1941
Station WNBT, Channel 4 in New York City, broadcasts the first television program to feature audience participation when the studio audience plays charades.
1944
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) president Thomas J. Watson Sr. presents the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) to Harvard University in a formal dedication ceremony, after which the system becomes known as the Harvard Mark I. It is only the second program-controlled machine, being preceded only by Konrad Zuse’s Z3. The system is the result of Professor Howard Aiken’s research into computation, and it was financed and built by IBM. The whole machine is fifty-one feet in length, eight feet in height, weighs five tons, and incorporates 750,000 parts, including 3,304 electromechanical relays and 72 accumulators. Unlike in Zuse’s earlier binary machine, the arithmetic is still fixed-point and decimal, with a plug-board setting determining the number of decimal places. Input-output facilities include card readers, a card punch, paper tape readers, and typewriters. There are 60 sets of rotary switches, each of which can be used as a constant register, like a mechanical read-only memory. It would perform at a rate of six seconds per multiplication. The system will most famously be used to create ballistics tables for the US Navy.
1955
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the forerunner of the later Sony, launches a line of the first transistor radios in Japan.
1959
The first photographs of the Earth from space are transmitted by the satellite Explorer 6.
1970
The first computer chess tournament is held.
1976
Scientists in Pasadena, California, announce the the Viking I space probe discovered the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars. The announcement marks the entry of the probe’s successor, Viking 2, into Mars’ orbit.
1981
The first Bulgarian satellite, Intercosmos Bulgaria 1300, is launched.
1987
The fantasy film Masters of the Universe, directed by Gary Goddard and starring Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, Meg Foster, Billy Barty, Courteney Cox, Robert Duncan McNeill, Jon Cypher, James Tolkan, and Christina Pickles, is released to 1,185 US theaters. The film is based on the same line of Mattel toys as the animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Despite including numerous cannon characters, the film doesn’t follow the storyline of the animated series or its subsequent spin-offs or make use of the series’ typical plot devices. Produced on a budget of US$17 million, the film will gross US$4,883,168 domestically in its opening weekend. During the course of its theatrical run, it will only gross US$17,336,370, and the trade magazine Variety will declare the film a flop. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 1 hr 46 mins
Square Co., Ltd. releases the racing game Rad Racer for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in Japan. The game will appear in the 1989 film The Wizard, starring Fred Savage.
1996
America Online (AOL) crashes. All of its services remain completely inaccessible for 18 hours and 45 minutes, leaving 6.3 million subscribers without an Internet connection. The problem is caused by a glitch while installing new network software, which will finally be corrected at 10:45 EDT. AOL promises to provide one full free day of service to members’ accounts.
1997
Dark Knight Games is founded in Nashua, New Hampshire. The company focuses support on those systems otherwise considered abandoned by the original manufacturers with particular dedication to the Atari Jaguar.
The Gen Con Game Fair is held at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1998
Apple announces that it has received 150,000 preorders for the iMac. Apple’s stock peaks at over US$40 a share, it’s highest value in over three years.
The Stargate SG-1 episode “Message In a Bottle” first airs. In it, SG-1 bring back a mysterious sphere which suddenly sprouts rods that impale O’Neill. After attempts to remove it, SG-1 discover it contains the last of an alien race, who are pacified by relocation to a more suitable home than Earth. GateWorld entry
Wizards of the Coast debuts the Magic: The Gathering expansion set Unglued. It is the first set that isn’t legal for Magic tournaments. It’s symbol is a cracked egg, and the cards are all humorous in nature. The set includes 94 cards, including: 39 common cards, 28 uncommon cards, and 28 rare cards.
1999
Version 1.08 of HydraBBS is released.
