Johannes Gutenberg

• In the 1440s, Johannes Gutenberg started to experiment with movable types. He made a metal movable type system of casting letters with screw press and hand mould. The machine was semi-mechanic but was very effective.
• The first complete book printed on the movable type was the Guten...

• In 105 China, an official Cai Lung suggested using "the bark of trees, remnants of hemp, rags of cloth, and fishing nets" for writing on instead of heavier bamboo or costlier silk material.
• The Chinese followed that up with the invention of the first clay moveable type for printing...

The Western world's first pop culture superstar was probably William Shakespeare. He wrote his theatre plays for a mass audience, fulfilling pop culture's art requirement that could be enjoyed by the masses.

Shakespeare's art bridged the 16th-century gap between popular an...