1969 – The first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on the BBC. The show created the Spam sketch that would eventually inspire the slang term for unsolicited email.

1991 – Linux Kernel version 0.02 was released, attracting a lot of attention. Author Linus Torvalds felt this version was at least usable and worth a wider release.

1992 – IBM announced the ThinkPad line of Notebook computers at offices in New York City.

1996 – Supercomputer Pioneer Cray Dies in Auto Accident

The father of the supercomputer, Seymour Cray, died due to injuries sustained in a car accident two weeks earlier. Cray was born September 28, 1925, in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Cray worked among computer pioneers after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1951 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. With several others, he founded Control Data Corp., where he built the CDC 1604 and CDC 6600. The later was the most powerful computer of its time – three times more powerful than IBM’s STRETCH. Cray founded his own company, Cray Research, in 1972 and built supercomputers in a cylindrical design that aimed to cut down on the length of internal wiring. Crays are used primarily for scientific research and computer graphics.

2002 – “Xbox Media Player” and its first beta source code was released. The code was a result of Frodo, the founder of “YAMP” (Yet Another Media Player), joining the Xbox Media Player team. The project was later changed to Xbox Media Center and then just XBMC.

2011 – Steve Jobs Passed Away

After a long battle with pancreatic cancer, technology visionary and founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs passed away. Job’s contributions to the technology industry are undeniable. Together with Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs started the personal computer revolution with their Apple II computer. After being forced out of Apple, Jobs went on to found NeXT, Inc. and then purchase Pixar, the company that would redefine the animated motion picture industry. In 1997, Apple purchased NeXT which brought Jobs back to Apple and the technology developed at NeXT was used as the foundation for Apple’s future operating systems, Mac OS X and iOS. By introducing the iPhone and iPad, he ended the PC era he created, kickstarted The New World of Technology and led Apple from the brink of collapse to the most valuable company in the world.

If you like this post kindly comment below and do share your response. Thanks for reading.

1903 – Computer Pioneer Atanasoff Born

John Vincent Atanasoff was born in Hamilton, New York. As a math and physics professor at Iowa State University in the 1930s, he developed the idea for a calculating machine that would use binary arithmetic and electronic switching devices. He recruited a doctoral student, Clifford Berry, and together they built the Atanasoff-Berry computer. The two innovators were only recognized much later for their work, which preceded John Mauchly’s better-publicized construction of the ENIAC. Atanasoff died on July 1995.

1957 – Sputnik Launches the Space Age

The first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth, Sputnik 1, is launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, marking what is now considered the beginning of the Space Age. Surprising the world with its successful launch, Sputnik triggered the Space Race between the Soviet Union and United State ushering in an era of rapid advancement in the field of space exploration. After 3 months in orbit, Sputnik reentered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up on January 4, 1958.

1985 – Richard Stallman started a non-profit corporation called the Free Software Foundation, dedicated to promoting the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software. The FSF among other things, enforces the copyleft requirements of the GNU General Public License often referred to as the GPL.

2004 – SpaceShipOne returned from its third journey, reusable spacecraft that could carry passengers beyond the earth’s atmosphere. It won the $10 million Ansari X prize for private spaceflight.

2016 – Google announced two phones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, the first phones designed from the ground up by Google. The company also introduced a Google Home voice-activated assistant along with several other products.

If you like this post kindly comment below and do share your response. Thanks for reading.

1942 – German conducted the first successful test of the V-2/A4 rocket, launched from Test Stand VII at Peenemunde. It traveled 118 miles.

1950 – Transistor Inventor Receive Patent

The US Patent Office issued a patent to John Barden, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley for the transistor. The three AT&T Bell Laboratories researchers had successfully tested the first of their devices two years earlier. The transistor started a revolution in computer engineering that led to the development of the semiconductors, microprocessors, and integrated circuits common in modern computers.

1967 – Air Force Major “Pete” Knight flew the rocket-powered X-15 aircraft to 4,520 mph, Mach 6.72. That is the fastest manned aircraft ever flown.

1972 – The first USA/Japan Computer Conference was held in Tokyo.

1985 – STS-51J lifted off Sending the Space Shuttle Atlantis on its maiden flight. It was the fourth shuttle created and eventually became the last shuttle to fly in July 2011.

If you like this post kindly comment below and do share your response. Thanks for reading.

1925 – John Logie Baird performed the first test of a working television system. It delivered a grayscale of 30-line vertically scanned image, at five frames per second. After a ventriloquist’s dummy appeared on screen, 20-years-old William Edwards Taynton became the first person televised in full tonal range.

1955 – ENIAC Computer Retired

After eleven years of calculating and processing programs, the ENIAC was retired. Designers John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert had unveiled the machine in February 1946, showing off its 1,000-time improvement in speed over its contemporaries. The ENIAC ran at 5,000 operations a second with a system of plug boards, switches, and punch cards. It occupied 1,000 square feet of floor space.

1996 – US President Bill Clinton signed amendments to the Freedom of Information Act requiring the US government to make electronic documents available online.

2015 – Google officially reorganized, merging with a new parent company called Alphabet. Subsidiaries included Google, Google Fiber, Calico and Life Sciences, Google Ventures and Google Capital, Nest, and Google X. Sundar Pichai was names CEO of Google while Larry Page became CEO of Alphabet and Sergey Brin became President of Alphabet.

If you like this post kindly comment below and do share your response. Thanks for reading.

1958 – The National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics was officially absorbed by the brand new National Aeronautics and Space Agency. Another expanded government bureaucracy that was only good for putting people on the moon.

1971 – The first clinical human CT scan was performed on a middle aged lady with a suspected frontal lobe tumor, at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital in South London.

1979 – Ex-Atari Employees Started Activision

Activision was founded by four ex-Atari Inc. game designers: David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. They teamed up with Jim Levy to produce game cartridges for the Atari 2600 game system. This, in fact, was the first company that developed game cartridges only. The company started with an investment of $700,000.

1982 –The First CD Player

The first commercial compact disc player, the Sony CDP-101, goes on sale in Japan.

2003 – 4Chan launched its main page, intended as a sister-site to the Japanese 2Chan for discussion of manga and anime. They provided the fertile ground for the growth of lolcats, Rickrolling, Anonymous, Pedobear and more.

2008 – Text Messaging Possible Factor in Fatal Train Wreck

A Metrolink engineer at the helm of a commuter train in Los Angeles, California, was found to have been text messaging seconds before colliding with a freight train. 25 people were killed in the accident and numerous others were injured. Many states have passed laws enforcing hands-free only cellular use that restricts drivers from the distracted driving inherent in hands-on texting and cellular phone calls.

If you like this post kindly comment below and do share your response. Thanks for reading.