Believe it or not there was a time before every lawyer and doctor had an answering service, and everyone had a PC with the Internet. Here’s a list of historic technological accomplishments up to the innovation of the personal computer and beyond!

Internet & Computer

• Charles Babbage: The ‘father of computing’, and early pioneer of computing.
• The Homebrew Computer Club: An early group of computer designers who pioneered personal computing.
• The Altair 8800: Early small computer, and competitor to the Apple I, the first personal computer.
• CP/M: The Operating System that popularized the Altair.
• Gary Kildall: Programmer who wrote DR Dos, a precursor to MS DOS.
• Steve Wozniak: Designer of the first personal computer, as well as computing accessories like the floppy drive.
• The BASIC Programming Language: Powered many early personal computing systems like the Altair and the Apple I.
• The Intel 8086: The Processor that revolutionized computing.
• The Apple ][: The first personal computer.
• Stephen P. Jobs: Long time promoter of personal computing, and co-founder of Apple Computer.
• Xerox PARC: A research project that pioneered many of the common concepts of personal computing.
• Bud Tribble: Worked at Patlo Alto Research Center and created the first desktop interface that optimized memory so that only the portions on screen would be stored thus making GUI based computing possible with little RAM.
• The Macintosh: The computer that began Desktop Publishing in 1984.
• The IBM PS/2: IBM’s answer to the Macintosh.
• Microsoft Excel: The first graphical spreadsheet program that was released along side the Macintosh.
• Aldus Pagemaker: Macintosh program targeted for newspaper production that made Desktop Publishing possible.
• Tim Berners Lee: Creator of the World Wide Web
• WiFi: The technology behind wireless Internet.
• Mac OS X: The Operating System behind the Macintosh, the iPhone, and the iPod.
• Communication
• ARM Processor: Processor behind many mobile phones & PDAs, which makes tiny portable computing possible.

Aerospace:

• Aerospace FAQ: Questions about the history of aerospace.
• Yuri Gagarin: The First Man in Space.
• Sputnik: The first Satellite. 
• Apollo Missions: Resulted in the first human landing on the moon.
• Buzz Aldrin: The pilot of the first Lunar landing.
• Satellite History: The history of what has become a hub of communication and entertainment.
• Skylab: A precursor to the International Space Station.
• Soyuz Rocket: The Soviet Rocket which is still in use today, and ferries international cargo to the international space station.
• International Space Station: A history of the ISS.

Communications/Telecom:

• Telegraph: Early communication device.
• The Transatlantic Cable: Enabled telegraph signals under the ocean.
• Telephone: The history of the telephone.
• Blue Box: A device that used sound frequencies to trick public telephones into illegally placing long distance calls for free.
• The Modem: enabled communication between early computer networks.
• John Draper AKA Captain Crunch: Telephone ‘Phreaker’ and modem programmer.
• Cellular History: The history of the cellular telephone.
• Bell Telephone: The original american telephone company.
• AT&T: The commercialized american telephone monopoly.
• Sprint:  Service with one of the more reliable 3G networks.
• 3G: Wireless networking across cellular telephones.
• iPhone: The device that revolutions mobile computing.

Other:

• Mathematics & Technology: How math has paved the way for technology.
• Early Math Applications: How mathematics affected the earliest technology.
• The Turin Machine: A precursor to the computer.
• Refrigeration: Refrigeration has enabled the growth of international agriculture.
• The Automobile: Has enabled modern travel, as well as the movement of goods globally at rapid speeds.
• The Locomotive: Early rapid transit, and the inspiration of much public transit today.
• The Airplane: Revolutionized rapid transit.
• Moving Pictures: Not simply entertainment motion picture film has revolutionized cultural exchange.
• Foreign Relations: Technological impact on communication between nations.
• The Gregorian & Julian Calendars: How the modern calendar used almost exclusively in global relations came to be.