413 BC
A lunar eclipse causes panic among the sailors of the Athens fleet, affecting the outcome of a battle in the Peloponnesian War. The Athenians were ready to move their forces from Syracuse when the Moon was eclipsed. The soldiers and sailors are frightened by this celestial omen and are reluctant to leave. The fleet’s commander, Nicias, consults soothsayers and postpones the fleet’s departure for twenty-seven days. The delay gives an advantage to their enemies, the Syracusans, who go on to defeat the entire Athenian fleet and army, killing Nicias in the process.
1783
The first experimental hydrogen-filled balloon leaves Champs de Mars, Paris, unmanned, and reaches a 900m altitude. Under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, Jacques A.C. Charles sent up a 13ft (4m) diameter hydrogen-filled balloon of rubber- coated silk. One of the spectators present for the demonstration is the American ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin. The gas had been manufactured, beginning on August 23, 1783, by pouring 225kg of sulphuric acid over half a ton of scrap iron. Able to lift about 9kg, it travels 24km in about forty-five minutes. The balloon descended close to the little village of Gonesse, where frightened local farmers attacked it with pick axes and spades, leaving only torn remains.
1875
The element Gallium was discovered by P.E. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. In an article in the Annales de Chimie in 1877, he will recount the discovery, “On August 27, 1875, between three and four at night, I perceived the first indications of the existence of a new element that I named gallium in honor of France (Gallia).” His first spectroscopic analysis of the tiny amount (he estimated 1/100 mg) of the prepared sample showed a previously unknown violet line at 417.0, indicating a new element.
1889
Eastman Kodak creates the first roll film using a celluloid substrate, which was developed for the company by Henry Reichenbach.
1910
J.A.D. McCurdy transmits the first radio message ever sent from an aircraft in flight over Sheepshead Bay in Long Island, New York.
1935
RKO Pictures releases the film She, directed by Lansing C. Holden and Irving Pichel and starring Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott, Helen Mack, Nigel Bruce, and Gustav von Seyffertitz, to US theaters. The film is based on the H. Rider Haggard novel of the same name. IMDB listing
1939
Sir Frank Whittle and Hans J.P. von Ohain invent the Heinkel He 178, the first modern jet-powered aircraft to successfully fly. However, it only remains airborne for seven minutes.
1950
The first international television link is established when the BBC in Britain transmits the live first cross-Channel television program via microwave relays to celebrate the centenary anniversary of the first cross-Channel telegraph transmission by submarine cable. The signal is relayed 95 miles (153 km) for the two-hour program from Calais, in Northern France, to London, England. The show presents the town of Calais, a torchlight procession, dancing, and a firework display from the Place de l’Hotel de Ville.
1956
Sellafield in Calder Hall, England becomes the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to supply electricity to a national electricity grid. It will be closed on March 31, 2003. Its four Magnox reactors are capable of generating 50MWe of electricity, but the production of weapons-grade plutonium is its original primary use.
1962
NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe, which will become the first probe to fly past Venus in December.
1975
The Symphonie 2 geostationary satellite is launched. The Symphonie series is the first communications satellites built by France and Germany and the first in the world which were three-axis stabilized on geostationary orbit.
1976
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers announce that they have assembled a synthetic gene and implanted it into a living cell of the bacterium E. coli.
1982
Michael Baird, age 18, scores 12,311,126 points on Centipede by Atari after playing the game for twenty-one hours and twelve minutes at Phil’s Amusement in Lakewood, California.
1983
20th Century Fox releases the animated feature film Fire and Ice, directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Susan Tyrrell, Maggie Roswell, William Ostrander, Stephen Mendel, and Clare Nono, to 89 US theaters. The film is a collaboration between famed animation director Ralph Bakshi and one of the most most influential fantasy artists in history, Frank Frazetta, who also collaborated on the 1977 film Wizards. The was produced using the process of rotoscoping,whereby scenes were shot on camera using live actors, then traced onto animation cels. The film will be neither financially nor critically successful, but it will go on to become a cult classic. Produced on a budget of US$1.2 million, the film will gross US$263,238 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 1 hr 21 mins
1984
In the Monday, August 27 issue of Electronic News, a story written by Mark Halper, examines Atari’s strategy of reducing the retail prices of 800XL computers from US$230 to US$160 and the Atari 2600 game system from US$60 to US$40. Additionally, the article points out potential benefits from a pending US$100 million law suit Atari has filed against Amiga plus disputes related to receivables left to Tramel Technologies by Warner.
Synapse Software Corporation, a Richmond-based software developer, files a US$15 million lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court against Atari for failing to pay more than US$1 million in delivered software.
1987
Atari publicly announces an agreement to buy the Federated Group, Inc. for US$67.3 million in cash. The Federated Group of Electronics Stores is a chain of sixty-seven home electronics stores in Arizona, California, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas, which employs 2,700 people. Atari feels Federated will offer guaranteed retail shelf space for their products and provide a major stepping stone toward producing other Atari-labeled electronics products.
