1684
De motu corporum in gyrum (Latin: “On the motion of bodies in an orbit”), written by Isaac Newton and derived from Kepler’s laws, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1799
A second legal definition of the metre is made by the French National Assembly to be 3 feet and 11.296 lines of the toise of Paris, 0.144 of a line shorter than the 1795 definition. This new definition also doesn’t rely on the length of a meridian as part of the definition. The metric system is made compulsory by law in France.
1889
George Eastman received a patent for the first flexible celluloid film, which he developed in cooperation with chemist Henry M. Reichenbach. Soon after being granted the patent, Eastman will introduce roll film, which will vault photography into the mainstream.
1899
George Safford Parker is issued a US patent for the first fountain pen he developed.
1901
The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fields of chemistry, literature, medicine, peace, and physics. The prizes are awarded by the King of Sweden in Stockholm, Sweden, in accordance with the will of inventor Alfred Nobel.
1915
The ten millionth Model T Ford automobile assembled.
1954
To determine whether or not a pilot could safely eject from an aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Stapp, a flight surgeon, rides in a rocket sled that accelerates to 632 mph in just five seconds then stops in just 1.25 seconds at Holloman Air Force Base, in New Mexico. The trip exposes him to forty Gs, the equivalent of a car crashing into a brick wall at 120 mph.
1962
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) unveils the IBM 7320 drum, a random access magnetic drum storage device.
1983
The RipCo BBS is founded by Dr. Ripco, in Chicago, and run on an Apple II. Arguably mislabeled as a “phreak and hacker board,” RipCo’s claim to fame will be it’s open door policy and easy going administration. Users will have the run of the board and frequently post illicit information of interest to the hacking community. On the morning of May 8th, United States Secret Service agents will seize the hardware used to operate Ripco. An interesting account of the seizure can be found at Totse.com. Ripco will have 701 users at the peak of its popularity.
1984
Inspired by the harassment and practical jokes he receives on a daily basis, following his publication of “Night of the Hackers,” Richard Sandza submits a second article for the December 10th issue of Newsweek, entitled “Revenge of the Hackers.”
The National Science Foundation reports the discovery of the first planet outside our solar system, orbiting a star twenty-one million light years from Earth.
1993
id Software releases the first-person shooter Doom for MS-DOS via an ftp site on the University of Wisconsin computer network to nearly instant success. Doom will later be voted by industry insiders as the number one game of all time. It is will be widely recognized for its groundbreaking use of immersive 3D graphics, networked multiplayer gaming, and extensive support for players to create custom expansions. Distributed as shareware, Doom will be downloaded by an estimated ten million people within two years, popularizing the mode of gameplay and spawning a gaming subculture. Its graphic interactive violence made Doom the subject of much controversy outside the gaming world. The game’s name was inspired by a scene in the movie The Color of Money. Visit the game’s official website. BBFC: 15 ESRB: M (Mature) OFLC: MA15+ PEGI: 16+
The crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour deploy the newly repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit.
Paramount Pictures releases the comedy film Wayne’s World 2, directed by Stephen Surjik and starring Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken, and Tia Carrere, to 2,400 US theaters. In it, Wayne and Garth try to organize a rock concert while Wayne fends off a record producer who has an eye for his girlfriend. A character wearing an Amiga Video Toaster t-shirt appears in the film. Produced on a budget of US$40 million, it will gross US$13,516,699 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hr 34 mins
SunSoft, a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, ships the first version of WABI, that implements Microsoft Windows Win16 API compatibility on Intel, Solaris, and Sparc versions of Unix.
Trans World Music opens the first store of its F.Y.E. (For Your Entertainment) chain in Trumbull, Connecticut. F.Y.E. concept is a family-oriented, multimedia retailer specifically designed for malls.
1994
Netscape Communications serves notice of its lawsuit against Spyglass and the University of Illinois.
