1945 – “First Draft of Report on EDVAC” Published

“First Draft of Report on EDVAC,” is published. Brian Randell notes, “It is generally accepted that the first documented discussion… of the advantages of using just one large internal memory, in which instructions as well as data could be held, was the draft report on EDVAC written by Von Neumann.” In 1944, he was appointed a consultant to the EDVAC project. The draft report contains a description of the planned machine and the reasoning behind the various design decisions.

1948 – The Transition to Transistors Begins

Originally designed to create improvements to electromechanical relays and vacuum tubes in telephone switching equipment, Bell Labs holds a press conference in New York to publicly demonstrate the first point-contact transistor. The transistor represents a significant advance in technology. As it is developed over the next few years, it will become the successor to the vacuum tube, the primary method of controlling electronic circuitry at the time. The use of transistors allows the development of the integrated circuit and microchips which kickstarted the rapid advance of electronic and computerized technology over the last 60 years. Every industry that utilizes technology, from communications to computers to space travel to video games to media owes a great deal to the development of transistor.

2000 – Silicon Microchips beneath Human Retinas

Dr. Alan chow and brother Vincent announced they successfully placed a silicon microchip beneath human retinas. The chip is smaller than the head on a pin and only microns thin. These chips also contain solar cells to help power the chip.

In what is called “Optobionics”, the ASR chip is inserted behind the retina in the “subretinal space”. This is a 2 hour procedure and the chip can last up to 8 years after (depending on care).

2015 – Apple launched Apple Music, a streaming service for $10 a month along with radio station Beats One.

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1975 – Steve Wozniak built the first prototype of the Apple I, the first computer to show letter on the screen as you typed them.

1992 – Silicon Graphics and MIPS Merge

Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) and MIPS Computer Systems merged in a stock swap valued at $333 million. SGI experienced a number of financial difficulties, leading to industry speculation about the future of the computer graphics software and hardware company that pioneered a number of techniques in widespread use. MIPS, founded by Stanford University Engineering School Dean John Hennessy, developed high-speed computer chips making use of reduced instruction set computing technology, which seeks to improve speed by simplifying the transmission of information within a computer on April 1, 2009, SGI filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Rackable Systems a few weeks later.

1995 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the space station Mir, the first-ever docking of a Shuttle to a Space Station.

2000 – The ASCI White

IBM unveiled the ASCI White- their fastest computer yet. This supercomputer was based on IBM’s commercial RS/6000 SP computer. 512 computers were connected to make this supercomputer over 8 million processors, 5 Terabytes of memory and 160 TB of disk storage.

The computer was completed on this day in New York, and would go on-line on August 15, 2001 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

2007 – The Phone That Changed Everything

Nearly 6 months after it was introduced, Apple’s highly-anticipated iPhone goes on sale. Generally downplayed by Old Word Technology pundits after its introduction, the iPhone was greeted by long lines of buyers around the country on that first day. Quickly becoming an overnight phenomenon, one million iPhones were sold in only 74 days. Since those early days, the ensuring iPhone models have continued to set sales records and have completely changed not only the smartphone and technology industries, but the world as well.

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1928 – Austrian Friedrich Schmiedl launched his first experimental rocket from a balloon 50,000 feet over Graz, Austria. The rocket was not recovered, but later tests were successful leading to rocket delivered mail.

1955 – Laying of First Transatlantic Telephone Cable

The HMTS Monarch, the largest cable laying ship in the world at the time, launches from Clarenville, Newfoundland to begin laying TAT-1, the first Transatlantic telephone cable. TAT-1 would be inaugurated 15 months later on September 25, 1965. TAT-1 may be best known for carrying the famous “hot line” between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

1965 – First Commercial Communication Satellite Activates

Intelsat I, the first commercial communication satellite, is activated for service. It was nicknamed “Early Bird” after the famous proverb, and became famous for carrying the first commercial telephone call between America and Europe, as well as helping provide TV coverage of the Gemini 6 splashdown.

1974 – Vannevar Bush Dies

Mathematician, scientist and computer pioneer Vannevar Bush died. Bush was born in Everett, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1890. Also deeply involved with wartime computer projects, Bush invented an electromechanical differential analyzer before the war.

1982 – Microsoft unveiled a new corporate logo with the famous “blibbet” of horizontal lines in the first O. New packaging, and a comprehensive set of retail dealer support materials came along with the blibbet.

1999 – HydraBBS software was released.

2011 – Google announced their latest social network attempt. Google+ let you put friends in circles and share different things with different circles.

2014 – Aereo Shuts Down

Trying to be the first provider of over-the-air channels, Aereo was told to shut down completely after a supreme court decision went against the company.

The idea was simple – take the over-the-air network channels and offer them on the internet. Based in New York, the company opened services in 24 different cities. You could only watch the programming of your area on your PC, Mac or Linux. There were around 28 channels you could choose from and pricing was simply $1 a day.

