The Great Geek Manual

1856
The US Copyright Act is extended to include dramatic works.

1868
French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen discovers helium in the solar spectrum during an eclipse. It marks the first discovery of an “extraterrestrial” element, since helium hadn’t yet been discovered on Earth.

1869
Canadian Patent Number 1 is issued to W. Hamilton. The very first Canadian patent, issued before the official numbering series, was granted in 1791 by the Governor General to Angus MacDonnel, a Scottish soldier garrisoned in Quebec City.

1904
The Belle Isle Aquarium opens in the Detroit, Michigan, in the United States. Visit the park’s official website.

1932
The Scottish aviator Jim Mollison makes the first westbound transatlantic solo flight.

1947
Nine years after selling their first oscillators out of a garage in Palo Alto, California, William Hewlett and David Packard incorporate Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). They determined the order of their names in the corporate name with a coin toss. The Stanford graduates will expand the company into one of the world’s largest electronics companies. Visit the company’s official website.

1949
The first filmed recording of CBS color television is made in Washington DC using a US Navy-designed Berndt-Maurer camera.

1956
The Alexander Graham Bell Museum opens in Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

1960
Collins Radio, a manufacturer of aviation and information systems, successfully transmits a photography via satellite from its headquarters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The Discoverer XIV becomes the first satellite to be ejected from an orbiting space vehicle, and it will later become the first satellite to be recovered in midair (the next day). It will also become the first successful operational imaging surveillance satellite, used for photo reconnaissance of key military Soviet targets. The Discoverer XIV camera captured more pictures than 24 U-2 overflights taken between 1956-1960.

1968
The very first official Gen Con is held at the Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Somewhere between fifty and one hundred people attend. Over the coming years, the event will evolve into one of the largest and most prominent gaming conventions in North America. Read more about the history of the Gen Con. Visit the event’s official website.

1973
Gen Con VI is held from August 18 – 19 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

1976
The Soviet Union’s Luna 24 or Lunik 24 space probe soft-lands on the Moon in the Mare Crisium (“Sea of Crisis”). It is the last of the Luna series and the third to collect lunar soil samples.

1985
Microsoft released the first version of QuickBASIC (QB) on a single 5.25″ floppy disk for DOS.

1989
Orange County Superior Court Judge Jack Mandel rules that the Atari Corporation must pay Keith Powell, the former president of the Federated Group of Electronics Stores US$260,000 and former vice president Merrill Lyons US$175,000 in severance pay.

1992
Midway Amusement Games releases Mortal Kombat version 2.0 to arcades in the US.

Wang Laboratories, Inc., a former computer industry giant, files for bankruptcy after accumulating losses of US$3.5 billion over the past three years.

1993
Atari first announces the Jaguar 64-bit game system at a press conference held at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.

Version 2.00 of the popular MS-DOS bulletin board system (BBS) RemoteAccess BBS is released.

1995
New Line Cinema releases the fantasy film Mortal Kombat, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Bridgette Wilson, and Talisa Soto, to 2,421 US theaters. The film is based on the popular fighting video game franchise of the same title. The film will gross US$23,283,887 domestically in its opening weekend alone and will be surprisingly well received by critics, most notably receiving a thumbs up from critic Gene Siskel. The film will be considered the first major success for video-game movie adaptations. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 41 mins

1997
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announces that IBM will use the K6 processor in low-end models of the Aptiva line.

Intel announces availability of a 200 MHz Pentium Pro processor with 1MB of cache memory. Price: US$2675 in 1000-unit quantities

Time magazine features a cover story about Steve Jobs, his return to Apple, and his controversial agreement with Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

Version 4.02 of the Netscape Navigator web browser is released.

The website of Crack a Mac is hacked by “Starfire”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

1998
The final version of the popular DOS NES emulator NESticle is released by Bloodlust Software. It was among the first freeware NES emulators when it was released on April 3, 1997. Visit the application’s official website.

Yahoo launches Yahoo! Clubs.

2000
The Brazilian website of Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho is hacked by the hacking group “Cyb3r Fuck3rs”. The website is hosted on a server running Windows NT. View an archived version of the defaced website.

Some personal computer manufacturers in the US begin shipping computers running the Windows ME operating system.

2003
Adobe first releases the newly purchased Cool Edit Pro 2.0 as Adobe Audition, after purchasing it from Syntrillium Software in May 2003. This initial version of Adobe Audition is largely unchanged, but additional features will be added to version 1.5, which will be released in May 2004. Visit the application’s official website.

The Sobig.F worm is recognized and on August 19, it sets a record for the sheer volume of emails it causes to be sent. The worm will cause approximately US$50 million in damages. The worm originated with a porn site.

The Welchia (Nachi) worm is discovered. It exploits a vulnerability in the Microsoft Remote procedure call (RPC) service similar to the Blaster worm. However, unlike Blaster, it tries to help the user by downloading and installing security patches from Microsoft. The worm is evidently intended to be helpful, but it inconveniently and sometimes dangerously increases networks’ traffic, it reboots computers, it operates without consent, and it doesn’t leave any log of its operation. Read more at Symantec.

2004
Google floats at US$85 a share one day before its initial public offering (IPO).

2005
NASA decides to push the launch date of the next shuttle mission (STS-121) to March 2006 and reassign it from Atlantis to Discovery. The purpose of the mission is to test new safety and repair techniques and to deliver equipment and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter from Germany to the International Space Station (ISS).

Upper Deck Entertainment announces the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game based on Blizzard Entertainment’s MMORPG, World of Warcraft. In this trading card game (TCG), each player uses a hero card and a deck consisting of allies and other supporting cards. In booster and starter packs, gamers can find cards representing weapons, abilities, armor, items, and quests. Some booster packs also contain legendary cards (i.e., special versions of normal cards) which contain a scratch-off code. This code can then be redeemed in the online game for a virtual prize. The prizes are purely cosmetic, such as special tabards, or a mount that moves at the same speed as walking. Visit the game’s official website.

2006
Dell discontinued production of the Dell DJ Ditty Flash MP3 Player.

The fantasy film The Illusionist, directed by Neil Burger and starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell, Eddie Marsan, and Eleanor Tomlinson, is distributed in a limited release to 51 US theaters. A magician in turn-of-the-last-century Vienna falls in love with a woman well above his social standing. When she becomes engaged to the crown prince, the magician uses his powers of illusionist to free her and overthrow the royal house. Produced on a budget of US$16.5 million, the film will gross US$927,956 domestically in its opening weekend. On September 1, the film will receive a wider national release to 1,438 theaters. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 49 min

Microsoft releases the source code of MechCommander 2, a real-time tactics game originally released for Windows in 2001. The release includes a modified version of the source code along with most game assets under a Shared Source license in order to demonstrate its XNA Build system. Download the source code.

NASA announces that Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) are the two companies selected to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. SpaceX will demonstrate crew and cargo resupply using the SpaceX Dragon, a conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule, which is capable of carrying seven people or a mixture of personnel and cargo to and from low Earth orbit. It will be launched atop a Falcon 9 vehicle. The nosecone of the vehicle has a hinged cap, which opens to reveal a standard ISS Common Berthing Mechanism, allowing the Dragon to dock to the US segment of the ISS. NASA’s plan calls for SpaceX demonstration flights between 2008 and 2010. SpaceX may receive up to US$278 million if it meets all NASA milestones. Visit the official Kistler Aerospace website. Visit the official SpaceX website.

2008
Google launches FreetheAirWaves.com to lobby with the White Spaces Coalition on behalf of technology giants to turn the white spaces between TV channels into a national internet network. TV broadcasters oppose the move because they believe that it will interfere with their channels.