Brief History Of Graphics

While looking for some background on the use of the photorealistic graphics in games (short version? blame Myst), I found this:

Rendering (shading) were discovered by Gouraud and Phong at the University of Utah. Phong also introduced a reflection model that included specular highlights. Keyframe based animation for 3-D graphics was demonstrated. Xerox PARC developed a ``paint'' program. Ed Catmull introduced parametric patch rendering, the z-buffer algorithm, and texture mapping. BASIC, C, and Unix were developed at Dartmouth and Bell Labs.

-- Short History of Computer Graphics

Goes from the 60's to around 2000, so it's missing some modern points. Humorously it ends: "You should expect 3-D modeling and video editing for the masses, computer vision for robotic devices and capture facial expressions, and realistic rendering of difficult things like a human face, hair, and water. With any luck C++ will fall out of favor."