1827
The first lead pencils are manufactured by Joseph Dixon, at his factory in Salem, Massachusetts. Dixon will be largely responsible for the development of the graphite industry in the US.
1845
The first surviving daguerrotype photograph showing details of the sun are taken by French physicists Armand Fizeau and Léon Foucault. The five inch (12cm) image has an exposure of one sixtieth of a second, and shows the umbra/penumbra structure of several sunspots, as well as limb darkening. The photographic process is new; Daguerre had only just perfected the daguerrotype process in 1838.
1872
George B. Brayton of Boston, Massachusetts receives a US patent for a gas-powered engine. (US No. 125,166) He invented this first American commercial internal combustion engine, which he would later manufacture and sell. The engine injects a pressurized air-fuel mixture from a reservoir, into the water-cooled cylinder in which it is ignited. Its principle of continuous ignition later will become the basis for the turbine engine.
1889
Charles M. Hall receives a patent for the inexpensive electrolytic process to extract aluminium from its ore, which he had invented on February 23, 1886. (No. 400,655) Although aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, it is not found naturally in pure form, and thus it must be separated from its surrounding ore.
1902
Electric Theatre, the first cinema in Los Angeles, opens. The admission charge is ten cents for a one hour program.
1935
Scottish physicist, Sir Robert Watson-Watt is granted a patent for the RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging).
1943
Dr. John William Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. submit a memo to the US Army describing an Electronic Difference Analyzer which could calculate ballistic trajectories in thirty seconds, 14.5 minutes less than the best method the Army had in use. The proposed machine would fully utilize about eighteen thousand vacuum tubes simultaneously. The memo would evolve into a $400,000 contract awarded to the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania from the U.S. Army. In 1946, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) will be unveiled.
1954
Walt Disney announces his plans to build a Disneyland amusement park.
1968
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey premieres at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C. The critically acclaimed film has what is believed to be a record number of 70-millimeter wide gauge prints made for a film during the roadshow era.
1978
Velcro, the hook-and-loop fastener, is released. It was developed by Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral, who noticed how thistle burrs clung to his clothing during a hike in the mountains. Using a microscope, he discovered their natural hook-like shape. In 1948, he began working with a local weaver from a textile plant to design a “locking tape.” The pair make accidentally discover that nylon form industructable hooks when sewn under ultraviolet light. The trademarked name Velcro comes from “vel” or velvet and “cro” from the French word crochet which means hook.
1980
The Microsoft Corporation announces the Z80 SoftCard their first hardware product, a microprocessor on a printed circuit board that plugged into the Apple II personal computer. The SoftCard allowed programs running under the CP/M operating system (included with the card, as was Microsoft BASIC) to run on the 6502-based Apple II with only minor modifications. In particular, the word processor WordStar was so popular that people bought the SoftCard and a companion “80-column card” just to run it. At one point, SoftCard will bring in about half of Microsoft’s total revenue. It will be discontinued in 1986. Price: US$349.00
1986
IBM introduces the IBM PC Convertible laptop computer, featuring ab 80C88 processor, 256 kB RAM, an LCD screen, and two 3.5-inch 720 kB floppy disk drives. The detachable LCD screen can be replaced by a high-resolution monitor. Price: US$2000 Weight: 12 pounds
IBM announces a new version of the IBM PC AT, with an 8 MHz 80286 processor.
