How Technology Changed the White House.

• Position: Brief Article

When President John Adams moved into the White House in November 1800, the President's House had no running water, no toilets, no central heating and no electric lights. Look at the timelines below to see how the United States--and the White House--have changed.

Read and Compare

1800 John Adams moves into the President's House

1803 Jefferson buys Louisiana Territory from France

1833 Indoor plumbing for fresh running water

1845 Central heat, for space and water heating

1848 Seneca Falls conference for women's rights

1863 Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation

1865 Civil War ends

1866 Telegraph lines

1876 Battle of Little Big Horn

1879 First telephone

1879 Congress gives women lawyers the right to argue before the Supreme Court

1890 Sherman Antitrust Act

1891 Electric lights

1909 Automobiles

1917 US enters WWII (1917-1918)

1926 Electric refrigerator

1927 Lindbergh flies across Atlantic

1941 Pearl Harbor bombed; US enters WWII (1941-1945)

1942 East Wing of White House built, including bomb shelter

1947 Television

1947 Jackie Robinson becomes first African-American in major-league baseball

1969 Apollo astronauts land on the moon

1972 Nixon visits China

1989 Berlin Wall comes down; breakup of Soviet Union

1991 Persian Gulf War

1993 The President gets e-mail

1. Did President Lincoln receive telegrams from Civil War battlefields in the White House!

2. Could President Lincoln pour himself a hot bath?

3. What might have been the subject of the first telephone conversations from the White House?

4. How many years before the U.S. entered World War I...