landmarks

Context for this chrononology of publishing is provided by the broader timeline elsewhere on this site.

808 woodblocks used to print text of Diamond Sutra scroll

868 woodblocks used to print paginated books in China

983 printed collection of Buddhist texts in China runs to 250,000 pages

1116 stitched bindings for books in China

1397 oldest surviving Korean text printed from movable type

1451 Gutenberg uses press to print poem and Papal indulgences

1455 Gutenberg publishes edition of Bible

1476 Caxton produces first book printed in English

1477 first handbill advertisement in England

1499 Perotti's Cornucopia offers earliest known printed page numbers

1521 Cambridge University Press founded

1534 first Frankfurt Book Fair

1545 Venetian government demands that booksellers secure documentary proof that works are printed with author's permission
1571 Paul IV issues first formal Index Librorum Prohibitorum

1587 Oxford University Press founded

1605 Avisa Relation oder Zeitung, world's first regular newspaper

1622 Weekly News, first English newspaper

1622 first newspaper advertisement in England

1639 first books printed in North America

1645 launch of Post och Inrikes Tidningar, claimed as"oldest still-existing newspaper"

1663 Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen, Europe's first magazine

1674 Moreri's Grand Dictionnaire Historique

1689 first US newspaper, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign & Domestick

1689 Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration

1704 first newspaper advertisements in N America

1709 first British Copyright Act

1727 The Gentleman's Magazine, first modern magazine

1741 American Magazine is first magazine in N America

1765 earliest known children's pop-up book

1768 first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica

1779 Hely-Hutchinson's The Commercial Restraints of Ireland Considered is last book burnt by common hangman in England

1798 Senefelder invents lithography

1803 Sydney Gazette & NSW Advertiser is first newspaper in Australia

1805 Stanhope introduces stereotyping

1814 Koenig's steam printing machine

1822 Church's letter founding machine

1829 Rheinreise is first Baedeker guide

1837 Pitman's book on shorthand

1839 Jacobi's electrotyping

1847 Hoe's rotary press

1848 first WH Smith railway bookstall

1853 Genoux & Serriere's page mould system

1855 newspaper tax in UK abolished

1857 Obscene Publications Act 1857 in UK

1859 Photo-lithography

1863 Bullock's continuous-feed press

1865 commencement of official law reports in England

1867 Reichstag extends duration of copyright to life plus 30 years

1871 first newspaper printing of pictures using halftone

1873 Dewey's decimal cataloguing system

1873 'Comstock Act' in US

1878 first telephone directories

1879 Day's Benday process

1879 Dahl's 'sulfate' method for paper manufacture

1882 first national US advertisement

1888 Printer's Ink launched as advertising journal

1893 Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co case in UK

1895 first Times Atlas of the World






::