1989
The British Marcopolo I becomes the first communications satellite when it is carried into orbit aboard a Delta booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Marcopolo I will carry television broadcast service for all of the United Kingdom.
1991
Atlus releases Golf Grand Slam for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America.
Intel announces that it will temporarily halt the production of the 50MHz 486DX processor, due to problems in manufacturing and testing.
1992
Konami releases the platform game Super Castlevania IV for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in Europe.
Nintendo releases the racing game Super Mario Kart for the Super Famicom in Japan.
1993
Acclaim Japan releases Roger Clemens MVP Baseball for the Game Boy in Japan.
Compaq announces its Presario line of personal computers, intended to be both user friendly and inexpensive. The Presario features a monitor, modem, and software to access the recently popularized online world through America Online and Prodigy. Price: US$1,399
At the ONE BBSCON ‘93 in Colorado Springs, the National Online Media Association, a professional association of BBS Sysops, Internet Service Providers, and online media figures, is founded.
Nintendo releases the puzzle game Mario and Wario for the Super Famicom in Japan. The game is notable for its use of the SNES Mouse. The premise of the game is that Wario has covered Mario’s head with items that obscure his vision, such as a bucket, and the player must guide him to safety. The player controls Wanda using the SNES Mouse. With the click of the mouse, Wanda can do various things, such as damage enemies, turn Mario around, or affect other aspects of the environment, with the goal of guiding the continually moving Mario to Luigi, who can take off the respective item from Mario’s head.
1994
Nintendo releases the roleplaying game (rpg) EarthBound as Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushu for the Super Famicom in Japan. ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults)
Nintendo releases the Super Scope 6 game bundled with the Super Scope light gun for the Super NES in Europe.
1995
Microsoft has sold between nine hundred thousand and one million copies of the Microsoft Windows ‘95 operating systems in the first four days of its release.
1996
Ballantine Books published the fantasy reference The Witches’ Companion by Katherine Ramsland and Anne Rice as a paperback. (ISBN-10: 0345406249) The reference is a guide to Anne Rice’s “Lives of the Mayfair Witches.” Length: 544 pages
1997
Sony releases the PlayStation Dual Analog Controller in the US. The analog mode of the controller allows for more precise and fluid control of game characters. In April, the controller was released in Japan, where it featured a “rumble” effect for a more realistic gaming experience. However, the vibration feedback was removed from the controller before its release in the US. According to a Sony spokesperson, “We evaluated all the features and decided, for manufacturing reasons, that what was most important to gamers was the analog feature.” Analog-capable titles on the market include Tobal 2 and Bushido Blade.
1998
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 350 MHz K6-2 processor. Price: US$317 in 1000-unit quantities
Texas Instruments announces that they have invented a computer chip manufacturing technology that permits the tiniest transistor ever to be made. The new technology allows a transistor the length of just .07 microns to be manufactured, which is about one thousandth the thickness of a human hair. Devices that will evolve from this technology will include hearing aids that can easily fit within the inner ear and reduced size wireless phones that integrate data and video. More than 400 million of the minuscule transistors can fit onto a single chip the size of a fingernail.
1999
Autodesk reveals plans to lay off about ten percent of their work force following a report that second-quarter earnings have dropped by about ninety-nine percent. Of the 350 workers cut, about 150 will be cut from their San Rafael and San Francisco offices.
Touchstone Pictures releases the action film The 13th Warrior, directed by John McTiernan and Michael Crichton and starring Antonio Banderas, Vladimir Kulich, Dennis Storhøi, Clive Russell, Richard Bremmer, Tony Curran, Omar Sharif, Erick Avari, Sven Wollter, and Diane Venora, to 2,306 US theaters. It is based on Michael Crichton’s novel Eaters of the Dead. In the film, Arab courtier Ahmad Ibn Fadlan is sent to the barbaric north as an emissary, as a punishment for falling in love with the wrong woman. Shortly after meeting and befriending a party of Vikings, a young boy comes to their camp to call the warriors home. The Wendol, creatures of the Mist, have begun attacking their homeland, killing and eating everyone in their path. The Viking village’s oracle advises a band of Vikings that, if they wish to deal with the threat, they will need a thirteenth warrior to accompany them. Fadlan, at first finds himself at odds with his fellows, but when he finds out that the Wendol really exist, he bravely fights alongside the Vikings in an impossible battle. Produced on an estimated budget of US$160 million, the film will gross US$10,267,756 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 1 hr 42 mins
Wizard of the Coast releases the Magic: The Gathering beginners set, Starter. Starter is Wizards of the Coast’s fourth attempt to create an entry-level card set to lure beginners to the game. It’s name initially causes confusion, because up until it’s release, Tournament decks were known as “Starters.” Later, the set will be known as “Starter 1999″ after the release of Starter 2000. The set contains 173 cards, including 63 common, 55 uncommon, 35 rare, and 20 basic lands. Most of the cards are reprints of cards already available, many from the Portal sets, but the set also contains twenty-six unique cards. Starter cards are available in a fixed-deck game, randomized booster packs, and a pre-constructed deck for each color. Visit the set’s official website.
