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| 1881 |
  J.S. Billings, then director of what was to become the National Library of Medicine, suggests to Herman Hollerith that a mechanical system based on cards be used to tabulate the Census. Hollerith develops a punch card system used with the 1890 Census. |
| 1928 |
 IBM introduces a rectangular hole punch card that becomes the industry standard. |
| 1955 |
| IBM introduces RAMAC, the first commercial disk drive. It used 50 hefty aluminum disks, stored 5Mb, occupied the space of two refrigerators, and weighed a ton. |
| 1971 |
 The 8" floppy disk appears. It doesn't seem large at the time. |
| 1972 |
| Laserdiscs are introduced. |
| 1976 |
 The first 5.25" floppy disks are introduced. When this product reaches the PC market it causes an explosive growth in digital information storage. |
| 1978 |
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Philips releases the laserdisc player.
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| 1980 |
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Laserdiscs begin to develop "Laser rot" due to oxidation of the aluminum layer.
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| 1981 |
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 Sony introduces the first 3 1/2" floppy drives and diskettes.
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| 1982 |
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Compact Disk-Digital Audio (CD-DA) is introduced to the market jointly by Philips and Sony.
Sony and Philips introduce the first CD player
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| 1983 |
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 The QIC Standard becomes the first standard in computer history for tape drives.
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| 1984 |
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Philips and Sony introduce CD-ROM technology.
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| 1986 |
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 Digital Audio Tape (DAT) is introduced.
Philips and Sony join forces to create the CD-Interactive or CD-I format.
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| 1988 |
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CDs outsell vinyl records.
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| 1989 |
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Science Citation Index® is published on compact disk.
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| 1990 |
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Kodak announces the development of the Photo CD.
Philips specifies the characteristics and format of a recordable CD, or CD-R.
Most 2-inch videotape machines become obsolete.
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| 1991 |
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Philips introduces Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I) player for music and video.
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| 1992 |
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The digital Sony Mini-Disc is introduced.
CDs outsell cassette tapes.
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| 1995 |
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Iomega debuts high-capacity drives "Jaz" and "Zip".
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| 1997 |
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HD-ROM is announced by Norsam Technologies.
Rosetta disk is announced.
DVD discs and players become commercially available.
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| 1998 |
| MP-3 players for downloaded Internet audio appear. |
| 2000 |
| A commercial Digital Video Recording (DVR) system is developed by TiVo, Inc. Reruns of Columbo can now be recorded digitally, saved, and viewed anytime. |
| 2002 |
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DVD players outsell VCRs.
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2004 |
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Apple's family of personal music players, the iPod, dominates the market with over 5.7 million units sold since their debut in late 2001. |
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2005 |
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USB Flash Drives flourish. The solid state, inexpensive, pocketable storage media are taking  all kinds of shapes and sizes (pens, watches, little fuzzy creatures, and even sushi). |