Aereo was faced with many legal issues, including the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition act. The rebroadcast through the service undermined cable retransmission fees. It was also a wake-up call as after the fact, many cable providers started offering live streaming options.

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1967 – The world’s first ATM was installed at a Barclays Bank branch in Enfield Town, England, United Kingdom.

1972 – All Hail Atari

The iconic video game company, Atari is founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Their first video game, Pong, was the first commercially successful video game and led to the start of the video game industry. In 1977, Atari Video Computer System (known as the VCS and later the Atari 2600) popularized the home video game market. Before the video game crash of 1983, Atari was the fastest growing company in the history of the United States at the time, and the brand was synonymous with video games.

All those who have enjoyed video games, whether we started playing in the 70’s, 80’s, or just in the last few years, should take moment to reflect on the company that single-handedly spawned the video game industries we so cherish. I propose that the best way to do that is to … well … stop what you’re doing and play a video game right now!

1995 – Spyglass Goes Public

World Wide Web software producer Spyglass Inc. went public, the year after it had begun distributing its Spyglass Mosaic software, an early browser for navigating the Web. With previous year’s earning at $7 million, Spyglass was founded by students at the Illinois Supercomputing Center, which also inspired Netscape Communications Corp.

2008 – Bill Gates Steps Down

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates officially steps down from office. He hands the reigns over to Steve Ballmer and stays on as Chairman of the Board.

2012 – Sergey Brin interrupted a Google announcement of the new Google + app to show off the Project Glass smart glasses by having sky divers wearing the prototypes, jump out of a zeppelin and land on the Moscone Convention Center in downtown San Francisco, while streaming video in a Google hangout.

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1954 – At 5:30 PM the world’s first nuclear power station was connected to the power grid in Obninsk, U.S.S.R., a small town 60 miles south of Moscow.

1974 – I PC, UPC …

A Universal Product Code (UPC) is used to ring up a purchase for the first time at a Marsh Supercomputer in Troy, Ohio. The first item scanned was a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum. Take that to your trivia contents!

1997 – Communications Decency Act Declared Unconstitutional

The US Supreme Court ruled the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional on a 7-2 vote. The act, passed by both houses of Congress, sought to control the content of the Internet in an effort to keep pornography from minors. In an opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court ruled the act a violation of free speech as guaranteed by the US Constitution.

1997 – Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP)

Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet create a partnership to start and build on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) as a non-profit organization. The industry group was formed to keep wireless devices on track, bring Internet connected devices to all who need it, create a wireless protocol that works on all network technologies, make scalable application and content, and work with existing standards to expand as wireless needs grow.

2014 – Google’s Advanced Technology and Project lab stole the show at the Google I/O developer conference, with a demonstration of Project Tango’s 3D-mapping capability and Project Ara’s modular phone.

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1967 – The very first Consumer Electronics Show opened in New York occupying the Americana and New York Hilton Hotels. It was devoted to home entertainment electronics and featured such advances as portable color TVs and video tape recorders.

1981 – Microsoft Incorporates, Plans to Buy 86-DOS

Microsoft goes through a restructure to incorporate in Washington Bill Gates would become President, Paul Allen was Executive Vice President. Steve Ballmer would come on full-time with a $50,000 year salary.

The reason why they incorporated? On this same day, Paul Allen sends a proposal to Rod Black of Seattle Computer Products for Microsoft to purchase all rights to 86-DOS for $30,000. At that point, they had only a non-exclusive license (since September 22, 1980). This was a strategic move because Microsoft had relationship with IBM, and wanted to re-license for the IBM PC.

After a month of negotiations, Seattle Computer agreed to the purchase for $50,000. However, that was not the end of it, as they found out of the IBM deal. They finally settled years later for $1 million.

1998 – Microsoft released Windows 98 with less hype than Windows 95, but more consumer focus.

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1963 – The first demonstration of a home video recorder was made at the BBC News Studios in London. A Telcan, short for television in a can, could record up to 20 minutes of black and white television using quarter-inch tape on a reel to reel system.

1993 – “Severe Tire Damage”, conducted the first known Internet concert. The band set their gear up on the patios of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and sent their show out on the Internet Multicast Backbone, or Mbone.

1994 – Geffen Records released the first major label song for digital download. Aerosmith’s “Head First” was available on CompuServe as a .WAV file. It took more than an hour to download.

1996 – HP Announces New ATM Capabilities

Hewlett-Packard Co. announces new advanced ATM test capabilities, which it showcased at the Supercomm ’96 convention in Dallas from June 25 to 27. The new asynchronous transfer mode test options allowed users to test equipment according to their specific “class of service.”

2000 – President Clinton gave his weekly radio address live on the Internet for the first time.

2008 – Nokia Acquires Symbian Makes it Open Source

Nokia announced they have purchased Symbian outright. They originally owned 46% of the company, and bought out the remaining 54% for $410 million. But then the company turned around and created the Symbian Foundation – a group that would house and give away the software code.

