Jason Skeet's Seven Wonders of the World

1902: Thaddeaus Cahill invents the Telharmonium (or Dynamaphone), a 200-ton array of Edison dynamos that produce different pitched hums according to the speed of the dynamos. The electrical output was "broadcast" over telephone lines.

1906: Lee DeForest invents the Triode Vacuum Tube which leads to the amplification of electrical signals.

1930s: Improvement of amplifiers and the invention of the Tape Recorder.

1959: Invention of the RCA Mark II synthesizer,the first major voltage-controlled synthesizer.

1970s: The Mini-Moog, a small affordable integrated synthsizer, makes analog synthesis easily available and affordable, along with newcomers ARP and Oberheim.

1980s: Yamaha intoduces the DX-7 MIDI keyboard, based on FM synthesis algorithms developed by John Chowning at Stanford University. MIDI Specification 1.0 published in 1985 by the MIDI Manufacturers Association.

1990s: MIDI sequencing programs expand to include digital audio. 1999 sees the release of software for real-time exploration, navigation and composition of sound on the world wide web.