Tetris was launched in the US at Summer CES 1988

Atari's 'Pong', VCRs, and CD players all launched at CES

This roundup highlights major tech milestones at CES, including the launch of the Nintendo NES in 1985, the DVD in 1996, and the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift in 2013.

The story of the debut 1967 Consumer Electronics Show

Read an account of the origins of the first CES in New York in 1967, a story which is surprisingly difficult to find information about.

The moment Bill Gates and the Rock announced the original Xbox at CES 2001

At CES 2001, Bill Gates and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took the stage to unveil the original Xbox. This memorable moment marked Microsoft’s entry into gaming and set the tone for its console brand.

It took a month for the Rubik's Cube inventor to solve the cube

The Rubik's Cube is the most popular puzzle toy in the world, with over 350 million sold since its invention in 1975. Originally created as a tool to teach three-dimensional movement, the colorful problem-solving game skyrocketed in popularity, spawning speedcubing competitions and becoming a fixture of global toy culture.

The man who created Settlers of Catan was inspired by Viking tales about the journey to Iceland.

Klaus Teuber invented the game when he was in his 30s, and had his wife and children act as early test players. Published in 1995, the game has now sold over 45 million units.

'Super Mario Bros.' was released in 1985

The game was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and published by Nintendo in Japan and North America in 1985. It’s seen as a landmark in the history of video games and minted the Mario character as a pop culture icon.

Sudoku was originally called 'Number Place'

While there are earlier variations on the game, the modern version appeared in 1979, though it was then called "Number Place." The game was slightly altered and renamed in Japan.

The first compact cassette tape was introduced at IFA 1963

At IFA 1963 in Berlin, Philips introduced the compact cassette tape. This new standardized audio format replaced bulky reel-to-reel tape and would go on to dominate home recording and music listening for decades.

'Pac-Man' was the rare early video game aimed at both men and women

The early arcade games were mainly aimed at boys and young men, with a focus on sports and violence. Toru Iwatani was interested in appealing to a wider audience and created "Pac-Man," released in Japan in 1980.

Explore an emulated demo of Windows 95 Microsoft Plus!

The operating system went on sale on August 24, 1995, and was the first to feature the Start menu. Through this emulation, try your hand at Solitaire, 3D Pinball Space Cadet, and other classic Windows applications.

How Scrabble got its name

Alfred Butts, a newly unemployed architect during the Great Depression, created Scrabble. But the game was named by James Brunot, who used the word to describe the most common action its players take part in: digging frantically.

The first US patent for a roller coaster was issued in January 1884

Despite their Russian origins, roller coasters are often associated with the US. This is in part thanks to a businessman and inventor named LaMarcus Thompson, who revolutionized the amusement industry in the US beginning with the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway at Coney Island. He is now known as the "father of the American roller coaster."

Video games are helping to preserve cultural heritage sites, further archaeological study

When Carmen Sandiego swept onto the video game scene in 1985, the deluxe version of the game included historic photographs from National Geographic and music from the Smithsonian. Read this article to learn about the overlap between gaming and ancient architecture.

The first computer virus was created by a USC doctoral candidate in 1983

A year after creating malware in a controlled experiment that multiplied until it took over all of a computer's memory, Fred Cohen went public with his research and its risks. He called the self-replicating software a "computer virus," a term Cohen's advisor, Leonard Adleman, coined to describe its infectious behavior. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

A brief history of augmented reality (w/photos and videos)

Different sources trace the history of augmented reality back to the beginning of the 20th century,. The term augmented reality however was coined by Thomas P. Caudell in the '80s.

The first chess game in space ended in a draw in 1970

Soviet cosmonauts Andriyan Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov played a game of chess against mission control while orbiting Earth aboard Soyuz 9 in 1970. The match ended in a draw—the first recorded game in space.

Computex differs from E3, the now-defunct game-focused media expo

Unlike E3’s consumer- and media-driven focus on video games—before the event’s cancellation in 2023—Computex centers on computer and gaming hardware, with a focus on business-to-business meetings and industry partnerships.

Watch a rare early interview with Palantir CEO Alex Karp

Prior to Palantir's public listing in 2020, CEO Alex Karp did not give many interviews. In a rare interview from 2009, Karp discussed the dominance of American technology, his academic background, and the founding idea of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs as key players in aiding the fight against terrorism.

View the growth of Claude in the US following its fallout with the Pentagon

Data from Appfigures shows that downloads of the Claude mobile app surpassed ChatGPT's for the first time in March 2026, while Similarweb reported that daily active user totals rose from 5 million the previous month to 11.3 million. Claude's web traffic was already up 297.7% year over year in February.

Dr. Seuss was likely the first to use the word 'nerd' in print

The word appeared in 1950's "If I Ran the Zoo," but there are theories that the word (or forms of it) were already part of popular slang before the book was published.

Pickleball's ubiquity has led to a culture clash with tennis

Since the late 1800s, tennis has been the world’s premier racquet sport. But in the late 2010s, rapid growth and investment in Pickleball changed that dynamic. This Cult Tennis video explores the newly created tension between tennis and Pickleball players, both on and off the courts.

The history of the Caesar salad

Despite what you might guess from its name, the Caesar salad wasn't invented in ancient Rome. The popular dish was created in the 1920s by two Italian brothers who'd emigrated to the United States and opened a popular restaurant in Tijuana called Caesar's Palace. This history of the popular entrée digs into that history and unpacks how it became a restaurant staple.

The process of electronic funds transfer was approved in the US in 1978

An electronic funds transfer is the transfering of money from one bank account to another via computer-based systems. When it was first introduced, it was revolutionary. A video from 1980 aimed to explain the value of electronic funds transfer to consumers at the time.

A quick history of Tencent

The Chinese tech firm grew from a late 1990's internet messaging service to a globally influential conglomerate. It was China's first company to hit the $500B valuation mark, and now enjoys massive reach via WeChat, WeBank, and its robust investment portfolio.

The concept of 'screen time' was invented in 1991

Mother Jones magazine coined the term in an essay called "Primal Screen" about children's television habits. Writer David Engelhardt wrote that they were watching “screens within screens within screens,” and that even babies were averaging an “hour and a half of screen time a day...the typical older child, about four hours."

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.