1619            First Shipload of African slaves sold to the colonies docks in Virginia

1843:            First public minstrel show, in Virginia.

1865            The Thirteenth Amendment: Abolition of Slavery.

1877            Thomas Edison files patent on a phonograph consisting of a metal cylinder with a fine spiral groove, two diaphragm-and-needle units (one for recording, the other for playback) and a small speaker-horn.

1887            Emile Berliner, the inventor of the microphone ten years earlier, files for a patent for the gramophone which plays disks rather than Edison’s cylinders (Berliner a few years later invents a matrix system whereby an unlimited number of copies can be mass-produced from an original master).

1920             “Race Recording begins with Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues.”

1920            Westinghouse initiates commercial radio broadcasts.

1923            Bessie Smith’s “Down Hearted Blues,” Ma Rainey’s “Bo-Weavil Blues.”

1924            Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Papa’s Lawdy, Lawdy Blues.”

1925             Electric recording introduced.

1926            -Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “That Black Snake Moan.”

            -Jelly Roll Morton’s “Dead Man Blues” and “Black Bottom Stomp”

1928            -Leroy Carr’s “How Long – How Long Blues,” Tampa Red and Georgia Tom’s “Its Tight like that, “ and Clarence “Pine Top” Smith’s “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogle.”

            -The Southern drought described in Son House’s “Dry Spell Blues”

1929            -Charlie Patton’s “Pony Blues” and “High Water Everywhere-Parts I and II”

            -Bessie Smith appears on Broadway in Pansy.

1933            -Leadbelly (Hudie Leadbetter) recorded by John and Alan Lomax at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

            -Wurlitzer begins to manufacture coin-operated juke boxes.

1936            -Robert Johnson’s Cross Roads Blues.

            -John and Alan Lomax’s Negro Folk Songs as Performed by Leadbelly.

1937            -Bessie Smith dies as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident on Highway 61, in Mississippi.

1938            -First “Spirituals to Swing” concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, featuring Big Bill Broonzy, among others.

1941            -Alan Lomax records McKinley Morganfield (a.k.a. Muddy Waters) for the Library of Congress on Stovall’s Farm.

            -Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) debuts on KFFA’s “King Biscuit Hour” (Helena, Arkansas).

1942            -Billboard initiates its R&B chart.

            -The American Federation of Musicians calls for a ban on recording in a dispute over royalties; the ‘strike’ lasts until 1944.

1944            - Louis Jordan’s “G.I. Jive” reaches top pf the pop charts.

1946            -Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “That’s All Right.”

            -Network Television broadcasts begin.

1947            -T-Bone Walker’s “Call It Stormy Monday”.

1948            -John Lee Hooker’s Boogie Chillen.”

            -Muddy Waters’ “I Can’t Be Satisfied.”

            -WDIA, In Memphis, becomes the first radio station to switch to all black programming: B. B. King is later a disc Jockey there.

            -The Long-playing record LP is introduced.

1949            - Leadbelly appears in France, becoming the first country bluesman to perform in Europe.

1950            -The Weavers’ version of Leadbelly’s “Goodnight, Irene” sells over 2 million copies.

1952            -B. B, King’s version of Lowell Fulson’s “Three O’Clock Blues” tops Billborad’s R’&B chart for five weeks; later this same year, Little Walter’s “Juke” reaches number one.

1958            -Stereo is Introduced.

            -The end of an era: Muddy Waters’s last appearance on Billboard’s R&B chart with a song called “Close to You.”

1959             -Sam Charters records Lightnin’ Hopkins for Folkways.

1960            -Muddy Waters and his band get the crowd up on its feet and dancing at the Newport Jazz .

1961            -Columbia releases selection of Robert Johnson’s recordings on LP.

1962 Booker T. and the MG’s “Green Onions,” Stax’s first hit record.

1964            -The recently rediscovered Delta Bluesmen Son House and Skip James are featured at the Newport Folk Festival.

            -Howlin’ Wolf appears on “Shindig” courtesy of the Rolling Stones

1965            -The Paul Butterfield Blues Band plugs in at the Newport Folk Festival.

1969            -B. B. King and Muddy Waters, both of whom are now playing mostly for white audiences, perform at the Fillmore East.

1970            -B. B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone”.

1970            -“Living Blues” begins publication in Chicago.

1971            -Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers launches Alligator Records.

 Blaxplotation –Hollywood’s ironic acknowledgment of black purchasing power- begins with Gordon Park;s Shaff.

1979            -Rap emerges from underground discos with the Sugar Hill Ganha’s “Rapper’s Delight.”

1980             -John Landis’s movie The Blues Brothers, starring Don Aykroyd and John Belushi.

1982            -The Compact disc is introduced.

1984 Steve Ray Vaughan’s “Texas Flood”.

1986            -Robert Cray’s “Strong Persuader”.

1989 John Lee Hooker’s “The Healer”.

1990            -Columbia releases Robert Johnson’s complete recordings on CD.