1831
Charles Darwin visits Maer Hall, home of his uncle Josiah Wedgwood II, whom he told of his father’s opposition to his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. Charles is enthusiastic about the opportunity, but his father considers it to be a waste of time, delaying his career as a member of the clergy. His father said, however, that he would might swayed if Charles found a man of high esteem who would regarded the trip as worthwhile. That man turns out to be Charles’ uncle Josiah, who writes a letter to Robert Darwin, answering all of his objections favorably, and ultimately changing his mind.
1842
The US Naval Observatory, one of the oldest scientific agencies in the US, is authorized by an act of Congress. Its primary task is to act as a depot for the Navy’s charts, navigational instruments, and chronometers, which are calibrated by timing the transit of stars across the meridian. Visit the agency’s official website.
1880
Thomas Edison is granted a patent for an “Electro-Chemical Receiving-Telephone.” (US No. 231,704)
1895
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents the rigid airship, known as the Zeppelin.
1897
Thomas Edison receives a patent for the Kinetoscope, a device for producing moving pictures. (US No.589,168) In the patent, he described it as a device “to produce pictures representing objects in motion throughout an extended period of time which may be utilized to exhibit the scene including such moving objects in a perfect and natural manner by means of a suitable exhibiting apparatus.” Edison determined that a speed of thirty pictures per second is sufficient to produce the persistence of vision effect that creates smooth motion from the subject of a film’s individual frames.
1900
Coca-Cola is first sold in Britain in the basement restaurant of Spence’s department store, a silk merchant and general goods store at 76-79, St Paul’s Churchyard, London EC4.
1910
The first US airplane flight over water is made by Glenn Hammond Curtiss in his biplane over Lake Erie from Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland, Ohio, to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. At an altitude between four hundred and five hundred feet, the seventy mile trip takes seventy-eight minutes nonstop.
1920
The first news radio program is broadcast from Detroit, Michigan.
1936
Elizabeth Cowell becomes the first female television announcer during BBC transmissions from Radiolympia.
1955
The first solar-powered car is publicly demonstrated by General Motors Corporation. The Sunmobile was designed by William G. Cobb. Light energy falling on twelve selenium photoelectric cells created electric current sufficient to power a tiny electric motor that turns a driveshaft connected to the car’s rear axle by a pulley. It was one of the 253 exhibits at the General Motors Powerama in Chicago, Illinois, which will be seen by over 2,500,000 visitors during the course of the twenty-eight day, seven million dollar event spread over one million square feet on the shore of Lake Michigan.
1962
President Kennedy signs the Satellite Act, which states that it is to be the policy of the US, “to establish, in conjunction and in cooperation with other countries, as expeditiously as practicable a commercial communications satellite system, as part of an improved global communications network, which will be responsive to public needs and national objectives, which will serve the communication needs of the United States and other countries, and which will contribute to world peace and understanding.” Control of international satellite communications is given to a new private corporation called the Communications Satellite Corporation or Comsat.
1968
Dr. Michael E. DeBakey of Houston leads the first simultaneous multi-organ transplant from one donor to four recipients. Two kidneys, one lobe of a lung and the heart are removed from a twenty year old woman who died of a gunshot and transplanted into four men at the Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas. The surgery is performed by five teams and a total of sixty physicians, nurses, and support personal.
1971
Astronaut Dave Scott becomes the first person to drive a vehicle on the Moon, during the Apollo 15 mission in the mountainous Hadley-Apennine region. The battery-powered Lunar Rover (LRV) is the first such vehicle to used on an Apollo mission. Built by Boeing, it weighs only 460lb (209kg) in Earth’s gravity and folds down to approximately 5 foot by 20 inches. Each of its four wheels is independently driven by a quarter horsepower (200W) electric motor. Using it, astronauts are able to travel further from the module’s landing site in order to sample a wider variety of lunar materials than on any previous mission. Read more at the official NASA website.
1990
Braingrey.Mind releases the post-apocalyptic roleplaying game (rpg) Last Armageddon for the Famicom in Japan.
1991
HAL Laboratory, Inc. releases the rail shooter HyperZone for the Super NES.
1992
Midway Amusement Games releases Mortal Kombat Version 3.0 to arcades in the US.
