1948
Thomas Watson Sr. issues a directive to International Business Machines (IBM) headquarters ordering the planning of “a machine of the same type as the Harvard Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) to meet the requirements of the ordinary businesses we serve.” The Selective Sequence Controlled Calculator (SSEC), which will be completed on January 27, 1948, will be the result of the development. Visit the official IBM website.

1957
Allied Artists releases the sci-fi film Not of This Earth, directed by Roger Corman and starring Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, and Morgan Jones, to U.S. theaters. In it, an alien agent from the planet Davana comes to Earth via a high-tech matter transporter in order to acquire blood for his dying race, which is dying as the result of a devastating nuclear war. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 7 mins

1961
The Niagara Falls hydroelectric project begins producing power. It is the largest hydropower facility in the Western world.

1970
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 2880 block multiplexer channel and the IBM 2305 fixed head storage facility for IBM System/360 Models 85 and 195. Visit the official IBM website.

1981
Apple Computer“>Apple Computer announces that the Apple III will no longer feature built-in calender and clock features, as National Semiconductor has failed to meet its specifications with the processors it supplied for the line. The chips which provided the system with a built-in real time clock would fail with any sort of of prolonged use. As a result, Apple removes the chips from its specifications altogether, reduces the price of the Apple III to US$4,190 and offers a fifty dollar rebate to customers who have previously purchased a system.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Bob Henry scores a record-setting 4,313,565 points playing the Bally Midway arcade game Tron at the Aladdin’s Castle arcade in Orange Park, Florida. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

Texas Instruments (TI) files a lawsuit in a Houston Federal District Court against Compaq Computer and ten employees in particular, alleging patent infringement and theft of trade secrets. Visit the official Texas Instruments website.

1990
Adobe releases version 1.0 of Photoshop exclusively for the Macintosh System 6 operating system. The application was first licensed under its working title “ImagePro” for distribution in September 1988 as a part of a bundle with a Barneyscan scanner that sold just two hundred units. Photoshop was developed by Thomas Knowll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, whose brother, an employee at Industrial Light & Magic, urged him to develop the application into a full-featured image editor. By 2000, the Adobe will sell over three million copies. Read more about the history of Photoshop at Silicon User. Read more about the history of Photoshop at Silicon User.

1991
Robert and Carleen Thomas launch the Amateur Action bulletin board system (BBS), which features a downloadable collection of amateur pornographic photographs in the .gif format. The BBS will soon have thousands of members and will require a subscription fee. It will become the center of a national battle over obscenity laws and first amendment rights on the internet after the Thomases are arrested in California on charges filed in Tennessee.

1992
Bill Mitchell closes the infamous “LINUX is obsolete” thread on the comp.os.minix at 4:31pm after seventy-three posts. The thread is a heated debate between Minix creator Andy Tanenbaum and Linux creator Linus Torvalds regarding kernel architecture. Mitchell argues that microkernels are superior to monolithic kernels and that, by extension, Linux is obsolete. Read an archive of the original thread at Google.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Masterpiece Society” first airs. (No. 513) In it, the crew comes to the aide of a utopian colony that has perfected itself through eugenics, but the Enterprise’s intervention in its affairs precipitates problems. Memory Alpha entry

1948
Thomas Watson Sr. issues a directive to International Business Machines (IBM) headquarters ordering the planning of “a machine of the same type as the Harvard Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) to meet the requirements of the ordinary businesses we serve.” The Selective Sequence Controlled Calculator (SSEC), which will be completed on January 27, 1948, will be the result of the development. Visit the official IBM website.

1957
Allied Artists releases the sci-fi film Not of This Earth, directed by Roger Corman and starring Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, and Morgan Jones, to U.S. theaters. In it, an alien agent from the planet Davana comes to Earth via a high-tech matter transporter in order to acquire blood for his dying race, which is dying as the result of a devastating nuclear war. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 7 mins

1961
The Niagara Falls hydroelectric project begins producing power. It is the largest hydropower facility in the Western world.

1970
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 2880 block multiplexer channel and the IBM 2305 fixed head storage facility for IBM System/360 Models 85 and 195. Visit the official IBM website.

1981
Apple Computer“>Apple Computer announces that the Apple III will no longer feature built-in calender and clock features, as National Semiconductor has failed to meet its specifications with the processors it supplied for the line. The chips which provided the system with a built-in real time clock would fail with any sort of of prolonged use. As a result, Apple removes the chips from its specifications altogether, reduces the price of the Apple III to US$4,190 and offers a fifty dollar rebate to customers who have previously purchased a system.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Bob Henry scores a record-setting 4,313,565 points playing the Bally Midway arcade game Tron at the Aladdin’s Castle arcade in Orange Park, Florida. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

Texas Instruments (TI) files a lawsuit in a Houston Federal District Court against Compaq Computer and ten employees in particular, alleging patent infringement and theft of trade secrets. Visit the official Texas Instruments website.

1990
Adobe releases version 1.0 of Photoshop exclusively for the Macintosh System 6 operating system. The application was first licensed under its working title “ImagePro” for distribution in September 1988 as a part of a bundle with a Barneyscan scanner that sold just two hundred units. Photoshop was developed by Thomas Knowll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, whose brother, an employee at Industrial Light & Magic, urged him to develop the application into a full-featured image editor. By 2000, the Adobe will sell over three million copies. Read more about the history of Photoshop at Silicon User. Read more about the history of Photoshop at Silicon User.

