MTV, 1981
MTV went on the air for the first time on Aug. 1, 1981, with the words: "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll." The first music video to air on the new television station was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
The Columbia space shuttle 1981
Following the successful lunar missions in the late 60s and early 70s, the great minds at NASA decided to utilize their resources to create a new type of vehicle that could travel into space and return home safely. Launched in 1981, the Space Shuttle was far more than just a transportation vehicle; it could become an orbiting laboratory allowing astronauts and researchers to conduct a host of experiments with the aim of better understanding our universe. Even more so, the space shuttle has helped transport important maintaining equipment in space.
Stealth Planes 1981
Stealth technology would go on to change warfare. Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. performed a test flight of the world’s first radar-resistant aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk, in 1981. Even though the plane was delivered to the United States Air Force in 1982, the plane was kept secret until 1988.
Prior to the invention of the camcorder, a bulky camera with heavy equipment was used (most usually for recording news) along with a separate sound recorder. Because both devices were bulky/heavy, it meant video recording was a two person job. The invention of this device combined the recoding and voice functions in a camera, eliminating the cable between them and increasing the recording freedom. In 1982, Sony released its Betamax camera for the use of news organizations. Only a year later, the company refined the Betamax and released it for the consumer market, where it quickly picked up in popularity. However, the competition between Betamax and VHS continued to boil and by 1985, Panasonic released a VHS camcorder and people began favouring this format over the Betamax.
Compact Disc player 1982
Though the Walkman (released in 1979) was the ultimate 80s symbol, cassettes degraded in quality over time. Sony and Phillips created an answer to this, the compact disc. The tremendous impact of the CD can not be overstated - it almost completely killed both the cassette and vinyl markets. Even more so, it also shifted the emerging computer industry. By the late 90s, the CD took over the markets. Sony released the world's first commercial CD player, the CDP-101 which sold for around £540 (nearly £2,000 today), while CDs themselves cost around £12 each (£40 today). CD players were viewed as products for the wealthy, but as they slowly became more mainstream, prices dropped.
Mobile Phone, 1983
In the UK, The first mobile phone service was a car radio phone system that started in Manchester in 1959 by the GPO12. The first mobile phone sold in the UK was the Vodafone VM1, a Panasonic in-car handset that cost £1,200 and weighed nearly 5kg34. The first mobile phone that ordinary consumers could buy and use was the Motorola DynaTac 8000X, also known as The Brick, that launched in 1983 and cost around £2,5005. It had the dimensions of 300 x 44 x 89mm and weighed about 785g. It had an LED display and allowed an hour of talk time. Across the pond, although portable phone using radio links to make and receive calls were available in the late 70s, research was hampered because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) placed restrictions on the allocation of frequencies. AT&T introduced the ideas of a cellular system, and with this new approach, it became easier to research and invent the mobile phone.
It’s predecessor, the Apple Lisa, released in 1983 was hailed by BYTE magazine as "the most important development in computers in the last five years, easily outpacing the IBM PC." The Macintosh was introduced by a US$1.5 million Ridley Scott television commercial, "1984" which aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, and is now considered a masterpiece more successful than the Mac itself. Again, BYTE quoted that the Macintosh attracted people who previously hated computers, saying there is, apparently, something about mice and pull-down menus and icons that appeal to people previously intimidated by DOS-based operating systems.
DNA Fingerprinting 1984
British geneticist Alec Jeffreys was studying hereditary family diseases, trying to trace genetic markers, when he accidentally discovered that every person has a unique DNA profile. The unique genetic profiles are derived from the profiles of one’s parents, which means that lineage can be traced back through generations with DNA testing. He successfully tested his discoveries when two murders occurred near the university. The new method worked to exonerate a suspect and convict a guilty one. Alec Jeffreys was knighted for his invention that changed the face of science forever. The world of forensic science owes its development to DNA fingerprinting.
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) 1985
Although available in Japan from 1983, this console suffered from a glut in the market (and the rise of PCs) so its release in the US in 1985 (partnered with Atari) tanked. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand all received the system in 1987, where it was distributed exclusively by Mattel. In Europe, the NES received a less enthusiastic response than it had elsewhere, and Nintendo lagged in market and retail penetration, though the console was more successful later.
Windows operating system 1985
Since its initial launch, Microsoft has released 10 major versions of the operating system. While Windows today looks a lot different than it did decades ago, it was the 1980s when it really got its start. Windows 1, spearheaded by Bill Gates, was an iconic moment in the tech industry because the new system relied heavily on the use of a mouse to input information, while other systems typically used keyboards.
CD-ROM, 1985
The first laser disc, an analogue storage device invented in 1978, developed into the Compact Disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). This pre-pressed compact disc contains data which can be accessed but not written onto. It was released with the intention of feeding it with music, but later it was made into a form by which any binary data could be stored in it. It was used to transfer games and other computer software. Ccertain CD types which hold only audio, while others can store audio, as well as data. The data CDs can be played only on computers, whereas the audio can be played on CD players as well.
Disposable Camera, 1986
Fujifilm’s Utsurun-Desu took the world by storm, with photography companies like Kodak, Canon, and Nikon quickly flooding the market and suddenly, instead of an expensive hobby, disposable cameras were ideal for kids to record the world around them, being cheap, easy to use and readily available.
Nintendo Game Boy 1989
This personal gaming device meant users could play different games by switching out the cartridges. The Gameboy was originally only released in Japan, but months after much success, it was available in the U.S. and Europe with games such as Super Mario Land and Tetris.
Other inventions, particularly in the field of medicine, included:
MS-DOS 1981
Scanning tunneling microscope 1981
Artificial Human Heart 1982
Human growth hormone 1982
Synthetic skin 1986
Hepatitis B Vaccine (DNA recombinant), 1986
Prozac 1987
Disposable Soft Contact Lenses, 1987
First 3-D video game1987
The RU-486 (abortion pill) 1988
Doppler radar 1988
Indiglo nightlight 1988
High-definition television 1989
