town of Woodstock.
-
1970
The Beatles break up
Paul McCartney revealed the split in a press release for his first solo album.
-
1970
The first Glastonbury Festival
Tickets cost £1 and included free milk from the farm.
-
1972
Pong is released
Atari's test machine in a California bar reportedly broke down because it was jammed with coins.
-
1972
The first home games console goes on sale
The Magnavox Odyssey came with plastic overlays to stick on your TV screen.
-
1972
The Godfather is released
Paramount executives initially didn't want Marlon Brando in the lead role.
-
1973
Disney's animated Robin Hood is released
Its song 'Whistle-Stop' later powered the early internet's Hampster Dance.
-
1973
Pink Floyd release The Dark Side of the Moon
It spent more than 900 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart.
-
1974
ABBA wins Eurovision with Waterloo
The UK jury gave them zero points.
-
1974
Dungeons & Dragons is published
The first print run was just 1,000 hand-assembled copies.
-
1974
Hello Kitty first appears
Her designers say she has no mouth so people can project their own feelings onto her.
-
1974
The Rubik's Cube is invented
Its Hungarian inventor, Ernő Rubik, reportedly took about a month to solve it himself.
-
1975
Jaws becomes the first summer blockbuster
The mechanical shark kept breaking down, so Spielberg showed it far less than planned.
-
1975
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is released
Coconut shells stood in for horses, partly because of the tiny budget.
-
1975
Queen releases Bohemian Rhapsody
Their record label thought the six-minute song was too long to be a single.
-
1975
Saturday Night Live first airs
Its first host was comedian George Carlin.
-
1976
Rocky is released
Sylvester Stallone is said to have written the first draft in about three days.
-
1976
The Muppet Show first airs
Kermit was originally made from Jim Henson's mother's old coat.
-
1977
Elvis Presley dies
His home, Graceland, is now one of the most visited houses in America.
-
1977
The first Star Wars film is released
George Lucas took a smaller directing fee in exchange for merchandising and sequel rights.
-
1978
Garfield first appears
Cartoonist Jim Davis named him after his grandfather.
-
1978
Grease is released
'You're the One That I Want' was written especially for the film.
-
1978
Space Invaders arrives in arcades
The aliens speed up as you shoot them because the hardware ran faster with fewer to draw.
-
1979
Sony launches the Walkman
Sony's co-founder wanted a way to listen to opera on long flights.
-
1980
Pac-Man is released
Its designer said the shape was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing.
-
1980
'Who shot J.R.?' grips TV viewers
About 83 million Americans tuned in to find out.
-
1981
MTV launches
The first video it played was 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.
-
1981
Raiders of the Lost Ark is released
Tom Selleck was the first choice for Indiana Jones.
-
1981
Trivial Pursuit is launched
It was invented by two Canadian journalists.
-
1982
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is released
Much of E.T.'s raspy voice came from a woman who was a heavy smoker.
-
1982
Michael Jackson releases Thriller
It is widely regarded as the best-selling album of all time.
-
1983
Michael Jackson first moonwalks on TV
He debuted it performing Billie Jean on the Motown 25 TV special.
-
1983
The Cabbage Patch Kids craze
Shoppers scuffled in stores trying to buy them for Christmas.
-
1983
Tokyo Disneyland opens
It was the first Disney park built outside the United States.
-
1984
Band Aid records 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'
It became the best-selling single in UK chart history at the time.
-
1984
Ghostbusters is released
Its firehouse headquarters is a real fire station in New York.
-
1984
Tetris is created
Alexey Pajitnov programmed it on a Soviet computer at a Moscow research centre.
-
1985
Back to the Future is released
Michael J. Fox shot it at night while filming the sitcom Family Ties by day.
-
1985
Super Mario Bros. is released
Mario first appeared in Donkey Kong, where he was called 'Jumpman'.
-
1985
The Golden Girls first airs
Betty White, who played Rose, outlived all three of her Golden Girls co-stars.
-
1985
The Live Aid concerts are held
Phil Collins played in both London and Philadelphia, flying between them on Concorde.