2000
Palm introduces the Palm m100 handheld computer, featuring a 16MHz Intel StrongARM processor, 2MB RAM, 2MB ROM, a 2×2-inch monochrome LCD display, and the Palm OS 3.5 operating system. Price: US$149
Palm introduces the Palm VIIx handheld computer, featuring 8MB RAM, the Palm OS 3.5. Price: US$449
Palm unveils the Palm Vx Limited Edition handheld computer, a special version of the Palm V, with 8 MB RAM, available in Millenium Blue or Champagne color, only through the Palm website. Price: US$399
The website of Indian NIC is hacked by “mOs”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
2001
Bill Gates, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, announces that Microsoft has agreed to donate US$7.2 million for a new computer science building at the University of Washington.
Covad Communications Group, Inc., an American provider of broadband voice and data communication services, announces its intentions to file for bankruptcy protection by mid-August in order to better manage its US$1.4 billion debt.
Microsoft appeals its antitrust case to the United States Supreme Court to reconsider an earlier lower court decision that declared that the company had abused monopolistic powers.
United States District Judge Nicholas Politan orders the government to reveal an Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) high-tech computer spy technique that was used to collect data against an alleged mobster.
Version 4.1 of the Self programming language is released.
Yahoo! launches its Yahoo! Education website.
2003
Capcom releases the horror survival game Resident Evil Code: Veronica (RECV) for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan. It is the fourth game in the Resident Evil series.
2004
Version 9 of Autosketch, a 2D vector drawing, is released by Autodesk. Visit the application’s official website.
2005
The MuggleNet fansite releases the first “MuggleCast” podcast. The show features discussions about the Harry Potter books and film series and a voicemail segment where listeners can send in feedback. After two days online, MuggleCast will become the number six most downloaded podcast on the iTunes US list of most popular podcasts and downloads, and, on August 14, it will reach the number one slot. Visit the official MuggleCast website.
2006
Apple Computer, Inc. releases the Apple Power Mac G5 desktop computer in three models, each with the same case. The 1.6GHz model ships with 256MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and a maximum of 4GB of RAM. The 1.8 and dual-processor 2.0GHz models ship with 512MB of RAM. The dual-processor model also includes an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card.
The Swedish software company MindArk announces the final sale prices from its July 2006 virtual real estate public auction in the Entropia Universe, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (mmorpg), totaled $213,784.00 US Dollars. The auction began on July 5, 2006 with an opening release of six new land areas full of hunting and mineral rights and closed late July with a total of thirteen of the properties sold. The various virtual land masses included remote snow covered mountains, riverfront estates, vast rainforests, jungles, and lake homes among others. Visit the game’s official website.
Version 1.0 of the Freespire community-driven Linux distribution is released three weeks ahead of schedule. This is the system’s first public release. It is based on Debian, Linux Kernel 2.6.14, and KDE 3.3.2 Visit the system’s official website.
2007
Apple discontinues its Bluetooth Apple Wireless Mouse in favor of a slightly updated version of the Apple Mighty Mouse with white side buttons. Price: US$69
Apple releases a completely redesigned model of the Apple Wireless Keyboard. The new keyboard is thinner than any past Apple keyboard and features a brushed aluminum case. Visit the official website of Apple.
Apple releases the iLife ‘08 multimedia suite for Mac OS X, which includes: GBand 4, iDVD 7, iMovie 7, iPhoto 7, iTunes 7.6, and iWeb 2. Visit the official iDVD website. Price: US$79
Dell officially announces that it will offer one desktop (Inspiron 530N) and one notebook (Inspiron 6400) in France, Germany, and the UK with version 7.04 of the Ubuntu operating system “pre-installed”. Dell also announces plans to release Ubuntu systems China in the future. Read the official announcement at the Dell website.
Eidos Interactive releases the platform game Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in the US. It’s a remake of the original 1996 Tomb Raider game. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
Little, Brown releases Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0316160209) It is the third book in The Twilight Saga. Length: 640 pages
Sega releases the racing game Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in North America. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E10+ (Everyone)
Tor Books releases the sci-fi novel Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. (ISBN 0-765-31293-X) It is the second part of the seventh book in the Dune series. It is based on notes left behind by Frank Herbert, the author of the original Dune series, and it is supposed to be the grand finale of the series. Visit the book’s official website.
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