1910 – Dr. Hawley Crippen was arrested when the boat he was on docked on Quebec. He was the first person to be caught as a result of a wireless telegraph.

1971 – First Man to Drive on the Moon

Using the battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), Astronaut David Scott of the Apollo mission becomes the first person to drive a vehicle on the Moon. The LRV was used during the last three missions to the Moon, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. The three LRVs used during the mission still remain on the surface of the Moon.

1976 – NASA issued a press release describing one photo taken by Viking 1 on Mars as resembling “a human head.” Conspiracy theories about the face on Mars still run today, though close-up pictures from the Mars Express mission have debunked most of them.

1980 – TRS-80 Model III, TRS-80 Pocket Released

Radio Shack released a few new TRS-80 line computers in 1980. One was the introduction of Model III. It contained a Zilog Z80 processor and 4kb of RAM> The price was only $699. Then again, you could get the TRS-80 for $399 with the Motorola 6809E CPU or the TRS-80 Pocket computer for $230.

1996 – SGI Tom Jermoluk Resigns, Becomes CEO of @Home

SGI Chief Operating Officer Tom Jermoluk resigned to become CEO of @Home, a company building a high-speed backbone for transmission of information over the Internet. Jermoluk’s  move showed the turmoil still present at Silicon Graphics, which had been one of the star computer software companies before seeming to take a number of missteps that made its profits plunge and its management fluid.

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1889 – Iconoscope Inventor Vladimir Zworykin Born

            Iconoscope inventor Vladimir Zworykin was born in Russia. After emigrating to Pittsburgh, Zworykin took a job at Westinghouse Electric Corp., where in 1923 he filed a patent for the iconoscope, the first television transmission tube and a technology that was to become of interest to early computer designers. With a later invention, the kinescope, Zworykin was able to create the first all-electric television system. Zworykin took the technology to RCA in 1929, where he continued his work and earned the title “father of television.”

 

1898 – The Winton Motor Carriage Company placed a magazine advertisement in Scientific American calling on readers to “dispense with a horse.” It’s the earliest known automobile ad.

 

1971 – The Apollo 15 mission landed the first lunar rover onto the moon.

 

1979 – Apple Lisa is Born

            Apple begins work on the Lisa, which would become the world’s first commercial computer with a graphical user interface. Originally intended to sell for $2,000 and sells for $10,000. Utilizing technology that is a head of its time, the high cost, relative lack of software, and some hardware reliability issue ultimately sink the success of the Lisa. However, much of the technology introduced by the Lisa influenced the development of the Macintosh as well as other future computer and operating system designs.

 

1996 – Atari, JTS Merger Approved

             In a four minute meeting, the stockholder voted 42 million to 11 thousand in favor to the merge Atari and JTS in 1996. Because of the decision, Sam Tramiel picks up the severance checks, but agrees to stay in office while the company transitions. JTS held the Atari name until March 1998 when Hasbro bought the brand for 5 million dollars.

 

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1914 – First Transcontinental Phone Call

The first test call is made on the newly completed transcontinental telephone line, taking place between New York and San Francisco. The last pole was erected and the line completed two days earlier on July 27^th, but commercial service did not start until January 25^th of the next year. The sixth month delay was due to AR&T wish to publicize the service in conjunction with San Francisco’s 1915 World Fair.

1947 – ENIAC was switched on after being transferred to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. It operated continuously until October 2 1955.

1951 – A recording was made of Beethoven’s 9^th by EMI that eventually became used to justify the diameter of the CD.

1958 – President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

1996 – Mpath Interactive Acquires Catapult Entertainment

In an example of the fast-growing Internet software industry, Mpath Interactive acquired Catapult Entertainment Inc. in an effort to establish itself in the online video game business. Neither company had been in business for more than a few years, nor had the online game industry, which has taken off with the availability of software to network computers so users can compete against each other in video games across wide distances.