1987
In New York and Miami, IBM introduces the IBM Personal System/2 (PS/2) line, with IBM’s first 386 PC, and 3.5-inch floppy drives as standard. The Model 30 features an 8 MHz 8086 processor, 640 kB RAM, a 720 kB 3.5-inch floppy drive, a 20 MB hard drive, three expansion slots, PC-DOS 3.3, for US$1695-2295. Model 50 features a 10 MHz 80286 processor, 1 kB RAM, a 1.44 MB 3.5-inch floppy drive, a 20 MB hard drive, three expansion slots, and PC-DOS 3.3, OS/2, for US$3595. Model 60 features a 10 MHz 80286 processor, 1 kB RAM, a 1.44 MB 3.5-inch floppy drive, a 44 or 70 MB hard drive, seven expansion slots, and PC-DOS 3.3, OS/2, for US$5295-6295. Model 80 features a 20 MHz 80386 processor, 2 kB RAM, a 1.44 MB 3.5-inch floppy drive, a 44/70/115 MB hard drive, seven expansion slots, and PC-DOS 3.3, OS/2, for US$6995-10995.
IBM unveils its Video Graphics Array (VGA) in Models 50 and higher of the PS/2 line. VGA offers 256 simultaneous colors at a resolution of 320×200, and 16 colors at 640×480. The colors displayed have six bits of depth for each primary color, giving a palette of 262,144 different colors to select from.
IBM unveils its Multicolor Graphics Array (MCGA) on its PS/2 Model 30. The MCGA is limited to 64K of memory, limiting 640×480 resolution to just 2 colors, but still allowing 320×200 in 256 colors.
IBM introduces its Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) on its Model 50 and higher of the PS/2 line.
IBM announces the 8514/A Display Adapter, a high-resolution graphics card for the MCA PS/2 line. The 8514/A adds 1024×768 in 16 colors to the standard VGA, at a cost of US$1290. With the addition of a US$270 Memory Expansion Kit, 640×480 and 1024×768 resolutions can reach 256 colors.
IBM and Microsoft announces Operating System/2 (OS/2), Standard Edition for the IBM PS/2 computer line.
IBM announces DOS 3.3 for PCs, for US$120. It adds support for 1.44 MB floppy disks, and multiple 32 MB hard drive partitions.
Microsoft announces the release of Microsoft Windows 2.0.
1993
The New York Times reports that the Japanese National Institute for Fusion Science had challenged the United States by announcing that a Japanese supercomputer designed by NEC Corporation can perform all the tasks the Institute requires. Cray Research Inc., who stood to sell the institute one of its supercomputers, insisted on testing the machine itself before agreeing.
1997
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) introduces the K6 processor, featuring MMX instructions and dual 32 kB on-chip caches. The processor incorporates 8.8 million transistors in a 0.35 micron process, and is based on the NexGen Nx686. Price: 166 MHz (US$244), 200 MHz (US$349), 233 MHz (US$469) in 1000-unit quantities
The second JavaOne conference, an event sponsored by Sun Microsystems to bring developers together to discuss Java technologies, is held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. Over 10,000 people attend the event.
1998
Intel introduces the Mobile Pentium II processor, in speeds of 233 and 266 MHz. It features a 66 MHz memory bus, and a bus to the Level 2 cache at half the processor clock speed. Code-name during development was Mobile Deschutes.
Sony CEA sells the 10 millionth PlayStation video game system in North America.
1999
Ruby 1.3.2 is released.
2000
Gary Kopp becomes iWin.com’s first one million dollar winner in an online lottery designed to lure Internet surfers to the web sites of sponsoring advertisers.
2001
GateKeeper, a company in Leesburg, Virginia, announces a challenge for hackers to get malicious code past their firewall applications. A successful hack might earn up to $10,000. Meanwhile, the anti-virus community offers sharp criticism for offering any type of reward for performing, what would otherwise be illegal acts.
2002
Intel releases the 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor, with 400 MHz front-side bus. Price: US$562 in 1000-unit quantities
2003
Apple Remote Desktop Version 1.2 is released. This version adds a number of features designed to ease administration of a large number of computers.
2005
In New York City, the Design and Technology department of Parsons School of Design hosts “Retro Redux”, a twenty-four hour competition in which participants from five New York design schools create a game following the same specifications used for the Atari 2600. Nine teams compete. The winning game, Ninja Garden, by Club Awesome, will be included in a future release of Atari’s Flashback video game system.
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