TED began as a one-off conference in Monterey, California, whose name stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, organised by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks, to bring together people from those three worlds. After a second meeting several years later, it became an annual conference, and under Chris Anderson, who took over in 2001 through the Sapling Foundation, it widened its scope to cover science, culture and global issues. In 2006, the talks started to be posted online for free, and their popularity grew rapidly, spawning the independent local TEDx events. The format of short, well-prepared talks, usually under eighteen minutes, became very influential, though it has also been criticised for oversimplifying complex topics.
Before and after
- 8 January 1984Birth of Kim Jong-un
- 23 January 1984Birth of Arjen Robben
- 24 January 1984Apple introduces the Macintosh
- from 1 February 1984 to 4 August 1988Tankers War
- 23 February 1984Launch of TED
- from 13 April 1984 to 25 November 2003Siachen conflict
- 11 May 1984Birth of Andrés Iniesta
- 14 May 1984Birth of Mark Zuckerberg
- 2 August 1984Birth of JD Vance
More in Science & technology
- 1950Discovery of californium
- 1952Discovery of einsteinium
- December 1952Discovery of fermium
- 1958Discovery of nobelium
- c. 1980sInvention of laptop
- June 2002Discovery of oganesson
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.