Short answers, pulled from the story.
John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain created the first working point-contact transistor in 1947 at Bell Labs under the direction of William Shockley. This invention replaced massive room-sized vacuum tube computers with smaller, more reliable, and mass-producible devices. The transistor laid the foundation for the modern digital age and enabled the creation of computers small enough to fit into homes and pockets.
The transition from analog to digital formats began in the 1980s when optical compact discs gradually replaced vinyl records and cassette tapes. By the early 2000s, digital cameras had eclipsed traditional film in popularity. The world's technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 exabytes in 1986 to approximately 5,000 exabytes in 2014.
A message sent over the ARPANET in 1969 marked the first public introduction to the concepts that eventually led to the Internet. This event began a network of networks where multiple separate systems joined together to create a global communication infrastructure. By 1991, the World Wide Web became publicly accessible, transforming the Internet into a mass culture phenomenon.
Intel released the 4004, the first single-chip microprocessor, in 1971. Federico Faggin developed the chip using his silicon-gate MOS IC technology along with Marcian Hoff, Masatoshi Shima, and Stan Mazor. This tiny chip laid the foundations for the microcomputer revolution that began in the 1970s and allowed computers to be owned by individuals.
The Apple II, Commodore PET 2001, and TRS-80 were all released in 1977 and became the most popular personal computers by late 1978. These machines were part of a race by several firms to introduce the first truly successful commercial personal computers that began in 1976. Byte magazine later referred to Commodore, Apple, and Tandy as the leading firms in this market.