1994
The merger of Aldus Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. is finalized. The two companies hope to create a powerful desktop publishing software application. Aldus was founded by Paul Brainerd, who established desktop publishing in 1985 with his ground-breaking application, PageMaker. Adobe, founded by Thomas Knoll, is best known for Photoshop, which has come to dominate the graphics market since is Windows port was released in November 1992.
Two years after the hardware from which he operated his Bulletin Board System (BBS) was seized in a raid, Richard D. Kenadek, the administrator (sysop) of the Davy Jones Locker BBS, is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and criminal copyright infringement.
1995
Electronics Arts releases the action game Crusader for the MS-DOS in the US. Set in a dystopian 22nd-century, the games center on an elite super soldier that defects from the current world government, the World Economic Consortium, and joins the resistance that opposes the WEC, aptly named the Resistance, to fight the tyrannical government that once employed him. ESRB: T (Teen)
Electronic Arts releases the third person shooter Fade to Black for DOS in the US. It is the sequel to their earlier game Flashback: The Quest for Identity. In the game, you take control of Conrad B. Hart, the hero from Flashback, who, as a consequence of the last game has been forced into cryo sleep in a spaceship, floating aimlessly through space. He is found by his old enemies, the Morphs, who imprison him in the Lunar prison of New Alcatraz. Gaining the trust and assistance of the mysterious Ancients, Conrad must fight off the Morph invasion, not knowing who he can trust… ESRB: T (Teen)
First Ukrainian satellite, Sich 1, and first Chilean satellite, Fasat Alfa, are launched.
New World Computing releases the turn-based strategy game Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest for MS-DOS and Windows. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults)
1996
Bethesda Softworks releases the first person roleplaying game (RPG) The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall for MS-DOS. The key feature of Daggerfall as in all The Elder Scrolls games is the freedom the game offers to players. Players are free to play the game in any style, from an honorable knight to an evil assassin. Players are also free to stray from the main quest at anytime and can choose not to do it at all. The game marks a notable advance in the evolution of roleplaying games. ESRB: M (Mature)
Konami releases Project Overkill for the PlayStation.
Sega releases the action adventure game Nights into Dreams… for the Sega Saturn in North America. ESRB: KA (Kids to Adults)
Sega releases the fighting game Virtua Fighter for personal computers in the US. It is the first game in the Virtua Fighter series, and the first ever 3D-based fighting game. ESRB: T (Teen)
Sega releases the platform game Bug! for Windows in the US. It is one of the earliest 3D platform games. ESRB: KA (Kids to Adults)
Sony Computer Entertainment of America releases the 3D platform game Jumping Flash! 2 for the Sony PlayStation in the US. ESRB: KA (Kids to Adults)
Sony Computer Entertainment of America releases the platform game Crash Bandicoot for the Sony PlayStation in North America. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: KA (Kids to Adults)
1997
Activision and id Software release the first person shooter Hexen II for Windows. It is the third game in the Hexen/Heretic series, and the last in the Serpent Riders trilogy. Using a modified Quake engine, it features single player and multi player game modes, as well as four character classes to choose from, each with different abilities. These include the offensive Paladin, the defensive Crusader, the spellcasting Necromancer, and the stealthy Assassin. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen) ELSPA: 11+ PEGI: 12+ PEGI: 11+ (FI) USK: 18
Eidos Interactive releases the action game Terracide for Windows.
Electronic Arts releases the real-time strategy Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness for the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation in Europe and the US. Users can play as either orcs or humans in a fantasy medieval world full of swords and sorcery. The game has a linear single-player campaign for each side, and a multiplayer option via a LAN or the Internet, using existing or user-created maps. ESRB: T (Teen) RSAC: V3: Blood and gore
GameTek releases the real-time strategy game Dark Colony for Windows. ESRB: M (Mature)
Midway releases the fighting game Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation in North America. ESRB: M (Mature)
1998
Activision releases the stealth action game Tenchu: Stealth Assassins for the PlayStation in the US. ESRB: M (Mature)
The American Psychologist, the monthly journal of the American Psychological Association, publishes the results of a US$1.5 million study conducted by the Carnegie Mellon University that determines that time spent on the Internet breeds depression and loneliness.