2009 – Yahoo Search Sold to Microsoft

We dealt with the big buyout bid fight between Microsoft and Yahoo back in 205. Of course, the outcome was that Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang stepped down and Carol Bartz took the reigns. However, Carol did make a bold move in 2009 as she agreed to deal with Steve Ballmer. Microsoft would get Yahoo Search engine technologies and create a search engine for Yahoo. In return, Yahoo would handle advertising for premium search advertisers. This was ten year deal.

2015 – Microsoft launched Windows 10 as a free upgrade for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

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1858 – Fingerprinting is First Used
Sir William James Herschel was using it for more of a signature than anything in 1858 as he was requiring palm prints from people he met. After collecting several prints, though, he started realizing there were unique identifiers that could be used in identifying a person. The Palm prints would eventually change to fingerprints for Forensics to use.

1981 – IBM introduces their System/23 Datamaster desktop computer only two weeks before they introduce their IBM PC. Geared towards small business for use as a word processor and data processor, the computer was designed to be set up by end-users without the need of a computer specialist. While now a footnote in history, the importance of the Datamaster is that developed it were re-assigned to the secret IBM PC project. Much of the knowledge they acquire working on the Datamaster went into developing the IBM PC was based on the team’s familiarity with the similar Intel 8085 processor used in the Datamaster.

1997 – Dell Workstation 400 Introduced
Dell Computer Corp. announced its entry into the workstation market with the Dell Workstation 400. The move to the more powerful desktop computers, most commonly used for engineering, followed Dell’s entry into the network server industry as it expanded from personal desktop computers and laptops in order to grab a larger part of the market. Dell offered its workstations for $3,000 to $8,000.

2000 – Ted Kekatos celebrated the First System Administrator Appreciation Day. He had been inspired by an HP ad showing people bringing gifts to their System Administrator. The day is celebrated annually on the last Friday of July.

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1949 – The first jet-powered airliner, the de Havilland Comet, made its first flight. Previously jet engines had only been used to power small fighter aircraft.

 

1981 – Microsoft Buys Full Rights to 86-DOS

About two weeks before IBM begins shipping the first IBM PC, Microsoft buys the full right to the operating system 86-DOS, formerly known as QDOS(Quick and Dirty Operating System), from Seattle Computer Products for $50,000. Microsoft had previously paid $25,000 to SCP for a non-exclusive license in December 1980 in order to begin porting the operating system to the IBM PC, which used the Intel 8088 processor. Microsoft renamed 86-DOS to MS-DOS and licensed it to IBM as PC-DOS.SCP would later sue Microsoft claiming fraud because Microsoft did not reveal IBM as a licensee. The case was settled in SCP’s favor for 1 million dollars, a fraction for the annual revenue Microsoft was receiving from MS-DOS and PC-DOS.

 

1993 – Windows NT 3.1 released

Microsoft released another Operating System to focus the business. NT 3.1 was the first release in the NT stood for “N-Ten,” the codename of the Intel i860 XR processor for which NT was initially developed. The NT kernel was different than the Windows 3.x version. It implemented the Win32 API, or 32 bit programming. Windows NT also was for the business. It didn’t push multimedia like it’s home counterpart.

 

1997 – Computer Could Have Prevented Murder of Fashion Designer

In an article in the Los Angeles Times, former san Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara argued that computers could have by Andrews Cunanan. “If the Miami Beach Police Department had computer technology as sophisticated as that used in one of the town’s trendy restaurants,” McNamara wrote, “fashion designer Gianni Versace would probably still be alive.” He noted, however that few police departments have the necessary technology. Police had received information on Cunanan earlier in the week from a pawnbroker, but at the time of Versace’s death, it remained in paper format waiting to be enter into the computer system.

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1963 – World’s First Geosynchronous Satellite

Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, is launched. Syncom 1 was intended to be the first geosynchronous satellite but an electronics failure rendered the satellite inoperable during the ascent to orbit.