The group and software would remain functioning until 2010. Symbian Foundation then closed, citing that it would change to a legal entity, responsible for licencing software and intellectual property. The transaction completed in 2011.

2010 – iPhone 4 Goes on Sale

After a wild lead-up involving a prototype being lost at a bar, Apple’s iPhone 4 officially went on sale. Later the iPhone 4 would then become the subject of the Antennagate controversy. With so much attention given to the phone, it was no wonder it went on to set sales records.

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1868 – QWERTY Typewriter Patented

The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first practical and commercial successfully typewriter, is patented. Perhaps most notable in the design of the Sholes and Glidden (which would later become the Remington No. 1 typewriter) is the use of the QWERTY keyboard, which is still the most popular keyboard layout in the world.

1912 – Computer Pioneer Alan Turing Born

Turing, a British Mathematician, logician and cryptanalyst, played key roles in the conception and theoretical underpinnings of electronic computers. As a codebreaker at Bletchley Park in the UK during World War II, Turing led the team that cracked the “unbreakable” Engima code used by the German high command for battlefield communications. This has led some observers to speculate that Turing’s work alone shortened the war by two years, saving many lives. Turing is best-known today for his work on the idea of a “universal computer,” one that could run any program. This has since become known as a “Turing Machine.” Turing died under mysterious circumstances from cyanide poisoning in 1954, though it was officially declared suicide. He was 41.

1983 – First successful test of the Domain Name System (DNS)

Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel run the first successful test of the distributed Domain Name System (DNS). This automated process was to take over failing Arpanet and CSnet protocols because those replied on address books. DNS uses a hierarchical distributed naming system for the Internet or any private network. It associates the domain names with numerical IP addresses.

1996 – The Nintendo 64 launched in Japan becoming the first home console to rely on the analog stick as its primary control.

2005 – Reddit launched online with a submission about the Downing Street memo.

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1675 – Britain’s King Charles II established the observatory at Greenwich with the main purpose of determining precise longitudes to aid in navigation. This purpose led to Greenwich being marked as the prime meridian and later Greenwich Mean Time.

1799 – The first definitive prototype metre bars (metre des Archives) and kilogram were constructed in platinum.

1910 – Konrad Zuse Born

Konrad Zuse was born in Germany. An early computer pioneer, Zuse in the 1940s began work on Plankalkul (plan Calculus), the first algorithmic programming language. Seven years earlier, Zuse developed and build the world’s first binary digital computing device, the Z1. He completed the first fully functional program-controlled (by a punched paper tape) electromechanical digital computer, the Z3, in 1941. Only the Z4 – the most sophisticated of his creations – survived World War II.

1946 – Jet Mail

In a demonstration of the capabilities of jet aircraft, Army Air Corps pilots Kenneth Chilstrom and Robert Baird transport mail in a Lockheed p-80 shooting star, thus making the first delivery of mail by jet aircraft.

1996 – Quake, the successor to the first-person shooter Doom was released by id Software with music composed by Trent Reznor. The Quake engine offered full-time 3D rendering and had early support for 3D acceleration through OpenGL. It also added several multiplayer options.

1999 – The first demonstration of live rats directly controlling a robot arm with their thoughts was published by Nature Neuroscience.

2009 – The End of Kodachrome Color Film

Kodak announced they would ended the production of Kodachrome color film. Once the leftover film is distributed, there will be no more made. That lasted until December 2010.

Kodak created their iconic Kodachrome film in 1935. This is a non-substansive, color reversal film was used in still photos and cinematography. It used the subtractive color method – which required a complex chemical system to make the negative.

Kodachrome was invented by John Capstaff, who worked for a competitor until Eastman bought the company out.

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1948 – Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine Runs First Program

What was first expected to be a practical use computer, the SSEM, or Small-Scale Experiment Machine became the first stored program computer. Basically, it stores program instructions into it’s electronic memory. The 32-bit word length, cathode-ray tube computer was designed to only run subtraction and negation through hardware. Other function could be run, but only through software.

The first program was run on this day. It was written by Professor Tom Kilbum. The seventeen-instruction stored-program took 52 minutes to run. The program was tasked to find the highest proper factor of 2Ù18(262,144).

1981 – IBM Retires Last “STRETCH” Supercomputer

IBM retires its last “STRETCH” mainframe, part of the 7000 series that represented the company’s first transistorized computers. At the top of the line of computers – all of which emerged significantly faster and more dependable than vacuum tube machine – sat the 7030, or STRETCH. Seven of the computers, which featured a 64 -bit word architecture and other innovations, were sold to national laboratories and other scientific users. L. R. Johnson first used the term “architecture” in describing the STRETCH.

2004 – SpaceShipOne – First Private Space Flight

Financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne becomes the first spacecraft developed by the free market to enter spaceflight. Launched from a mothership named White Knight, SpaceShipOne flew just beyond the atmosphere into the threshold of space then glided back to Earth. SpaceShipOne would later win the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft.

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