1675
The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London is laid by King Charles II.
1846
An Act of Congress signed by President James K. Polk establishes The Smithsonian Institution as a trust to administer the generous bequest of James Smithson“>James Smithson in an amount over US$500,000. In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he did in 1835), the estate should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” The motives behind Smithson’s bequest remain mysterious. He had never traveled to the US and seems to have had no correspondence with anyone there. Read more about the history of the Smithsonian Institute.
1928
Baird demonstrates television pictures with a stereoscopic relief effect.
1932
A 11.2 pound (5.1kg) chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least seven pieces and lands near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
1960
An ejected space capsule from Discoverer 13 is recovered after it returns from orbit, becoming the first human-made object ever recovered from space.
1966
The first lunar orbiter, Lunar Orbiter I is launched on a mission to photograph potential Apollo landing sites.
A daylight meteor is seen from Utah to Canada. It is the only known case of a meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere and then leaving it again.
1981
According to Twin Galaxies, Samir Mehta scores 338,000 points on Atari’s Centipede after playing the game for thirty minutes at the Time Zone arcade in Mountain View, California. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
1983
Release 10 of Infocom’s interactive fiction game Enchanter becomes available for personal computers. It is the first fantasy game published by Infocom following the popular Zork trilogy.
A cockpit style version of a Star Wars coin-operated video game is presented to George Lucas by Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, Inc. An inscription on the game reads: “A special thanks for creating The Force behind so much fun.”
1985
Paul H. Levy releases “The Ultimate in WarGames Dialer Programs,” Ultra-Dial version 5.1.
1987
Borland International releases the Quattro spreadsheet software for the IBM PC.
1989
The first Macworld Expo is held, in Boston, Massachusetts. The event is attended by about thirty thousand people..
1990
The NASA space probe Magellan arrives at its planned polar orbit around the planet Venus. As the planet rotates slowly beneath it, Magellan circled once every three hours fifteen minutes, collecting radar images of the surface in strips about 10-17 miles (17-28km) wide and returns the data via radio. The Magellan mission also provides gravity and atmospheric measurements.
1992
The first South Korean satellite, Kitsat A, is launched.
The second annual Silicon Valley Personal Computer Design Conference is held, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California.
1993
The first Turkish satellite, Turksat 1B, is launched.
Sega of America releases the Jurassic Park for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Game Boy.
1994
The first Turkish satellite, Turksat 1B, is launched.
Square releases the role-playing game Breath of Fire for the Super NES in the US.
1995
The Gen Con Game Fair is held from August 10 – 13 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena (MECCA) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1996
The website of Livets Ord is hacked by “ivil h4x0r”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1997
The servers of Cyper Promotions are anonymously hacked.
2000
According to Ibiblio.org world population tracker, the global population reaches six billion. Visit the Ibiblio website.
Capcom releases GunGriffon Blaze for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.
2001
Rhythms NetConnections, Inc., a broadband services provider, announces that it will cease service within thirty days and let go of 75 percent of its work force, or about seven hundred employees.
South Korea Information and Communication Ministry announces that they have found a third new version of the Code Red worm.
The Stargate SG-1 episode “Beast of Burden” first airs. (No. 507) In it, Chaka, the Unas whom Dr. Jackson befriended, has been kidnapped and taken to a planet where humans use Unases as slaves. Jackson wants to rescue Chaka, but O’Neill is reluctant to interfere. GateWorld entry
2004
Bandai releases Gundam: Battle Assault for the Gameboy Advance in the US. ESRB: T (Teen)
The iTunes Music Store adds the millionth song to its library of available selections. Visit the online store,
Konami releases the classic platform game Castlevania for the Game Boy Advance in Japan. ESRB: Everyone PEGI: 3+ CERO: All ages
Nintendo releases the platform game Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels as Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Famicom Disk System in Japan.
2005
Apple Computer fails to patent the iPod interface technology because a Microsoft researcher already registered a similar patent in 2002.
Astronomers discover the first triple asteroidal system which consists of two satellites orbiting the asteroid 87 Sylvia.
Lee Seung Seop, an industrial boiler repairman, dies of exhaustion in Daegu, South Korea after playing the computer game StarCraft continuously for 49 hours at an Internet cafe. Exhaustion and dehydration induced heart failure and he went into cardiac arrest. He dies shortly thereafter at a local hospital. According to his friends, his normal game preference was World of Warcraft, and he was a confirmed game addict.
Opera Software releases the Opera Mini Java ME web browser for mobile devices in Norway. The browser will be released globally on January 24, 2006. Visit the application’s official website.
2007
Lions Gate Entertainment releases the horror action film Skinwalkers, directed by James Isaac and starring Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Kim Coates, Natassia Malthe, Sarah Carter and Lyriq Bent, to 745 US theaters. It will gross US$553,520 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit this film’s official website. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hr 50 mins
In the matter of SCO v. Novell, a United States District Court rules that Novell holds the copyright to UNIX and UnixWare, allowing the company to claim licensing fees from SCO which had withheld. The court also rules that SCO must drop suits it had brought against IBM and Sequent regarding the distribution of Linux following Novell’s now-legitimized waiver of SCO’s claims in the matters. Following the ruling, Novell publicly announces that the company has no interest in suing any individuals over the user or distribution of Unix, stating “We don’t believe there is Unix in Linux.” The move earns the company the praise of the open source community.
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