1989 – Cornell student Robert Tappan Morris became the first person indicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after releasing a worm on the internet. Morris claimed his worm was just measuring the size of the internet.

1996 – AT&T and Microsoft Ally to Promote Internet Explorer

AT&T Corp. and Microsoft Corp. announced an alliance to promote Microsoft’s World Wide Web browser, Internet Explorer, in a move designed to allow both giants to gain easier entrance into the burgeoning Internet business sphere. Under the deal, AT&T and Microsoft agreed to promote and distribute jointly Internet Explorer and AT&T’s Internet service. The deal represented AT&T’s move to expand its long-distance telephone service and another effort by Microsoft to offset its late entry into online computing software, a misstep that allowed Netscape Communications Corp. to dominate browser technology.

2000 – Napster Injunction Issued

The Recording Industry Association of America was after Napster ever since the site came on-line. It was the promotion of illegally searching and downloading music and sometimes video. In 2000, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued a preliminary injunction against Napster.

2004 – Motorola announced that its next generation of cell phones would be iTunes-compatible. This first Apple phone, the Rokr, was not to meet with much success.

2012 – Google Fiber Launched

Google ran a contest for people to tell them why they should have fiber installed in their city. After millions of entries and a lot of interesting videos trying to convince the judges, Google decided that Kansas City KS would be the first fiber city. On this same day, Google also showed off Fiber TV service.

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1959 – Christopher Cockerell’s Hovercraft crossed the English Channel for the first time, celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of Frenchman Louis Bleriot’s historic first cross-Channel heavier-than-air flight.

 

1990 – Microsoft Revenue Exceed $1 Billion

               Microsoft Corp. reported revenues of more than $1 billion for its fiscal year1990, but its spectacular growth didn’t stop there. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft has continued its dominance of the computer industry since then.

 

2005 – Violent Video Games Bill Goes into Law

            The sale of Video Games began to really heat up in 2005 as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signs a bill into law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors. You could be fined up to $1,000 for selling games with adult ratings. Immediately, video game groups sued, claiming the law is a restriction on free speech. The law would be deemed unconstitutional and repealed by US District Judge Matthew Kennelly.

 

2008 – Sirius and XM Merger Approved

            The FCC approves the merger of the two satellite radio companies, Sirius and XM.

 

2010 – Wikileaks published classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in US. Military history.

 

2016 – The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Abu Dhabi a year and two days after taking off on a journey to circumnavigate the globe on solar power. Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard alternated flying the plane but still needed rest between legs. The plane itself was capable of lying nonstop.

 

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1874 – Woodward and Evans Light a patent for “Artificial light by means of electricity” with the Canadian Department of Agriculture. Woodward later sold the patent to Thomas Edison, who patented a different and more successful version of the incandescent lamp in the US.

1950 – First Launch from Cape Canaveral

The first successful rocket launch occurs at Cape Canaveral. The rocket, Bumper 8 was captured C modified with a US Army Corporal second stage.

Cape Canaveral’s location in the southeast is an ideal site for rocket launches in the United States. By launching eastward, rockets are able to take advantage of the linear velocity of the Earth’s rotation. This velocity is greatest towards the equator, making the southern United States preferable. And by launching towards the ocean, away from populated areas, safety downrange from the launch is maximized in case of problems.

1951 – Transistor Inventor Leaves Bell Labs

John Bardeen notified AT&T Bell Laboratories that he would be leaving the company where, along with Walter Brattain and William Shockley, he had developed one of the most essential components of modern computing: the point-contact transistor.

The transistor replaced vacuum tubes, allowing the size of computers to decrease dramatically while their power increased. Despite this triumph, Bardeen was unhappy with Shockley, whom he felt was limiting his and Brattain’s involvement with further refinements to the transistors. Bardeen took a position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1969 – Apollo 11 arrived safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first manned mission to land on the moon.

2013 – Google announced the Chromecast, a $35 HDMI stick, powered by USB, that streamed video from the Internet and other devices to a TV.