2000
Sega releases the flight simulator game AeroWings 2: Airstrike for the Sega Dreamcast. ESRB: E (Everyone)
2001
Finland begins digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmissions.
Intel releases the 1.9 GHz and 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 processors, crossing a key technology milestone. Price: US$375 and US$562 respectively in quantities of 1000
Nintendo releases the racing game Mario Kart Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance in the US. It combines the best features from earlier Mario Kart games, Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64. Super Circuit is also the first Mario Kart game to be available on a handheld system. ESRB: E (Everyone)
Version 6 of the Internet Explorer web browser is released with the Windows XP operating system. This version includes several improvements centered around privacy and security.
2002
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the Athlon MP processor at 1667MHz and 1800MHz, featuring 256KiB Level-2 Caches and 266 MT/s front-side buses. Code-name: Thoroughbred
Ace publishes the fantasy novel Taggerung by Brian Jacques as a paperback in North America. (ISBN-10: 0441009689) It is the fourteenth book in the Redwall series. Length: 416 pages
Ballantine Books publishes Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub as a paperback. (ISBN-10: 0345441036) It is a sequel to the 1984 bestseller The Talisman. Jack Sawyer, the sensitive boy-hero who journeyed to an alternate reality in search of a magical talisman to save his dying mother, has grown up. Now in his 30s, Jack remembers nothing of his strange adventures in the Oz-like world known as the Territories, until a series of strange events forces him to confront the snarling horrors of the past. Length: 672 pages
Del Rey publishes the fantasy compilation The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345453751) The compilation includes: The Sword of Shannara, in which the brothers Shea and Flick Ohmsford quest to retrieve the titular weapon to defeat the Warlock Lord who threatens the Four Lands, The Elfstones of Shannara, Shea’s grandson, Wil Ohmsford aids the endangered Elven nation, The Wishsong of Shannara, Jair and Brin Ohmsford, the children of Wil, save the Four Lands from the evil magic within a tome called the Ildatch. Length: 1,200 pages
Del Rey publishes the fantasy novel Antrax by Terry Brooks as a paperback. (ISBN-10: 0345397673) In Antrax, the crew aboard the airship Jerle Shannara is attacked by evil forces, the Druid’s protégé Bek Rowe and his companions are pursued by the mysterious Ilse Witch. Meanwhile, Boh is alone, caught in a dark maze beneath the ruined city of Castledown, stalked by a hungry, unseen enemy. Length: 416 pp
Games Workshop publishes the Warhammer novel Draco by Ian Watson as a paperback. (ISBN-10: 0743443187) Length: 288 pages
I Books releases Roger Zelazny’s The Dawn of Amber by John Gregory Betancourt as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0743452402) It is the first book in the Dawn of Amber trilogy, which is the prequel to Roger Zelazny’s classic Chronicles of Amber series. Length: 416 pages
Sony releases the PS2 Network Adapter for the PlayStation 2 in the US. Price: US$39.99
Sony Computer Entertainment releases the tactical third-person shooter SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs for the PlayStation 2 in North America. It is one of the first online titles available for the PS2’s online adapter. In addition to the twelve single player missions, SOCOM also features online play via the internet at no additional charge to the customer. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: M (Mature) Price: US$59.99
2003
Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing approximately 34,646,416 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth.
Sega releases the hack and slash game Otogi: Myth of Demons for the Xbox in North America. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
Version 7.1.2 of the Fermi Linux operation system, “Top,” is released. Fermi Linux is a catch all designation for Linux distributions used by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), which are based on Scientific Linux. Visit the application’s official website.
The world’s biggest battery is connected to provide emergency power to Fairbanks, Alaska’s second-largest city. Without power lines between Alaska and the rest of the US, the state is an “electrical island.” Worse, tough environmental conditions cause a total city blackout every two or three years. The US$35 million rechargable battery contains 13,760 large nickel-cadmium cells that weigh a total of 1,300 tons and cover 2,000 square meters, an area greater than a football field. The battery can provide forty megawatts of power, enough to supply approximately twelve thousand people for up to seven minutes, to provide a buffer while diesel backup generators are started. The battery is an important safeguard in a climate where winter temperatures can drop as low as -51°C.
2004
After seventeen years in business, American video developer and publisher Acclaim Entertainment shuts down operations due to an inability to secure financing.
Bandai releases the fighting game Digimon Battle Spirit 2 for the Game Boy Advance in Europe. PEGI: 3+
2006
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon processor operating at 2500MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 667 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$856
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon processor operating at 2600MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 800 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$856
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon processor operating at 3000MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 800 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$1,177
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon processor operating at 3000MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 667 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$1,177
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon processor operating at 3166MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 667 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$1,391
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon Xeon processor at 3200MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 800 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$1,391
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon Xeon processor at 3333MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 667 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$1,980
Intel releases the Dual-Core Xeon Xeon processor at 3400MHz, featuring two 1024KiB Level-2 Caches, a 4096KiB Level-3 Cache, and a 800 MT/s front side bus. Price: US$1,980
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