Future of the Screen: After the CRT, a Display Deluge By Jon Stokes | 09.02.09 For the seven decades following the debut of television at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the term "cathode ray tube" (CRT) was virtually synonymous with "display." Shortly after the turn of the millennium, liquid crystal display (LCD) technology began to replace the venerable CRT in desktop-computer applications, and by the middle of the decade LCD was rapidly squeezing the CRT out the television market that the latter had invented. Just two years ago, it seemed obvious that the display space was in the final stages of a relatively straightforward evolutionary shift, with LCD replacing the CRT in the same way that the gas-powered automobile had replaced the horse and buggy.