1991
Robert and Carleen Thomas launch the Amateur Action bulletin board system (BBS), which features a downloadable collection of amateur pornographic photographs in the .gif format. The BBS will soon have thousands of members and will require a subscription fee. It will become the center of a national battle over obscenity laws and first amendment rights on the internet after the Thomases are arrested in California on charges filed in Tennessee.

1992
Bill Mitchell closes the infamous “LINUX is obsolete” thread on the comp.os.minix at 4:31pm after seventy-three posts. The thread is a heated debate between Minix creator Andy Tanenbaum and Linux creator Linus Torvalds regarding kernel architecture. Mitchell argues that microkernels are superior to monolithic kernels and that, by extension, Linux is obsolete. Read an archive of the original thread at Google.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Masterpiece Society” first airs. (No. 513) In it, the crew comes to the aide of a utopian colony that has perfected itself through eugenics, but the Enterprise’s intervention in its affairs precipitates problems. Memory Alpha entry

1949
The world’s first Department of Space Medicine is established at the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas, and Dr. Hubertus Strughold becomes the first professor of Space Medicine.

1967
The Star Trek episode “The Return of the Archons” first airs. (No. 21) In it, crew encounters a world with where a dysfunctional society is completely controlled by a mysterious leader named Landru. Memory Alpha entry

The Star Trek episode “Return to Tomorrow” first airs. (No. 49) In it, telepathic aliens take possession of Kirk and Spock to build new, mechanical bodies for themselves. Memory Alpha entry

1969
The Boeing 747, the world’s largest airliner, makes its first commercial flight.

1971
Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.

The BBC files for a patent on Teledata, the first teletext system, which will later be renamed Ceefax.

1975
The Gen Con South gaming convention is held February 9 – 11, 1978 at the Robert Meyer Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. Visit the official Gen Con website.

The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.

1982
The Boston suburb of Marlborough, Massachusetts passes an ordinance barring the use of video games by anyone under age eighteen during school hours or late at night. The ordinance also bans arcade games within fifteen hundred feet of a public school.

Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, publicly publishes his database of video game high scores as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard. The website will become the defacto standard for arcade records across the United States. The Guinness World Records will later recognize Twin Galaxies as the official keeper of verified world records. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Eric Ginner scores a record-setting 1,506,684 points playing the Atari arcade game Millipede at the Golfland arcade in Milipitas, California. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

Atari announces the My First Computer keyboard accessory for the Atari 2600 game system, to turn the system into into a personal computer.

1987
In the February 9th issue of Toy & Hobby World Show Daily magazine, Keith Powell, president of The Federated Group of Electronics Stores, reports that the US$139.95 Nintendo Deluxe video game set sold well in their stores over the holiday season due to the high degree of brand awareness. “The electronic games business is back,” says Powell in the article. Atari’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Michael Katz, is quoted as saying, “We’ve had good success selling our systems, especially the 7800. We’re aware of new realities of the video game market and we’re positioning Atari to benefit from them.” An Activision spokesperson is quoted as saying that, “The only involvement we have in Atari VCS nowadays is when Toys ‘R’ Us or Child World comes to us with a specific quantify in mind.”

1989
Osamu Tezuka “The God of Comics” dies, leaving all of Japan grieving. Tezuka was the creator of more than one hundred fifty thousand pages of manga and over sixty animated movies. His work includes Adolf, Astro Boy, Black Jack, Kimba, Phoenix, Princess Knight, and the White Lion. He is often credited with taking manga from a cheap entertainment to a vaunted art form in Japan.

1990
A Chicago Task Force arrests Craig Neidorf, an alleged computer hacker better known by the web handle “Knight Lightning“. Read more about the incident in Bruce Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown.

The Galileo satellite, launched on October 18, 1989, makes its closest approach to Venus.

1993
Collabra Software, Inc., a collaborative software developer, is incorporated. In November of 1995, Netscape Communications, Inc. will acquire the company.

1995
The first British-born American to perform a spacewalk, Michael Foale and the first black astronaut to perform a spacewalk, Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., test their endurance in a modified space suit out of the open cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Together, they remain motionless for twenty minutes in the coldest part of the spacecraft’s shadow in order to test the efficiency of the suits’ new insulation as part of over three hours spent out of their shuttle at an average temperature of -92°C. The experiment is cut short from five hours after the astronauts report feeling colder than expected.

1949
The world’s first Department of Space Medicine is established at the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas, and Dr. Hubertus Strughold becomes the first professor of Space Medicine.

1967
The Star Trek episode “The Return of the Archons” first airs. (No. 21) In it, crew encounters a world with where a dysfunctional society is completely controlled by a mysterious leader named Landru. Memory Alpha entry

The Star Trek episode “Return to Tomorrow” first airs. (No. 49) In it, telepathic aliens take possession of Kirk and Spock to build new, mechanical bodies for themselves. Memory Alpha entry

1969
The Boeing 747, the world’s largest airliner, makes its first commercial flight.

1971
Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.

The BBC files for a patent on Teledata, the first teletext system, which will later be renamed Ceefax.

1975
The Gen Con South gaming convention is held February 9 – 11, 1978 at the Robert Meyer Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. Visit the official Gen Con website.

The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.

1982
The Boston suburb of Marlborough, Massachusetts passes an ordinance barring the use of video games by anyone under age eighteen during school hours or late at night. The ordinance also bans arcade games within fifteen hundred feet of a public school.

Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, publicly publishes his database of video game high scores as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard. The website will become the defacto standard for arcade records across the United States. The Guinness World Records will later recognize Twin Galaxies as the official keeper of verified world records. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Eric Ginner scores a record-setting 1,506,684 points playing the Atari arcade game Millipede at the Golfland arcade in Milipitas, California. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

Atari announces the My First Computer keyboard accessory for the Atari 2600 game system, to turn the system into into a personal computer.