1996
Sony makes “emergency shipments” of PlayStation video game consoles into the United States to meet holiday demand.
Telegames releases BreakOut 2000 and TowersS II, a Doom-like game, for the Atari Jaguar.
The website of Finance Net is hacked by “vmm”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1997
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, receives the 1997 Nokia Foundation Award, which supports “the development of scientific competence and educational capabilities of information and telecommunications technologies in Finland.” Read the original press release.
The Head to Head Training and Consults website is hacked and defaced by “CyberToast”, a member of the group “cArPaRtS nInJa TaSk FOrc3″.
The Inphar BV website is hacked and defaced by “CyberToast”, a member of the group “cArPaRtS nInJa TaSk FOrc3″. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The John Reilly Signs website is hacked and defaced by “CyberToast”, a member of the group “cArPaRtS nInJa TaSk FOrc3″. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The Oregon Department of Forestry website is hacked and defaced by “CyberToast”, a member of the group “cArPaRtS nInJa TaSk FOrc3″. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Dragonserve Ltd. is hacked and defaced by the group “cArPaRtS nInJa TaSk FOrc3″. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of OneTouch, Inc. is hacked and defaced by “Claire Danes”.
The website of Plumas Sierra, a California ISP is hacked by “404″. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1999
The website of the U.S. Embassy in Belgium is hacked by “PHC”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
2001
Larry Roberts is quoted in an article in Forbes magazine as saying that, “Net traffic will quadruple in 2001.”
The website of the United States General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the United States Congress, is hacked by Anti India Crew (AIC). The AIC is part of a hacking coalition calling itself the Al-Qaeda Muslim Alliance whose other members include the GForce Pakistan hacking group and the Pakistan Hackerz Club. In recent months, AIC has attacked twenty-eight websites in India, but the GAO servers are the first US government systems compromised by the group.
2002
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 2000MHz Athlon MP 2400+ featuring a 256KB Level-2 Cache and a 266MHz Front-Side Bus.
Version 7.01 of the Netscape Internet suite is released. Download an archived version of the application. Visit the application’s official website.
2005
Microsoft launches the Xbox 360 video game system in Japan. The system features an IBM PowerPC CPU with three 3.2GHz cores, a 500 MHz ATI graphics card with a 10MB cache, and 512 MB RAM. The Xbox 360 is the first console with the ability to use wireless controllers out of the box. The system is available in three versions: a “Core” version for ¥29,000, a “Premium” Version for ¥39,795, and an “Elite” version for ¥47,800. The biggest difference between these versions is the addition of a 20GB hard drive in the “Premium” edition, a 120GB hard drive and HDMI in the “Elite” edition, and a specially designed case in the Halo edition. Code-name: Xenon
The Spike cable network airs the 2005 Spike Video Game Awards show. Resident Evil 4 wins Game of the Year. World of Warcraft wins awards for Best Multiplayer Game and Most Addictive Game.
2006
NASA launches the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in the first night launch since the failed 2003 Columbia mission. (STS-116) During the mission, which will carry the Shuttle to the International Space Station, Christer Fuglesang becomes the first Swede in go into space.
Version 4.00 of the PureBasic programming language is released for Amiga. Visit the language’s official website.
2008
The Hearst Digital Media property CosmoGirl.com released the results of a survey conducted by the Chicago-based market research firm Teenage Research Unlimited in cooperation with The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reveals that 22% of teenage girls and 18% of teenage boys have electronically transmitted nude or semi-nude photos of themselves, mostly to romantic interests but also with alarming frequency to people they knew only through the internet. In the older demographic, young adults ages twenty – twenty-six, those numbers rose dramatically, with 36% of young women and 31% of young men having transmitted nude or semi-nude photos of themselves to someone electronically. The same survey revealed that as many as 40% of the teens surveyed confessed to posting sexually suggestive messages online, even while 75% recognized that sending sexual content could “have serious negative consequences.” Read a summary of the study online.
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