Thanks to Don who posted a link to Google’s news archive. I decided to explore a little further and saw this great chart generated by Google. So I made this chart with a bit of ASL history.

ASL history chart.

1816 – Sign language from France was brought to the United States by Thomas Gallaudet, now known as American Sign Language.
1880 – ASL was banned in the 1880 Milan Conference.
1960 – Dr. William Stokoe Jr. published Sign Language Structure, showing that ASL is a complex natural language in its own right with an independent syntax and grammar.
1988 – Deaf President Now (DPN) began protest, selecting Dr. I King Jordan as Gallaudet’s first deaf president.
2000 to now – Another protest at Gallaudet University. Deaf blogsphere emerged. Videophone is invented.