1987
In the February 9th issue of Toy & Hobby World Show Daily magazine, Keith Powell, president of The Federated Group of Electronics Stores, reports that the US$139.95 Nintendo Deluxe video game set sold well in their stores over the holiday season due to the high degree of brand awareness. “The electronic games business is back,” says Powell in the article. Atari’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Michael Katz, is quoted as saying, “We’ve had good success selling our systems, especially the 7800. We’re aware of new realities of the video game market and we’re positioning Atari to benefit from them.” An Activision spokesperson is quoted as saying that, “The only involvement we have in Atari VCS nowadays is when Toys ‘R’ Us or Child World comes to us with a specific quantify in mind.”

1989
Osamu Tezuka “The God of Comics” dies, leaving all of Japan grieving. Tezuka was the creator of more than one hundred fifty thousand pages of manga and over sixty animated movies. His work includes Adolf, Astro Boy, Black Jack, Kimba, Phoenix, Princess Knight, and the White Lion. He is often credited with taking manga from a cheap entertainment to a vaunted art form in Japan.

1990
A Chicago Task Force arrests Craig Neidorf, an alleged computer hacker better known by the web handle “Knight Lightning“. Read more about the incident in Bruce Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown.

The Galileo satellite, launched on October 18, 1989, makes its closest approach to Venus.

1993
Collabra Software, Inc., a collaborative software developer, is incorporated. In November of 1995, Netscape Communications, Inc. will acquire the company.

1995
The first British-born American to perform a spacewalk, Michael Foale and the first black astronaut to perform a spacewalk, Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., test their endurance in a modified space suit out of the open cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Together, they remain motionless for twenty minutes in the coldest part of the spacecraft’s shadow in order to test the efficiency of the suits’ new insulation as part of over three hours spent out of their shuttle at an average temperature of -92°C. The experiment is cut short from five hours after the astronauts report feeling colder than expected.

1692
A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony declares that three teenage girls are under domination of Satan. The declaration will precipitate the Salem witch trials.

1915
The silent film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, is released. The film will go on to become the highest-grossing film of the silent film era, but it will be remembered for introducing many innovations to the film industry that will later be considered fundamental film devices, including the close-up, night photography, parallel editing, and telling a story from multiple points of view. However, the film will be one of the most controversial in history due to its crass use of black face, its portrayal of racial violence, and its outright glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Anticipating the controversy, Griffin screened the film for President Woodrow Wilson, who praised the film, calling it “history written in lightening,” but the film’s release will spark riots in Boston and Philadephia and eventually be banned in eight states, largely thanks to the efforts of the newly founded NAACP.

1916
Charles Kettering receives a patent for a self-starting automobile engine.

1924
First coast-to-coast radio broadcast in the United States is made from Chicago by General John Joseph Carthy of Bell Telephone to an audience of fifty million listeners.

1928
The first transatlantic television image is received in Hartsdale, New York. The image, which shows the face of Mrs. Mia Howe, is transmitted by John Logie Baird from station 2KZ in Purley, England over short wave radio. The picture is crudely formed from a scan of thirty lines and transmitted at twelve frames per second. The signal’s successful reception caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, receiving a great deal of media attention.

1933
The Boeing Model 247, the first all-metal plane, makes its maiden voyage. Read more at AcePilots.

1945
H.H. Aiken, B.M. Durfee, C.D Lake, and F.E. Hamilton file an application for a patent on the Automatic Sequence Control Calculator, more commonly known as the Harvard Mark I, the world’s first automatic digital computer. It is capable of performing the four basic arithmetic functions and handling numbers of up to twenty-three decimal places.

1958
Two months before his fifteenth birthday, Bobby Fischer, becomes the youngest international chess Grandmaster in history. Visit the unofficial Bobby Fischer website.

1971
The NASDAQ stock market, the world’s first electronic stock market, opens for the first time. Initially, the NASDAQ is a simple computer bulletin board system designed to supplant over-the-counter trading systems. Visit the official NASDAQ website.

1974
The third and final astronaut crew of the Skylab Space Station returns to Earth, completing the mission that began on November 16, 1973. Skylab orbited Earth a total of 2,476 times during over the course of the one hundred seventy-one days of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. The vacant Skylab station will eventually be steered towards Earth, where it will disintegrate in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979. Visit the official website The Skylab Space Station.

1978
The proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast over the radio for the first time.

1982
The Council of Bradley, Illinois, bars children under sixteen years of age from playing arcade games. The ban comes shortly after the national Parent Teacher Association publicly denounced game arcades in a statement, reading, in part, “The PTA is concerned over the increasing number ofvideo game sites which may have an adverse effect on many of the young people who frequent such establishments… Initial studies have shown that game sites are often in close proximity to schools. In many cases there is not adequate control of access by school-age children during school hours, which compounds the problem of school absenteeism and truancy. Where little orno supervision exists, drug-selling, drug use, drinking, gambling, increased gang activities and other such behaviors may be seen.” However, in the case of Aladdin’s Castle arcade versus the city of Mesquite, Texas, the Supreme Court will later overturn a similar ban, ruling that playing arcade video games is an activity protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

1983
Texas Instruments (TI) reduces the dealer price of the TI 99/4A computer, lowering its retail price to under US$150.

1988
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Too Short a Season” first airs. (No. 116) In it, the Enterprise is dispatched on a mission to transport an extremely old admiral to negotiations. Memory Alpha entry

1692
A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony declares that three teenage girls are under domination of Satan. The declaration will precipitate the Salem witch trials.