-
1985
The NES console launches in North America
After the 1983 video game crash, Nintendo pitched it as an 'Entertainment System', not a games console.
-
1986
Oprah's talk show goes national
It ran for 25 seasons.
-
1986
The Legend of Zelda is released
Shigeru Miyamoto drew on his childhood memories of exploring caves and forests.
-
1986
The Phantom of the Opera opens in London
On Broadway, it became the longest-running show in history.
-
1986
Top Gun is released
US Navy recruitment reportedly rose after the film's release.
-
1988
Die Hard is released
Bruce Willis was mainly known for TV comedy when he was cast.
-
1989
The Game Boy is released
One Game Boy survived a bombing in the Gulf War and still works.
-
1989
The Simpsons first airs as a series
It is the longest-running American scripted primetime TV series.
-
1990
Home Alone is released
It was the highest-grossing live-action comedy for many years.
-
1990
The Three Tenors' first concert
Their concert album became one of the best-selling classical records ever.
-
1991
Nirvana releases Nevermind
It knocked Michael Jackson's Dangerous off the top of the US album chart.
-
1991
Sonic the Hedgehog is released
He was designed to give Sega a mascot to rival Mario.
-
1993
Jurassic Park is released
The T. rex roar mixed recordings of a baby elephant, a tiger and an alligator.
-
1994
Friends first airs
The show was originally going to be called Insomnia Cafe.
-
1994
The Lion King is released
Its animators studied real lions brought into the studio.
-
1994
The Sony PlayStation is released
It grew out of a failed partnership between Sony and Nintendo.
-
1995
Toy Story is released
It was the first feature-length film made entirely with computer animation.
-
1996
The Spice Girls release 'Wannabe'
It topped the charts in more than 30 countries.
-
1996
The Tamagotchi goes on sale
Tens of millions of the digital pets were sold worldwide.
-
1997
Titanic is released in cinemas
James Cameron dived to the real wreck a dozen times while making it.
-
1998
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? first airs
It began on British TV before spreading to over 100 countries.
-
1999
Big Brother first airs
The reality show began in the Netherlands.
-
1999
Emoji are invented in Japan
Shigetaka Kurita's original set of 176 emoji is now in New York's Museum of Modern Art.
-
1999
The Matrix is released
Its green 'digital rain' code was made from scanned sushi recipes.
-
1999
The Sopranos first airs
It is often credited with starting TV's 'golden age' of drama.
-
2001
Shrek is released
It won the first-ever Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
-
2001
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy begins
Filmed entirely in New Zealand, it boosted the country's tourism for years.
-
2004
Facebook launches
It started as a website for Harvard students only.
-
2005
The first YouTube video is uploaded
'Me at the zoo' is 19 seconds long and features elephants at San Diego Zoo.
-
2006
The first tweet is sent
Jack Dorsey's first tweet read 'just setting up my twttr'.
-
2006
The Nintendo Wii is released
Its motion controls drew in many people who had never played video games.
-
2009
Avatar is released
It became the highest-grossing film of all time.
-
2009
Minecraft is first released
It went on to become the best-selling video game of all time.
-
2010
Instagram launches
It gained a million users in about two months.
-
2011
Game of Thrones first airs
Much of it was filmed in Northern Ireland.
-
2012
Gangnam Style hits a billion YouTube views
It was the first video ever to reach a billion views on YouTube.
-
2012
Grumpy Cat becomes an internet star
Her famously grumpy expression was caused by feline dwarfism.
-
2013
Frozen is released
'Let It Go' was written in a single day.
-
2013
'Selfie' becomes Oxford's Word of the Year
Its use had soared by about 17,000% in a year.
-
2014
The Ice Bucket Challenge goes viral
It raised more than $100 million for ALS research within weeks.
-
2016
Pokémon Go launches
It was downloaded more than 500 million times within months.
-
2021
Squid Game becomes Netflix's biggest hit
Its creator had first written the story about a decade earlier.
Think you know your history?
Put 5, 7 or 10 events in chronological order in three tries. A new Chrono-Shift puzzle arrives every day.
Play today's Chrono-ShiftOr try Eras and Higher or Lower.