Today is April Fools’ Day!
1826
Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.
1948
Alpher, Bethe and Gamow’s famous letter is published in the journal Physical Review. The “Big Bang” theory had previously been around as an alternative to the “Steady State theory.” Their paper argues through a mathematical analysis that that the Big Bang would explain the relative abundance of the light elements hydrogen and helium in proportion to heavier elements in the universe. The paper is written by physics PhD student Ralph Alpher and his adviser George Gamow. The highly respected physicist Hans Bethe was persuaded to lend his name as a co-author partly due to the amusing similarity between their names and “alpha, beta, gamma,” the first letters of the Greek alphabet, however, Bethe will actually later make significant contributions to the theory.
1960
The first weather observation satellite, Tiros I, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the United States in order to test experimental techniques for taking television footage of weather patterns from orbit. It is the first of several launched in the TIROS program, named for their function: Television Infrared Observation Satellite. The launch is NASA’s first step in determining whether satellites can be useful in the study of the Earth. At that time, the effectiveness of satellite observations was still unproven. TIROS will prove extremely successful in weather forecasting.
1970
United States President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring surgeon general’s warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States as of January 1, 1971.
1972
Intel releases its 8008 Microprocessor. The processor was originally commissioned by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) for their Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal.
1976
High school dropouts Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak incorporates Apple Computer, Inc.
1979
United States President Jimmy Carter visits the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, three days after the most serious nuclear accident in US history. He tours the control room, a deliberate public display of confidence on Carter’s part to demonstrate that the situation is under control. Carter has a thorough understanding of nuclear reactors. As a Navy officer in the early fifties, he had assisted in the design and development of nuclear propulsion plants for the Naval Reactors Branch. He also trained as an engineering officer for a nuclear power plant.
1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Richard Borcher scores a record-setting 20,916,075 points playing the Sega arcade game Star Trek – Strategic Operations Simulator at the Fun ‘n Games arcade in Santa Maria, California. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
1993
Lou Gerstner replaces John Akers as chairman and CEO of IBM. Gerstner is credited with having saved IBM from going out of business in the early nineties, in one of the most remarkable turn-abouts in business history. Visit Gerstner’s official biography at IBM. Visit Akers’ official biography at IBM.
1997
In the lawsuit of Intel versus Cyrix, Cyrix agrees to a settlement, agreeing to acknowledge the term “MMX” as an Intel trademark.
Midway releases the first-person shooter Doom 64 for the Nintendo 64 in the US. (ESRB: M)
1999
David Smith, of New Jersey, is arrested for allegedly disseminating the Melissa virus, which infected over a million computers worldwide and caused more than US$80 million in damage. He will later serve twenty months in federal prison in exchange for helping the FBI track authors of other computer viruses.
2000
Negotiations for a settlement between Microsoft and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) over the monopoly issue fail.
2002
The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the first nation in the world to do so.
Sony reduces the price of several PlayStation 2 video games in the US, releasing them as “Greatest Hits” for US$24.99 each. The first titles in the series are: ATV Offroad Fury, Dark Clouds, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, Twisted Metal: Black.
2003
In Japan, videogame producers Squaresoft and Enix complete their merger to form Square Enix, which will go on to develop such series as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Intel releases the 2.3 and 2.4 GHz Celeron processor, for low-price computers. Price: US$117 and US$127 in 1000-unit quantities. Visit the official Intel website.
2004
Google launches Gmail, a free webmail and POP3 email service, as an invitation-only beta. The launch is initially met with wide-spread skepticism due the date and Google’s long-standing tradition of April Fool’s jokes. Gmail differs from other services in that it ran as smoothly as any desktop application, largely thanks to the use of Ajax in its interface. The service also offers 1 gigabyte of storage capacity, an unprecedented amount for a major email provider. In addition, it will quickly become know for its phenomenally effective spam filters. The service will be opened to the public on February 7, 2007. Within months of going public, Gmail will inspire hundreds of major sites to use Ajax-driven websites, and Ajax will rapidly become the defacto standard for interactive websites.
The website StarWars.com jokingly refers to the upcoming film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as “The Creeping Fear” in navigational menus.
2005
Dimension Films releases the action film Sin City, directed by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino and staring Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, and Benicio del Toro, is released to 3,230 US theaters. The film is an adaptation of Frank Miller’s popular comic series of the same name. It’s one of the first films, aside from Casshern, Immortel (Ad Vitam), and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, to be shot primarily on a digital backlot. Most scenes were shot in front of a green screen, with artificial backgrounds and foreground elements added in post-production. Produced on a budget of US$40 million, the film will gross US$29,120,273 it opening weekend. Visit this film’s official website. IMDB MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
Google doubles the storage space of its email service, Gmail, to two gigabytes.
2006
Google files with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that the 5.3 million shares of Class A common stock that will be sold during its initial public offering (IPO) will be priced at US$389.75 per share. The estimated net proceeds of the IPO will be approximately US$2.065 billion. In the same filing, the company’s co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, state that they will continue to maintain their one dollar annual salaries in 2006 and forgo all bonuses.
The last episode of Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII airs in Japan, ending the series at twenty-five episodes. Before Crisis is a Japanese role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in 2004. It is the first original game to be produced by Square Enix for mobile phones, and is released on a monthly subscription basis.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the “British FBI,” is formed in the United Kingdom. The organization will acts against organized crime, including the illegal drugs trade, money laundering, and people smuggling. It boasts that it will, in part, improve the government’s ability to investigate gangs that use the internet for extortion, fraud, and hacking.
Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft docks with the International Space Station, delivering the first Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes, and other members of the Expedition 13 crew, Pavel Vinogradov and Jeffrey Williams.
2008
Roc Hardcover publishes the fantasy novel Small Favor by Jim Butcher as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0451462008) The book is the tenth in The Dresden Files. Length: 560 pages
2009
Construction of the world’s most powerful laser, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), is completed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The laser is capable of simulating the force of a hydrogen bomb or the heat of the Sun. The laser’s potential will be vetted in a series of experiments over the course of the coming year in which the laser’s power will be gradually increased until scientists achieve “fusion ignition” in 2010, fusing hydrogen atoms together to produce more energy than is required by the laser beams themselves. NIF scientists expect to use the laser in this manner to produce a clean, safe form of energy.
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