Mozart was the first great piano virtuoso (master). He also wrote the first piano duet in 1765.

Yamaha in Japan started making upright pianos in 1900 and made its first grand in 1903.

The first magazine devoted to jazz was called Le Jazz Hot, and was published on February 2, 1935 in Paris.

The first composition written specifically for the piano was Giustini's "12 Sonatas for soft and loud harpsichord" in 1732.

The first book about piano technique was written by C.P.E. Bach, son of J.S. Bach, in 1753.

The first performances of piano solos in concert were by J.C. Bach (another one of J.S.Bach’s sons) in London, and Henry Walsh in Dublin, Ireland in 1762.

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck was raised on a cattle ranch that his father managed. Dave often worked out musical compositions while riding horseback to do various jobs around the ranch. The rhythm of his galloping horse would inspire him and he frequently found himself singing out loud.

The first Japanese pianos were built in 1885 by Nishikawa and Sons.

One of the earliest recordings of a piano performance was by Johannes Brahms playing one of his Hungarian Dances.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the US national anthem by Congress in 1931. Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics in 1814, taking the melody from an 18th century drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven" by British composer John Stafford Smith. (Anacreon was a Greek poet associated with love and wine).

In the 1920's, before the radio became the main source of entertainment in American households and long before television, there were more player pianos in the US than regular ones.

Louis Braille, an organist, originally invented Braille as a way for blind people to read music.

In 1894, Emile Berliner started recording music onto discs. 78 rpm discs with 4 1/2 minutes of music on each side became the standard recording format for the next fifty years.

Arthur Rubinstein was the best-selling classical pianist in history. He made more than 200 recordings which sold more than 10 million copies.

Printed collections of music for home use became fairly common in the 1730's.

Columbia introduced the first long-playing 33 1/3 rpm albums in June 1948.

Jan Ladoslas Dussek is credited as being the first concert pianist to perform with his right side to the audience (sometime in the 1780's). He was apparently quite handsome and wanted his admirers to have the best view of his profile.

Sebastien Erard, one of the primary developers of the piano, was also very interested in the harp. He developed the double-action harp as early as 1780, and that is still the basis of all modern harp construction.

Sony and Philips introduced the compact disc in 1983.

On some of the pianos of the early 1800’s (both uprights and grands), there were as many as seven pedals, including a buzzing bassoon stop, a muting moderator, a thumping and jingling military stop, as well as the damper and una corde (soft) pedals.

Sony Walkman cassette players were introduced in 1979. Sony chairman Akio Morita came up with the idea after being annoyed with his kids' stereo.