EA Sports releases the football game Madden NFL 2000 for the Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, personal computers, and the PlayStation. ESRB: E for Everyone
EA Sports releases the golf game Tiger Woods 99 for the personal computer.
Interplay releases the platform game Heart of Darkness for Windows. The game follows Andy, a regular child who hates his teacher, loves his dog, and is afraid of the dark. One day, Andy and his dog, Whiskey, head for the park to watch a solar eclipse. During the eclipse, Whiskey disappears. In a flurry of childhood imagination, Andy heads for his treehouse, where he keeps his “inventions”, and jumps inside a spaceship to find his dog. Of course, he actually does take off, and finds himself in another world, called the Darklands. Inhabited by creatures of the night and ruled over by The Master of Darkness, the Darklands are extremely dangerous. Andy must find it in himself to rescue his dog, find a way home, face his fears, and enter the Heart of Darkness itself. ESRB: E (Everyone) OFLC: G8+ USK: 12+
Konami releases Bottom of the 9th ‘99 for the PlayStation.
North Korea launches its first satellite Kwangmyongsong. The government later announces that it has successfully entered a stable orbit, but NORAD cannot confirm the claim.
The Itex Corporation of Portland, Oregon files a suit against one hundred users of Yahoo! Bulletin boards for making defamatory statements against the firm. One such user known as “Orangemuscat” posted a message in May stating that Itex’s current management “is blind, stupid, and incompetent.” An Itex spokesperson states that Itex hopes that the suit will provide a legal path toward the discovery of who is behind the one hundred Yahoo! aliases.
Version 5.0.2 of the Fermi Linux operation system 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.
1999
Apple Computer announces that two million iMac computers have been sold to date.
Apple Computer unveils the PowerMac G4. It’s powered by either a single or dual PowerPC G4 chip, which was produced by a collaboration of Apple, Motorola, and IBM. Available at speeds of 400MHz, 450MHz and 500MHz, Apple claims that it is the first personal computer to be capable of over one billion floating-point operations per second. The systems feature 64MB RAM, a CD-ROM drive, and a 10GB hard disk. Prices start at US$1599. The system is introduces by Steve Jobs at the Seybold conference in San Francisco, California.
Apple Computer unveils the 22-inch Apple Cinema Display at the Seybold conference in San Francisco. Price: US$3,999
Atari Games releases the fantasy-themed hack and slash game Gauntlet Legends video game for the Nintendo 64. It is a sequel to the popular 1985 game Gauntlet and the 1986 game Gauntlet II. In the game, players must find their way out of a maze using keys, secret passages, and switches. As the game progresses, players fight monsters such as Golems, Ogres, etc., which endlessly reproduce themselves from generators that are spread throughout the game’s many levels. ESRB: T (Teen)
Crave releases the driving game Tokyo Xtreme Racer for the Sega Dreamcast. It is one of the first mission based driving games. ESRB: E (Everyone)
Del Rey publishes the science fiction novel Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear as a hardcover. (ISBN: 034542333X) In the book, “Virus hunter” Christopher Dicken is a man on a mission, following a trail of rumors, government cover-ups, and dead bodies around the globe in search of a mysterious disease that strikes only pregnant women and invariably results in miscarriage. It will win the Nebula Award in 2000 for Best Novel and the 2000 Endeavour Award. It will also be nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2000. It will also be followed by a sequel, Darwin’s Children, in 2003. Length: 448 pages
Elecplay.com Productions, Inc. announces an instrumental financial investment by Vidatron Entertainment Group into The Electric Playground television program focusing on video games and the show’s website. Visit The Electric Playground’s official website.
Electronic Arts (EA) releases the racing game Hot Wheels Turbo Racing for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation in North American. ESRB: E (Everyone) Price: US$39.89
Electronic Arts (EA) releases the racing game V-Rally Edition ‘99 for the Nintendo 64 and Windows. ESRB: E (Everyone)
Electronic Arts releases the wrestling game WCW Mayhem for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. ESRB: T (Teen)
Genki releases the driving game Shutokou Battle for the Sega Dreamcast in North America. The game is centered around illegal highway racing in Tokyo with custom tuned cars. ESRB: E (Everyone)
Intel announces that they have begun shipping engineering samples of their next-generation processor, code-named Merced. It is the first in a new family of processors designed around a 64-bit architecture. Intel has been co-developing the architecture with Hewlett-Packard since 1994.
