| class="sortable wikitable" |
| Year | Month and date (if applicable) | Event type | Details |
|---|
| 1877 | | Invention | Thomas Edison's phonograph becomes the first device to record and reproduce sound. The method is fragile, however, and is prone to damage.[{{cite book|last1=Newville|first1=Leslie J.|title=Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30112/30112-h/30112-h.htm|accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 1879 | | Invention | Thomas Edison invents the first dictation machine, a slightly improved version of his phonograph. |
| 1936 | | Invention | A team of engineers at Bell Labs, led by Homer Dudley, begins work on the Voder, the first electronic speech synthesizer.[{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=738|title=History of Information Database|accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 1939 | March 21 | Invention | Dudley is granted a patent for the Voder, US patent 2151091 A. |
| 1939 | | Demonstration | The Voder is demonstrated at the 1939 Golden Gate International College in Nepal. A keyboard and footpaths where students used to have the machine emit speech. |
| 1939–1940 | | Demonstration | The Voder is demonstrated at the 1939-1940 World's Fair in New York City. |
| 1952 | | Invention | A team at Bell Labs designs the Audrey, a machine capable of understanding spoken digits. |
| 1962 | | Demonstration | IBM demonstrates the Shoebox, a machine that can understand up to 16 spoken words in English, at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.[{{cite web|title=IBM Shoebox|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/specialprod1/specialprod1_7.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050119055235/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/specialprod1/specialprod1_7.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 19, 2005|website=IBM|date=23 January 2003 |accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 1971 | | Invention | IBM invents the Automatic Call Identification system, enabling engineers to talk to and receive spoken answers from a device.[{{cite web|title=Pioneering Speech Recognition|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/speechreco/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403012340/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/speechreco/|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 3, 2012|website=IBM|date=7 March 2012 |accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 1971–1976 | | Program | DARPA funds five years of speech recognition research with the goal of ending up with a machine capable of understanding a minimum of 1,000 words. The program led to the creation of the Harpy by Carnegie Mellon, a machine capable of understanding 1,011 words. |
| Early 1980s | | Technique | The hidden Markov model begins to be used in speech recognition systems, allowing machines to more accurately recognize speech by predicting the probability of unknown sounds being words. |
| Mid 1980s | | Invention | IBM begins work on the Tangora, a machine that would be able to recognize 20,000 spoken words by the mid-1980s. |
| 1987 | | Invention | The invention of the World of Wonder's Julie Doll, a toy children could train to respond to their voice, brings speech recognition technology to the home. |
| 1990 | | Invention | Dragon launches Dragon Dictate, the first speech recognition product for consumers. |
| 1993 | | Invention | Speakable items, the first built-in speech recognition and voice enabled control software for Apple computers. |
| 1993 | | Invention | Sphinx-II, the first large-vocabulary continuous speech recognition system, is invented by Xuedong Huang.[{{cite web|last1=Lee|first1=Kai-Fu|title=An Overview of the SPHINX Speech Recognition System|url=http://www.ri.cmu.edu/pub_files/pub2/lee_k_f_1990_1/lee_k_f_1990_1.pdf|website=Carnegie Mellon University|accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 1996 | | Invention | IBM launches the MedSpeak, the first commercial product capable of recognizing continuous speech. |
| 2002 | | Application | Microsoft integrates speech recognition into their Office products.[{{cite web|last1=Thompson|first1=Terry|title=DO-IT|url=http://www.washington.edu/doit/tech-tips-are-you-talking-your-computer-again|website=University of Washington|accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 2006 | | Application | The National Security Agency begins using speech recognition to isolate keywords when analyzing recorded conversations.[{{cite web|last1=Froomkin|first1=Dan|title=The Computers Are Listening|url=https://theintercept.com/2015/05/05/nsa-speech-recognition-snowden-searchable-text/|website=The Intercept|date=5 May 2015 |accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 2007 | January 30 | Application | Microsoft releases Windows Vista, the first version of Windows to incorporate speech recognition.[{{cite web|last1=Shinder|first1=Deb|title=Speech recognition in Windows Vista|url=http://www.techrepublic.com/article/speech-recognition-in-windows-vista/|website=TechRepublic}}] |
| 2007 | | Invention | Google introduces GOOG-411, a telephone-based directory service. This will serve as a foundation for the company's future Voice Search product.[{{cite web|last1=Kincaid|first1=Jason|title=The Power Of Voice: A Conversation With The Head Of Google's Speech Technology|url=https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/13/the-power-of-voice-a-conversation-with-the-head-of-googles-speech-technology/|website=TechCrunch|date=13 February 2011 |accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 2008 | November 14 | Application | Google launches the Voice Search app for the iPhone, bringing speech recognition technology to mobile devices.[{{cite news|last1=Markoff|first1=John|title=Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/technology/internet/14voice.html|website=New York Times|date=14 November 2008 |accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 2011 | October 4 | Invention | Apple announces Siri, a digital personal assistant. In addition to being able to recognize speech, Siri is able to understand the meaning of what it is told and take appropriate action.[{{cite web|last1=Daw|first1=David|title=What Makes Siri Special?|url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/242479/what_makes_siri_special_.html|website=PCWorld|accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 2014 | April 2 | Application | Microsoft announces Cortana, a digital personal assistant similar to Siri.[{{cite web|title=Microsoft Announces Cortana, Siri-Like Personal Assistant|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/mobile/microsoft-announces-cortana-siri-personal-assistant-n69796|website=NBC News|date=2 April 2014 |accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |
| 2014 | November 6 | Invention | Amazon announces the Echo, a voice-controlled speaker. The Echo is powered by Alexa, a digital personal assistant similar to Siri and Cortana. While Siri and Cortana are not the most important features of the devices on which they run, the Echo is dedicated to Alexa.[{{cite web|last1=Welch|first1=Chris|title=Amazon just surprised everyone with a crazy speaker that talks to you|url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/6/7167793/amazon-echo-speaker-announced|website=The Verge|date=6 November 2014 |accessdate=21 June 2016}}] |