(Photo: Mary Evans/Hubertus Kanus)

Third millennium B.C.
Lapis lazuli, carved for jewelry and used as a pigment in ceramics and painting (including in such iconic artifacts as the Death Mask of Tutankhamun), is mined in Afghanistan.

(Photo: Anna Atkins/NYPL)

1842
The cyanotype printing process is invented. A year later, pioneering photographer Anna Atkins creates a series of cyanotype books picturing ferns and other flora.

(Photo: Business Wire/Getty Images)

1938
Superman is born, followed shortly by Wonder Woman, both of them sporting red, white, and superhero-blue uniforms.

(Photo: Christie's Images/Corbis)

1960
Yves Klein patents International Klein Blue, using it two years later on his sculpture, Venus.

1977
David Bowie releases the single “Sound and Vision” (“Blue, blue, electric blue / That’s the color of my room / Where I will live”), supposedly written about cocaine withdrawal.

(Photo: Distinctive Assets/Getty Images)

1988
Two caterers and a tech geek form the Blue Man Group as an avant-garde theater piece; it goes on to become the downtown equivalent of Cats.

(Photo: Courtesy of Pantone)

1995
Chocolate lovers melt over the new, blue addition to the M&M family.

(Photo: Courtesy of Corcoran)

2005
Architects announce construction of Blue, a sixteen-story tower on Norfolk Street, finished in 2007.

(Photo: Courtesy of Erik Hautamaki/Firstview)

Winter 2008
A banner season for blue. Blue Iris named color of the year by Pantone. Designers including Jil Sander and Raf Simon incorporate the color into their collections. Lamborghini introduces an icy-blue shade at the Detroit Auto Show.

Related:

• Articles by Emma Pearse
• Table of Contents: Mar 31, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!