The Intel Developer’s Forum is held August 31 – September 2 in Palm Springs, California.
Japan’s Trade Ministry announces an offer of 100 million yen (about $900 US) to each of up to one hundred software engineers in an effort to attract entrepreneurs of the likes of Bill Gates.
LucasArts releases Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace for the PlayStation in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
Microsoft Game Studios releases the puzzle game Pandora’s Box for the Xbox. In the game, players must travel around the world to different cities solving various kinds of puzzles to capture the seven “tricksters.”
Nintendo announces that year to date sales of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color handheld game systems have topped 2.68 million in the US.
Pantheon Books publishes the science fiction satire The Road to Mars: A Post-Modem Novel by Eric Idle as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 037540340X) The book follows the adventures of a comedy team in space in the 22nd century. Length: 320 pages
SOZO Design, LLC, a design firm founded by ex-Atari engineer Ira Velinsky, unveils the world’s first computer/ottoman combination at the Intel Developer’s Forum in Palm Springs, California. The functional “Ottoman PC” features an Intel Pentium III processor-based personal computer (PC), a 15″ monitor, a wireless keyboard, a DVD-ROM, video camera, and more.
Sun Microsystems announces plans to acquire the Star Division Corporation, the developer of an office application suite called StarOffice. Visit the application’s official website.
Tor Books publishes the science fiction novel Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 031286860X) It is the fourth and last book in the Ender’s game quartet. In the book, the human race is at War with the “Buggers”, an insect-like alien race. The first battles went badly, and now as Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy, all focus is on the development and training of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. Length: 384 pages
Ubisoft releases All Star Tennis ‘99 for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation in the US. ESRB: E (Everyone)
Version 1.11 of the HydraBBS Software is released.
2000
Acclaim Entertainment releases the first person shooter Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion for the Game Boy Color and Nintendo 64. ESRB: M (Mature)
Capcom releases the shooting game Resident Evil Survivor for the PlayStation in the US. Unlike the Euopean and Japanese versions, the game doesn’t allow for the use of the GunCon light gun. ESRB: M (Mature)
Mark Jakob, age 23, is arrested and charged with staging one of the most elaborate financial hoaxes ever seen on the Internet. According to the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Jakob sent fraudulent information in the form of a press release to Internet Wire alleging that the Emulex Corporation, a California-based manufacturer of storage networking infrastructure solutions, was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and that their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) had resigned. The ensuing report, which was picked up by Bloomberg Television and other news outlets, caused Emulex’s stock price to drop from US$103.94 to US$43.00 (a 62% drop) in sixteen minutes of morning trading, allegedly earning Jakob nearly a quarter million dollars.
Sega of America reduces the price of its 128-bit Dreamcast game system from US$199 to US$149. Additionally, SegaNet sign-up deadlines to earn a US$150 rebate check and a free keyboard are reduced to eighteen months after a system’s purchase.
Seven ex-UbiSoft Entertainment developers announce the formation of the Yeti Interactive game development firm with the mission to focus on the development of “real-time interactive entertainment titles.”
Yahoo! completes the acquisition of the eGroups.com email list management website, which will become a part of Yahoo! Groups.
2001
Acclaim Entertainment releases the racing game XG3: Extreme G Racing for the Nintendo GameCube and the PlayStation 2 in Europe. The game is a fantasy simulator centered around a 23rd century racing team of Extreme-G racers. Players are one of two riders in one of six teams, all of which vie for glory in the Championship. Players begin the game in the slowest class, 250G, and eventually work their way to the 1000G cup, the fastest in the game.
The first stable release of PhpMyAdmin, version 2.2.0, is released. PhpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Internet. Visit the application’s official website.
Intel launches new Celeron processors, at speeds of 950 MHz, 1 GHz, and 1.1GHz. Each features a 100 MHz system bus, and a 128KB Level-2 cache. Price: US$74, US$89, and US$103 respectively
2002
Acclaim Entertainment releases the first person shooter Turok: Evolution for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. ESRB: M (Mature)
The Gen Con UK 2000 game fair is held August 31 – September 3 at the Manchester Conference Centre in Manchester, England. Visit the event’s official website.
