The Great Geek Manual

1631
The transit of Venus occurs as predicted by Johannes Kepler. He correctly predicted that an ascending node transit of Venus would occur in December 1631, but it passed unobserved in part because his prediction wasn’t sufficiently accurate to predict the exact time it would occur and in part because it occurred after sunset for most of Europe. Unfortunately, Kepler died a year before the event.

1768
The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for “British Encyclopaedia”) is published under the title “Encyclopedia Britannica, or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan.” The series will eventually become the oldest continuously published English-language encyclopedia. The first edition is published in one hundred installments, which will later be bound into three volumes. Each installment costs sixpence or eight pence for an edition printed on finer paper and is delivered in weekly installments. It will also be published under the pseudonym “A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland,” a title which refers to the many gentlemen who had purchased subscriptions. The three bound volumes will be sold for twelve pounds sterling apiece. The set runs 2,391 pages and includes 160 copperplate illustrations. However, one set of illustrations, a three page depiction of female pelvises and fetuses in the midwifery article will be torn from every copy by order of King George III.
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1631
The transit of Venus occurs as predicted by Johannes Kepler. He correctly predicted that an ascending node transit of Venus would occur in December 1631, but it passed unobserved in part because his prediction wasn’t sufficiently accurate to predict the exact time it would occur and in part because it occurred after sunset for most of Europe. Unfortunately, Kepler died a year before the event.

1768
The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for “British Encyclopaedia”) is published under the title “Encyclopedia Britannica, or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan.” The series will eventually become the oldest continuously published English-language encyclopedia. The first edition is published in one hundred installments, which will later be bound into three volumes. Each installment costs sixpence or eight pence for an edition printed on finer paper and is delivered in weekly installments. It will also be published under the pseudonym “A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland,” a title which refers to the many gentlemen who had purchased subscriptions. The three bound volumes will be sold for twelve pounds sterling apiece. The set runs 2,391 pages and includes 160 copperplate illustrations. However, one set of illustrations, a three page depiction of female pelvises and fetuses in the midwifery article will be torn from every copy by order of King George III.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1776
Phi Beta Kappa, America’s first academic honor society, is founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Organized by a group of enterprising undergraduates, members meet regularly to debate, socialize, and write. They institute an oath of secrecy, a code of laws, mottoes in Greek and Latin, and an elaborate initiation ritual. When the Revolutionary War will later forces William and Mary to close in 1780, newly-formed chapters at Harvard and Yale direct Phi Beta Kappa’s growth and development.

1879
The first U.S. patent for an automatic telephone switching system is issued to Daniel Connolly of Philadelphia, Thomas A. Connolly of Washington, D.C., and Thomas J. McTighe of Pittsburgh. (US No. 222,458) The system consists of a single-line wire, a battery of cells located at each telephone, and a dial switching mechanism for each line.
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1776
Phi Beta Kappa, America’s first academic honor society, is founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Organized by a group of enterprising undergraduates, members meet regularly to debate, socialize, and write. They institute an oath of secrecy, a code of laws, mottoes in Greek and Latin, and an elaborate initiation ritual. When the Revolutionary War will later forces William and Mary to close in 1780, newly-formed chapters at Harvard and Yale direct Phi Beta Kappa’s growth and development.

1879
The first U.S. patent for an automatic telephone switching system is issued to Daniel Connolly of Philadelphia, Thomas A. Connolly of Washington, D.C., and Thomas J. McTighe of Pittsburgh. (US No. 222,458) The system consists of a single-line wire, a battery of cells located at each telephone, and a dial switching mechanism for each line.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1791
The first edition of Britain’s The Observer, the world’s first Sunday newspaper, is published.

1962
The United States performs the last atmospheric nuclear test 69,000 feet over Johnston Island.

1974
Jack St. Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments presents what had been the world’s first miniature electronic calculator to the Smithsonian Institution for their collection.

Pioneer II makes its closest approach to Jupiter.
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1791
The first edition of Britain’s The Observer, the world’s first Sunday newspaper, is published.

1962
The United States performs the last atmospheric nuclear test 69,000 feet over Johnston Island.

1974
Jack St. Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments presents what had been the world’s first miniature electronic calculator to the Smithsonian Institution for their collection.

Pioneer II makes its closest approach to Jupiter.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1621
Galileo Galilei perfects his telescope.

1833
Oberlin College in Ohio becomes the first coed institution of higher learning in the United States, with fifteen women and twenty-nine men enrolled.

1896
Dr. Herman Hollerith incorporates the Tabulating Machine Company, the predecessor of the later International Business Machines (IBM), to manufacture and sell the sorting machine he had invented. The corporation’s main offices are in Georgetown, Washington.
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1621
Galileo Galilei perfects his telescope.

1833
Oberlin College in Ohio becomes the first coed institution of higher learning in the United States, with fifteen women and twenty-nine men enrolled.

1896
Dr. Herman Hollerith incorporates the Tabulating Machine Company, the predecessor of the later International Business Machines (IBM), to manufacture and sell the sorting machine he had invented. The corporation’s main offices are in Georgetown, Washington.
Read the rest of this entry » » »