1915
The silent film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, is released. The film will go on to become the highest-grossing film of the silent film era, but it will be remembered for introducing many innovations to the film industry that will later be considered fundamental film devices, including the close-up, night photography, parallel editing, and telling a story from multiple points of view. However, the film will be one of the most controversial in history due to its crass use of black face, its portrayal of racial violence, and its outright glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Anticipating the controversy, Griffin screened the film for President Woodrow Wilson, who praised the film, calling it “history written in lightening,” but the film’s release will spark riots in Boston and Philadephia and eventually be banned in eight states, largely thanks to the efforts of the newly founded NAACP.

1916
Charles Kettering receives a patent for a self-starting automobile engine.

1924
First coast-to-coast radio broadcast in the United States is made from Chicago by General John Joseph Carthy of Bell Telephone to an audience of fifty million listeners.

1928
The first transatlantic television image is received in Hartsdale, New York. The image, which shows the face of Mrs. Mia Howe, is transmitted by John Logie Baird from station 2KZ in Purley, England over short wave radio. The picture is crudely formed from a scan of thirty lines and transmitted at twelve frames per second. The signal’s successful reception caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, receiving a great deal of media attention.

1933
The Boeing Model 247, the first all-metal plane, makes its maiden voyage. Read more at AcePilots.

1945
H.H. Aiken, B.M. Durfee, C.D Lake, and F.E. Hamilton file an application for a patent on the Automatic Sequence Control Calculator, more commonly known as the Harvard Mark I, the world’s first automatic digital computer. It is capable of performing the four basic arithmetic functions and handling numbers of up to twenty-three decimal places.

1958
Two months before his fifteenth birthday, Bobby Fischer, becomes the youngest international chess Grandmaster in history. Visit the unofficial Bobby Fischer website.

1971
The NASDAQ stock market, the world’s first electronic stock market, opens for the first time. Initially, the NASDAQ is a simple computer bulletin board system designed to supplant over-the-counter trading systems. Visit the official NASDAQ website.

1974
The third and final astronaut crew of the Skylab Space Station returns to Earth, completing the mission that began on November 16, 1973. Skylab orbited Earth a total of 2,476 times during over the course of the one hundred seventy-one days of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. The vacant Skylab station will eventually be steered towards Earth, where it will disintegrate in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979. Visit the official website The Skylab Space Station.

1978
The proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast over the radio for the first time.

1982
The Council of Bradley, Illinois, bars children under sixteen years of age from playing arcade games. The ban comes shortly after the national Parent Teacher Association publicly denounced game arcades in a statement, reading, in part, “The PTA is concerned over the increasing number ofvideo game sites which may have an adverse effect on many of the young people who frequent such establishments… Initial studies have shown that game sites are often in close proximity to schools. In many cases there is not adequate control of access by school-age children during school hours, which compounds the problem of school absenteeism and truancy. Where little orno supervision exists, drug-selling, drug use, drinking, gambling, increased gang activities and other such behaviors may be seen.” However, in the case of Aladdin’s Castle arcade versus the city of Mesquite, Texas, the Supreme Court will later overturn a similar ban, ruling that playing arcade video games is an activity protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

1983
Texas Instruments (TI) reduces the dealer price of the TI 99/4A computer, lowering its retail price to under US$150.

1988
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Too Short a Season” first airs. (No. 116) In it, the Enterprise is dispatched on a mission to transport an extremely old admiral to negotiations. Memory Alpha entry

1915
The first wireless message sent from a moving train to a station is transmitted, marking the beginning of the era of mobile communications.

1932
The Neutron subatomic particle is first described in an article in the journal Nature by James Chadwick, who coined the name after he discovered it by bombarding Beryllium with alpha particles. In 1935, Chadwick will receive the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery.

1956
Doug Ross of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presents a paper on gestalt programming at the Western Joint Computer Conference in Los Angeles, California. Ross had experimented with gestalt programming while working for the U.S. Air Force and Emerson Electric Company. Read more about Doug Ross at Boston.com.

1958
In response to the launch of Sputnik, the United States Department of Defense issues directive 5105.15 establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The directive charges the agency with the “direction or performance of such advanced projects in the field of research and development…” Among ARPA’s highest priorities is the development of computer technology. The agency will be at responsible for the developing ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. Visit the official DARPA website.

1973
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is introduced as a standard for the transfer of files between networked computers.

1979
Pluto moves inside the orbit of Neptune for the first time since either planet was discovered.

1981
The private plane of Stephen Wozniak crashes during take-off, near the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The accident leaves him with a loss of short-term memory for over a month.

1983
Atari seeks a legal injunction against Coleco Industries to prevent the company from selling its ColecoVision adapter to play Atari cartridges.

1984
Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the jet-propelled Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). (STS-41-B) McCandless, the first human Earth-orbiting satellite, ventures out 320 feet from the orbiter during the initial test of the MMU. Visit the mission’s official website.

1985
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office drops the case against Sysop Tom Tcimpidis for lack of evidence and in the “interests of justice.” Tom Tcimpidis had previously had his system seized for a posting of a pactel card code without the sysop’s knowledge.

1994
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Lower Decks” first airs. (No. 715) In it, several of the ship’s junior officers vie for the next big promotion, but the one choosen is asked to undertake a dangerous mission into Cardassian space. Memory Alpha entry

1915
The first wireless message sent from a moving train to a station is transmitted, marking the beginning of the era of mobile communications.