2003
Majesco releases the action game BattleBots: Design & Destroy for the Game Boy Advance. ESRB: E (Everyone)
2004
At the Apple Expo in Paris, Apple Computer announces the Apple iMac G5 computer, featuring a 1.6 or 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5 processor, 256MB RAM, a 512KB L2 cache, an 80 or 160GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW or DVD-R SuperDrive, a seventeen or twenty inch LCD display, a 64MB NVidia GeForce 5200 graphics card, 10/100 BaseT Ethernet, three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 ports, and AirPort. The entire system is contained within the two-inch thick monitor, eliminating the need for a seperate tower. It’s the last iMac computer to use a PowerPC chip. Price: US$1,299 – $1,899
Apple Computer announces that it has achieved a fifty-eight percent market share in digital music players in the US.
EA Sports releases the racing simulator NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E (Everyone)
Lindows changes its company name and the the name of its Linux distribution to Linspire. Visit the official Linspire website.
Namco releases the racing game Street Racing Syndicate for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows, and the Xbox. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
Nippon Ichi Software releases the tactical role-playing game Phantom Brave for the Sony PlayStation 2 in the US. The game ships in two “editions,” Normal and Special. The Special edition comes with a free soundtrack and a shortened instruction manual. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
Version 5.5.0 of Apache Tomcat, a popular application server, is released. Visit the application’s official website.
2005
Activision releases the card game World Series of Poker for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in the US. It is based on the popular gambling tournament World Series of Poker. ESRB: E10+ (Everyone)
The Adventure Company releases the adventure game Nibiru: Age of Secrets for Windows. ESRB: T (Teen)
The Chimpanzee Genome Project announces that it has decoded the genome of a common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), homo sapien’s closest evolutionary relative, and that a first draft of the genome will appear in the September 1st issue of the journal Nature.
Version 2.0 of the Asianux Linux distribution is released. It is a joint development between Linux vendors Red Flag Software Co., Ltd. of China, Miracle Linux Corporation of Japan, of which a majority is owned by Oracle Corporation, and Haansoft of South Korea. As with most operating systems, it attempts to provide high stability and scalability, while retaining diverse compatibility. It is based upon Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Asianux 2.0 provides a basis for a server operating system as well as a desktop system or as a powerful workstation. This distribution applies a server operating system that is being developed. Visit the system’s official website.
2006
Activision releases the card game World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions for the PlayStation 2 in the US. ESRB: T (Teen)
Microsoft estimates that 2.4 million units of the Xbox 360 gaming system have been sold in the US.
Sony Computer Entertainment re-releases the third-person shooter SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs as a part of the greatest hits collection for the PlayStation 2 in North America. The game features around 80 locations, 5 chapters to play in, 3D character animations, 35 NPC characters, over 50 pages of dialogs, atmospheric visual effects and scenic music. In the game, Martin Holan, a linguistics and archeology student is contacted by his uncle to examine the mysterious World War II tunnel unearthed while building the new highway in Bohemia. A friend of Martin’s uncle is supposed to meet Martin upon his arrival to brief him on the mysterious discovery, however, when he arrives in Prague he discovers that she has been murdered. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: M (Mature)
Square Enix releases the roleplaying game Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS in Japan. It is an enhanced remake of the 1990 console roleplaying game of the same name originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System only in Japan. CERO: A (All ages)
Sun Microsystems joined the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), an industry consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray Disc technology.
2007
Atari releases the roleplaying game (RPG) Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu for the Nintendo DS in Europe. Visit the game’s official website.
NCSoft releases the expansion Guild Wars: Eye of the North for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Guild Wars for Windows. Visit the game’s official website. PEGI 12+ ESRB: T (Teen)
Version 3.0a1 of the Python programming language is released. Version 3.0 is the first in a new series of releases that will no long be backward compatible with previous versions of Python. The guiding principle behind its development was to “reduce feature duplication by removing old ways of doing things.” In version 3, there is one and only one way to perform common programming tasks. A final release of the version is set planned for October 1, 2008.
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