The printed word may be soon dead thanks to texting and Twitter, but for more than 500 years, the print word ruled all. Johann Gutenberg introduced the world to the printing press in 1439, allowing a single copy of text to be reproduced several times at breakneck speeds, especially when raced against the blind monks with carpel tunnel syndrome who had to hand copy every book, pamphlet, and cocktail napkin. Books once cost as much as an entire farm, but with the printing press, you could own a book for the cost a drunk mule. As the printing press became faster, books became cheaper, newspapers moved from stone tablets to tabloids, and the American Revolution happened because of the newest invention, the typo.