1932
The Neutron subatomic particle is first described in an article in the journal Nature by James Chadwick, who coined the name after he discovered it by bombarding Beryllium with alpha particles. In 1935, Chadwick will receive the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery.

1956
Doug Ross of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presents a paper on gestalt programming at the Western Joint Computer Conference in Los Angeles, California. Ross had experimented with gestalt programming while working for the U.S. Air Force and Emerson Electric Company. Read more about Doug Ross at Boston.com.

1958
In response to the launch of Sputnik, the United States Department of Defense issues directive 5105.15 establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The directive charges the agency with the “direction or performance of such advanced projects in the field of research and development…” Among ARPA’s highest priorities is the development of computer technology. The agency will be at responsible for the developing ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. Visit the official DARPA website.

1973
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is introduced as a standard for the transfer of files between networked computers.

1979
Pluto moves inside the orbit of Neptune for the first time since either planet was discovered.

1981
The private plane of Stephen Wozniak crashes during take-off, near the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The accident leaves him with a loss of short-term memory for over a month.

1983
Atari seeks a legal injunction against Coleco Industries to prevent the company from selling its ColecoVision adapter to play Atari cartridges.

1984
Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the jet-propelled Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). (STS-41-B) McCandless, the first human Earth-orbiting satellite, ventures out 320 feet from the orbiter during the initial test of the MMU. Visit the mission’s official website.

1985
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office drops the case against Sysop Tom Tcimpidis for lack of evidence and in the “interests of justice.” Tom Tcimpidis had previously had his system seized for a posting of a pactel card code without the sysop’s knowledge.

1994
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Lower Decks” first airs. (No. 715) In it, several of the ship’s junior officers vie for the next big promotion, but the one choosen is asked to undertake a dangerous mission into Cardassian space. Memory Alpha entry

The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1948
The first radio-controlled airplane is flown for the first time.

1957
The cryotron superconductive computer switch is introduced. Developed by Dudley Allen Buck at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the cryotron is the first practical use of superconductivity, the ability of some metals to conduct current with no resistance at temperatures below -420 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be hailed as a revolutionary step in miniaturizing room-sized computers.

1959
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) applies for the first patent on the integrated circuit. In his patent application, Kilby describes his new device as “a body of semiconductor material … wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated.”

1967
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) announces an advanced communications technique that could double the speed at which IBM machines are able to communication with each other over phone lines called “Binary Synchronous Communications.” Visit the official IBM website.

1971
Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first person to hit a golf ball on the Moon. Near the end of the second moonwalk and just before entering the lunar module for the last time, Shepard attaches a six-iron to the end of a sample collecting tool. Despite thick gloves and a stiff suit that force him to swing the club one-handed, he hits two golf balls. The first lands in a nearby crater. He hits the second one squarely, and, in the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, Shepard says that it travels “miles and miles and miles.” The astronauts remain on the surface for a total of thirty-three hours in total. Watch a video of the golf shot or read a transcript of the Apollo 14 crew’s second day of extra-vehicular activity at the NASA website.

1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Leo Daniels, age 20, scores a record-setting 40,101,910 points playing the Atari arcade game Asteroids, after playing the game for thirty-six hours and four minutes at the Ocean View Corporation in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

The Ormond Beach Commission in Florida approves an ordinance prohibiting electronic games from being placed within one thousand feet of a church, school, or youth activity center in Ormond Beach.

1984
Software Arts files a lawsuit against Visicorp to end its contractual rights to market Visicalc, claiming that Visicorp failed to market its product adequately.

1985
Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer, twelve years after co-founding the company, in order to pursue other interests. He officially remains on the payroll as an engineering consultant with a twenty thousand dollar salary, and he remains a major shareholder with a close, personal connection to co-founder Steven Jobs. However, prior to leaving Wozniak makes several scathing remarks regarding the company’s policy of favoring the Macintosh over the Apple II, despite the Apple II accounting for some seventy percent of the company’s revenue. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.

1989
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “A Matter of Honor” first airs. (No. 208) In it, Riker serves as first officer on a Klingon battle cruiser as part of an officer exchange program. Memory Alpha entry

1990
A Chicago Task Force raids the business of alleged computer hacker Richard Andrews. The U.S. Secret Service arrest computer hackers known as Leftist, Prophet, Terminus, and Urvile. Read more in Bruce Sterling’s “Hacker Crackdown”, available online and as a free download.

1991
Nintendo and Sony announce a joint effort to develop a compact disk player for the Super Famicom in Japan. Visit the official Nintendo website.

The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1948
The first radio-controlled airplane is flown for the first time.

1957
The cryotron superconductive computer switch is introduced. Developed by Dudley Allen Buck at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the cryotron is the first practical use of superconductivity, the ability of some metals to conduct current with no resistance at temperatures below -420 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be hailed as a revolutionary step in miniaturizing room-sized computers.

1959
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) applies for the first patent on the integrated circuit. In his patent application, Kilby describes his new device as “a body of semiconductor material … wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated.”

1967
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) announces an advanced communications technique that could double the speed at which IBM machines are able to communication with each other over phone lines called “Binary Synchronous Communications.” Visit the official IBM website.

1971
Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first person to hit a golf ball on the Moon. Near the end of the second moonwalk and just before entering the lunar module for the last time, Shepard attaches a six-iron to the end of a sample collecting tool. Despite thick gloves and a stiff suit that force him to swing the club one-handed, he hits two golf balls. The first lands in a nearby crater. He hits the second one squarely, and, in the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, Shepard says that it travels “miles and miles and miles.” The astronauts remain on the surface for a total of thirty-three hours in total. Watch a video of the golf shot or read a transcript of the Apollo 14 crew’s second day of extra-vehicular activity at the NASA website.

