Key dates in CD history

4/15: Europe's first public presentation of the CD format, made by Sony, Philips and PolyGram at the Salzburg Festival, at the invitation of the Herbert von Karajan Foundation. Early prototype players from Sony and Philips were demonstrated using the performance of Wagner's Parsifal from the previous year's festival, as well as Karajan-conducted performances of Die Zauberflöte and Falstaff, and an excerpt from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition^[1].
Sony/Philips "Red Book" format approved as standard in Japan^[2].

Sony demonstrates the CD at the 70th Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention, October 30-November 2 at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, featuring a version of the then-current Bee Gees album Living Eyes manufactured especially for the event^[3].

Album Graphics Incorporated (AGI), later to become inventors of the Digipak, get their cardboard on early by proposing a first-cut version of the dreaded longbox ^[4]. The design features a 5"x10" gatefold sleeve that opens to 10"x15".

PolyGram presents Herbert von Karajan with a copy of the first "industrially produced" CD^[5], presumably manufactured at PolyGram's Hanover plant. The recording, Richard Strauss' Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker with Karajan conducting, was publicly released as Deutsche Grammophon 400 039-2^[6] in the initial European launch of the format.

References

^ "European press hear Compact Disc", Gramophone, June 1981, http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/June%201981/32/761806/European+Press+hear+Compact+Disc, retrieved 26 April 2012
^ "High tech poised for digital replay", Billboard, 29 Aug 1981
^ "Digital hot topic at AES", Billboard, 31 Oct 1981
^ "Pilfer-proof compact disc jacket proposed by AGI", Billboard, 20 Mar 1982
^ "Karajan honored with CD"", Billboard, 10 July 1982
^ "Richard Strauss - Eine Alpensinfonie. H. v Karajan, 1982 DG original?" (Steve Hoffman Forums thread)