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1886 – First Car Ever

Back in 1886, Gottlieb Daimler gets into his new invention. It looks like a horse-drawn buggy, but it has a one cylinder 1.1 HP engine mounted in the back seat. The first car got up to 16 km/h.

1903 – First Model A Seventeen Years Later

Ford Motor Company sells it’s first car. A Model A to Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago. It was a twin cylinder combustion engine.

1930 – Computer Educator McCracken Born

Daniel McCracken, who wrote the first textbook on FORTRAN, was born. A student of mathematics and chemistry, McCracken started working in computer at General Electric in 1951, training workers in using the new technology. Based on this teaching experience, McCracken wrote several important computer programming textbooks, most notably A Guide to FORTRAN Programming in 1961.

1985 – Commodore Amiga Introduced

Commodore introduces its Amiga personal computer, also known as the Amiga 1000 or A1000. Featuring a multitasking, windowed operating system, color graphics, and stereo sound among other features ahead of its time, the Amiga developed a loyal user following that remained strong even as the PC market became increasingly consolidated between the dominant IBM-compatible PCs and Apple Macintosh computers.

In 1994, Byte Magazine would write, “The Amiga was so far ahead of its time that almost nobody – including Commodore’s marketing department – could fully articulate what it was all about. Today, it’s obvious the Amiga was the first multimedia computer, but in those days it was derided as a game machine because few people grasped the importance of advance of advanced graphics, sound, and video.”

1996 – The first commercial HDTV signal was broadcast in North Carolina by WRAL channel 32 operating at 100 kilowatts with an antenna 1,750 feet above the ground. 200 members of the press watched the broadcast at WRAL.

2016 – Russian Fyodor Konyukhov set a new record flying around the word in a balloon from Northan Australia in 11 days and 6 hours. He broke Steve Fossett’s record by 2 days.

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1933 – Wiley Post returned to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes after leaving, becoming the fastest person to circumnavigate the Earth by air and the first to does it solo.

1962 – The first Mariner space probe to Venus had to be destroyed shortly after lift-off because of “improper operation of the Atlas airborne beacon equipment.” The error was caused by a missing over bar in the program that must have disappeared during hand transcription.

1980 – The Unholy Alliance is Born

Representatives from an IBM facility in Boca Raton, Florida, where a small group of engineers were secretly developing the IBM PC, meet with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft to discuss licensing software and an operating system for the still-developing PC. Not having an operating system to offer IBM, Microsoft will eventually buy rights to QUOS/86-DOS from Seattle Computing Products, which they in-turn license to IBM as PC-DOS, and later license to PC clone makers as MS-DOS. This alliance between IBM and Microsoft forms one of the most dominant platforms in the history of computing, which goes on to crush nearly all other PC platforms in the 80’s and 90’s. Ironically this platform nearly crushes IBM itself as they lost control of the platform to PC clone makers and Microsoft.

1988 – Arrest of Fry Guy, Atlanta Three, Legion of Doom

             The Secret Service made some major breakthroughs in Hacking circle in 1989 as three members of the Legion of Doom were arrested. They were charged with hacking into Bell South’s Telephone Networks in 1988. Franklin Daren, Adam Grant and Robert Riggs would be sentenced to time in Federal prison. The Secret Service also find out who “Fry Guy” is – the employee who hacked McDonalds mainframe for raises. It was part of the “Hacker Crackdown”.

1997 – Apple Announces OS 8

Apple Computer Inc. announces a new operating system for its Macintosh computers, OS 8. And important move at a time when Apple’s upper-level management and profits were experiencing significant problems, the new operating system offered new features such as easier integration of the Internet and a three-dimensional look. Immediately after the announcement, the software earned positive reviews from users, although it was not expected to end Apple’s financial troubles as it faced growing competition from improvement in the Microsoft Windows operating system used on IBM-compatible PCs. 

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