1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Leo Daniels, age 20, scores a record-setting 40,101,910 points playing the Atari arcade game Asteroids, after playing the game for thirty-six hours and four minutes at the Ocean View Corporation in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

The Ormond Beach Commission in Florida approves an ordinance prohibiting electronic games from being placed within one thousand feet of a church, school, or youth activity center in Ormond Beach.

1984
Software Arts files a lawsuit against Visicorp to end its contractual rights to market Visicalc, claiming that Visicorp failed to market its product adequately.

1985
Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer, twelve years after co-founding the company, in order to pursue other interests. He officially remains on the payroll as an engineering consultant with a twenty thousand dollar salary, and he remains a major shareholder with a close, personal connection to co-founder Steven Jobs. However, prior to leaving Wozniak makes several scathing remarks regarding the company’s policy of favoring the Macintosh over the Apple II, despite the Apple II accounting for some seventy percent of the company’s revenue. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.

1989
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “A Matter of Honor” first airs. (No. 208) In it, Riker serves as first officer on a Klingon battle cruiser as part of an officer exchange program. Memory Alpha entry

1990
A Chicago Task Force raids the business of alleged computer hacker Richard Andrews. The U.S. Secret Service arrest computer hackers known as Leftist, Prophet, Terminus, and Urvile. Read more in Bruce Sterling’s “Hacker Crackdown”, available online and as a free download.

1991
Nintendo and Sony announce a joint effort to develop a compact disk player for the Super Famicom in Japan. Visit the official Nintendo website.

1861
A patent is issued to Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia for the Kinematoscope, which he describes as an “improvement in exhibiting stereoscopic pictures of moving objects.” (US No. 31,357) The Kinematoscope projects a series of still pictures with successive stages of action mounted on paddle blades through slits passed under the lens of a stereoscope.

1870
In Philadelphia, the first motion picture is presented to a theater audience by Henry R. Heyl using a Phasmatrope. A Phasmatrope is a converted projecting lantern with a rotating disc mounted to its front and sixteen openings near the edge, each of which carries a photographic plate. The plates hold a series of animation cells depicting dancers, who appear to move as the rotating disc spins. The demonstration marks the Ninth Annual Entertainment of the Young Men’s Society of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Philadelphia, an event held at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1879
Joseph Swan demonstrates a light bulb using carbon glow for the first time.

1897
The Indiana State House legislature passes Bill Number 246 which, in effect, assigns Pi the value of exactly 3.2. The bill states, in part, that “the ratio of the diameter and circumference [pi] is as five-fourths to four.” The bill was introduced by Representative Taylor I. Record, a farmer and lumber merchant, on behalf of a mathematical hobbyist, Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin, M.D. The politicians don’t understand that the bill is mathematically incorrect. Clarence A. Waldo, a mathematics professor at Purdue University, will eventually realize the error and notify the Indiana Senators. The bill will be indefinitely postponed on February 12, 1897.

1899
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a “Phonograph Recorder and Reproducer.”

1932
CBS affiliate W2XAB broadcasts the first educational television programming in the U.S.

1936
Charlie Chaplin releases the last movie of the silent film era, Modern Times. IMDB listing

1958
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) files a patent application for miniaturized electronic circuits. Kilby’s device connects several transistors by flying wires.

1958
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the U.S. Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. Read more at the Tybee Bomb website.

1961
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik V, the heaviest satellite yet put into space at 7.1 tons.

1967
The NASA Lunar Orbiter 3 is launched. It will orbit the Moon, in order to photograph its far side for potential Apollo 12 landing sites, before impacting the lunar surface on command.

1971
The NASA manned lunar lander Antares of Apollo 14 lands near the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, where the crew will collect 42.9 kilograms of lunar samples using a hand cart, completing the aborted mission of the Apollo 13. The crew of the lunar lander consists of Commander Alan Shepard and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell who walk on the Moon for four hours.

1974
The NASA space probe Mariner 10 returns the first close-up photos of the cloud structure and circulation of Venus. It flies past the planet for a “gravity assist” to the planet Mercury. Mariner 10 is the first probe sent to explore two planets in a single mission, as well as the first spacecraft to be equipped an imaging system.

1985
Namco enters into an agreement with Warner Communications to acquire a controlling interest in the coin-operated game division of Atari Games for about US$10 million.

1990
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Déjà Q” first airs. (No. 313) In it, the Continuum strips Q of his powers and exiles him to the mortal plane. Memory Alpha entry

1993
The board of commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes a vote on whether or not to charge Microsoft with allegedly colluding with International Business Machines (IBM) in unfair trade practices. The vote results in a 2-2 split that results in no action being taken. Visit the official FTC website.

1861
A patent is issued to Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia for the Kinematoscope, which he describes as an “improvement in exhibiting stereoscopic pictures of moving objects.” (US No. 31,357) The Kinematoscope projects a series of still pictures with successive stages of action mounted on paddle blades through slits passed under the lens of a stereoscope.

1870
In Philadelphia, the first motion picture is presented to a theater audience by Henry R. Heyl using a Phasmatrope. A Phasmatrope is a converted projecting lantern with a rotating disc mounted to its front and sixteen openings near the edge, each of which carries a photographic plate. The plates hold a series of animation cells depicting dancers, who appear to move as the rotating disc spins. The demonstration marks the Ninth Annual Entertainment of the Young Men’s Society of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Philadelphia, an event held at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1879
Joseph Swan demonstrates a light bulb using carbon glow for the first time.

1897
The Indiana State House legislature passes Bill Number 246 which, in effect, assigns Pi the value of exactly 3.2. The bill states, in part, that “the ratio of the diameter and circumference [pi] is as five-fourths to four.” The bill was introduced by Representative Taylor I. Record, a farmer and lumber merchant, on behalf of a mathematical hobbyist, Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin, M.D. The politicians don’t understand that the bill is mathematically incorrect. Clarence A. Waldo, a mathematics professor at Purdue University, will eventually realize the error and notify the Indiana Senators. The bill will be indefinitely postponed on February 12, 1897.

1899
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a “Phonograph Recorder and Reproducer.”

1932
CBS affiliate W2XAB broadcasts the first educational television programming in the U.S.

1936
Charlie Chaplin releases the last movie of the silent film era, Modern Times. IMDB listing

1958
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) files a patent application for miniaturized electronic circuits. Kilby’s device connects several transistors by flying wires.

1958
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the U.S. Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. Read more at the Tybee Bomb website.

1961
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik V, the heaviest satellite yet put into space at 7.1 tons.

1967
The NASA Lunar Orbiter 3 is launched. It will orbit the Moon, in order to photograph its far side for potential Apollo 12 landing sites, before impacting the lunar surface on command.

1971
The NASA manned lunar lander Antares of Apollo 14 lands near the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, where the crew will collect 42.9 kilograms of lunar samples using a hand cart, completing the aborted mission of the Apollo 13. The crew of the lunar lander consists of Commander Alan Shepard and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell who walk on the Moon for four hours.

1974
The NASA space probe Mariner 10 returns the first close-up photos of the cloud structure and circulation of Venus. It flies past the planet for a “gravity assist” to the planet Mercury. Mariner 10 is the first probe sent to explore two planets in a single mission, as well as the first spacecraft to be equipped an imaging system.

1985
Namco enters into an agreement with Warner Communications to acquire a controlling interest in the coin-operated game division of Atari Games for about US$10 million.

1990
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Déjà Q” first airs. (No. 313) In it, the Continuum strips Q of his powers and exiles him to the mortal plane. Memory Alpha entry

1993
The board of commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes a vote on whether or not to charge Microsoft with allegedly colluding with International Business Machines (IBM) in unfair trade practices. The vote results in a 2-2 split that results in no action being taken. Visit the official FTC website.

1890
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for the Quadruplex Telegraph. (US No. 420,594) This new telegraph is designed to transmit and receive four independent signals over a single wire, two in one direction and two in the opposite direction. The separate transmitting keys transmit a signal with either a high or low current strength which is then received with sounders that respond only the high or the low strength signal. Read more about the Quadruplex Telegraph at the Edison Papers.

1902
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a Reversible Galvanic Battery, a battery with a revolutionary large capacity for its weight. (US No. 692,507) It makes use of Cadmium as the oxidizable element, an oxide of Cobalt or Nickel as its depolarizer, and flakes of a conducting substance, such as Graphite.

1936
Radium E, the first synthetic radioactive substance, is first produced in the U.S. by Dr. John Jacob Livingood at the University of California at Berkeley by bombarding the element Bismuth with neutrons.

1957
The first electric portable typewriter, the Model 5TE, is introduced by Smith-Corona, in Syracuse, New York. Read more about the history of the portable typewriter at Will Davis’s website.

1971
NASA astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell land on Moon aboard the Apollo 14 Lunar Module Antares.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Sean Middleton scores a record-setting 516,130 points playing the Atari video game Liberator at the Space Station arcade in Anchorage, Alaska. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1989
The final game for the Sega Master System 8-bit video game console, Bomber Raid, is released.

1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Devil’s Due” first airs. (No. 187) In it, an entity claiming to be a planet’s version of the Devil returns to collect payment on an ancient contract, but Picard doubts the figure’s authenticity. Memory Alpha entry

1994
Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt sends an email to U.S. President Bill Clinton, marking the first email exchange between two heads of state.

1997
Apple Computer acquires NeXT for US$427 million in order to use the company’s OpenStep operating system as the basis for Mac OS X. Visit an archived version of the NeXT website.

Apple Computer CEO Gilbert Amelio announces plans to restructure the company in order to focus on the Macintosh. Co-founder, Steve Wozniak, returns for the first time since 1985 to serve on the executive committee with Steve Jobs as an adviser to Amelio. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.

Bill Gates makes a public statement, saying that, “I am very interested in continuing to work with Apple as we have done through history. But I am confused by the Apple operating system strategy… and have decided not to worry about the future (in this respect).”

Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and Texas Instruments (TI) announce an agreement to jointly develop a gigabyte Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chip.

1998
Bill Gates is struck in the face by a cream pie thrown by Noël Godin during a visit to Belgian government officials in Brussels. Watch a video of the incident at Bitstorm.

International Business Machines (IBM) researchers announce the first successful demonstration of the world’s first CMOS microprocessor capable of operating at one billion cycles per second (1GHz). Visit the official IBM website

The website of the D.D.D. is hacked by “th3 h4m1sh n1nj4s”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of the Mexican Finance Ministry is hacked by “LoTek, LeadRain & DES” (High Tech Teens). Visit an archived version of the defaced website.

1890
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for the Quadruplex Telegraph. (US No. 420,594) This new telegraph is designed to transmit and receive four independent signals over a single wire, two in one direction and two in the opposite direction. The separate transmitting keys transmit a signal with either a high or low current strength which is then received with sounders that respond only the high or the low strength signal. Read more about the Quadruplex Telegraph at the Edison Papers.

1902
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a Reversible Galvanic Battery, a battery with a revolutionary large capacity for its weight. (US No. 692,507) It makes use of Cadmium as the oxidizable element, an oxide of Cobalt or Nickel as its depolarizer, and flakes of a conducting substance, such as Graphite.

1936
Radium E, the first synthetic radioactive substance, is first produced in the U.S. by Dr. John Jacob Livingood at the University of California at Berkeley by bombarding the element Bismuth with neutrons.

1957
The first electric portable typewriter, the Model 5TE, is introduced by Smith-Corona, in Syracuse, New York. Read more about the history of the portable typewriter at Will Davis’s website.

1971
NASA astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell land on Moon aboard the Apollo 14 Lunar Module Antares.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Sean Middleton scores a record-setting 516,130 points playing the Atari video game Liberator at the Space Station arcade in Anchorage, Alaska. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1989
The final game for the Sega Master System 8-bit video game console, Bomber Raid, is released.

1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Devil’s Due” first airs. (No. 187) In it, an entity claiming to be a planet’s version of the Devil returns to collect payment on an ancient contract, but Picard doubts the figure’s authenticity. Memory Alpha entry

1994
Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt sends an email to U.S. President Bill Clinton, marking the first email exchange between two heads of state.

1997
Apple Computer acquires NeXT for US$427 million in order to use the company’s OpenStep operating system as the basis for Mac OS X. Visit an archived version of the NeXT website.

Apple Computer CEO Gilbert Amelio announces plans to restructure the company in order to focus on the Macintosh. Co-founder, Steve Wozniak, returns for the first time since 1985 to serve on the executive committee with Steve Jobs as an adviser to Amelio. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.

Bill Gates makes a public statement, saying that, “I am very interested in continuing to work with Apple as we have done through history. But I am confused by the Apple operating system strategy… and have decided not to worry about the future (in this respect).”

Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and Texas Instruments (TI) announce an agreement to jointly develop a gigabyte Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chip.

1998
Bill Gates is struck in the face by a cream pie thrown by Noël Godin during a visit to Belgian government officials in Brussels. Watch a video of the incident at Bitstorm.

International Business Machines (IBM) researchers announce the first successful demonstration of the world’s first CMOS microprocessor capable of operating at one billion cycles per second (1GHz). Visit the official IBM website

The website of the D.D.D. is hacked by “th3 h4m1sh n1nj4s”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of the Mexican Finance Ministry is hacked by “LoTek, LeadRain & DES” (High Tech Teens). Visit an archived version of the defaced website.

1862
At the age of only fifteen, Thomas Alva Edison, who has been selling candy and newspapers on the train since he was twelve, becomes the first publisher of a newspaper produced and sold on a moving train. He sets up a small press in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad train that rund between Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan. Obsessed with telegraph technology, he works manages to find a method of getting advance news. His weekly Grand Trunk Herald, a single sheet measuring seven by eight inches, includes local news and advertisements for his father’s store. Before long, Edison becomes renowned as a boy journalist. At its peak, his paper will sell about two hundred copies of his paper a day.

1879
The first demonstration of a practical incandescent filament electric light bulb is given to a seven hundred person audience by its inventor, Joseph Wilson Swan, at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. Swan will go on to established the first electric light bulb factory at Benwell in Newcastle.

1966
The United States launches its first operational weather satellite, ESSA-1. The satellite will provide cloud-cover photography to the National Meteorological Center for analysis. The satellite is equipped with solar cells which charge its sixty-three batteries and two cameras were mounted on opposite sides of its cylindrical body.

The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 lands safely on the Moon in the Ocean of Storms, three days after its launch. It’s the first rocket-assisted soft landing on any celestial body, and it’s the first space craft to successfully transmit photos from the surface of the Moon. It collects valuable data necessary for later manned missions to the Moon, most notably confirming that the surface is solid rather than a dusty quicksand. Upon striking the surface, the Soviet probe ejected a 250lb capsule with the camera that equipped with a revolving mirror system then enabled the spacecraft to take the valuable photos until February 6, when the craft’s batteries ran out.

1976
In his Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter for Altair users, “MITS Computer Notes,” David Bunnell publishes an article entitled “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” written by Bill Gates, age 21. In the article, Gates condemns both the open source movement and software piracy, lumping the two together to many people’s indignation. The article draws a great deal of attention in the computer industry, as it makes Gates the first programmer to publicly raise the issue of software piracy. The article accuses hobbyists of stealing software and preventing “…good software from being written.” He concludes with the article with what will later become the prophetic line, “…Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software.” The article is precipitated by the piracy of Altair BASIC which Gates and Paul Allen wrote. Read the full text of “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” online. View an image of the original letter.

1977
Bill Gates and Paul Allen enter into an official partnership agreement.

1984
A Long Beach, California hospital announces the birth of the world’s first baby conceived by embryo transplant.

Mattel announces it is selling its Intellivision business for US$20 million to a group lead by Terrence Valeski, an executive of Mattel Electronics.

1986
The investigation into the Space Shuttle Challenger accident begins.

Microsoft registers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and sends out thirty-eight thousand copies of the company’s fifty-page prospectus in preparation for the company’s first stock offering.

Time magazine reports on consumer frustration over the slow development of software for use in the computer industry. Reporter Philip Elmer-DeWitt complains of the delays in the release of Microsoft’s new Windows operating system, which is still under development far after its promised shelf date. Silicon Valley pundits have coined the term “vaporware” for such software, according to the magazine article.

1989
Nintendo files an amendment to its January lawsuit against Atari Games, charging patent infringement.