Today is the traditional date for the celebration of Festivus, a fictional holiday introduced by the sitcom Seinfeld. It is also HumanLight, the winter holiday celebrated by American secular humanists.
1672
Astronomer Giovanni Cassini discovers the fifth major satellite of Saturn, Rhea.
1750
Benjamin Franklin is severely shocked while electrocuting a turkey.
1823
The poem A Visit From St. Nicholas, otherwise known as The Night Before Christmas is first published in the Sentinel newspaper in the Troy, New York.
1834
Charles Babbage announces his Analytical Engine, which he had begun work on in 1821.
1900
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden successively transmitted speech approximately 1.6 kilometers, the very first audio radio transmission.
1938
Geophysical Service, Inc. (GSI) is created as the Delaware division of Geophysical Service. GSI will become later become Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI) in 1951.
1947
The Point Contact Transistor Amplifier or just transistor (short for “transfer resistance”) is first demonstrated by William Shockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardeen to their superiors at Bell Laboratories. A microphone and headphones are connected to the transistor, and the device is actually spoken over “with no noticeable change in quality” according to Brattain’s notes. Later, realizing that another major breakthrough in electronics had occurred in Bell’s lab, Shockley will write that hearing speech amplified by the transistor was in the tradition of Alexander Graham Bell’s famous “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” The demonstration model is about half an inch high – mammoth when compared to the seven million transistors that can fit onto later computer chips. However, at one hundredth of the size of a vacuum tube, the transistor can control much higher volumes of electricity and heat than its predecessor. The messy collection of wires, insulators and germanium referred to as the point-contact version, will later be improved upon by William Schockley with the creation of a junction transistor. The three inventors will share the 1956 Nobel prize in physics for their work, and the transistor will go on to supplant the much bulkier vacuum tube. Read more about how the Point Contact Transistor works at PBS Online.
1954
Walt Disney Pictures releases the science fiction film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, and Peter Lorre, to US theaters. It is based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne. This film was produced on a budget of US$4.2 million. IMDB listing Running time: 2 hr 7 mins
1968
Aboard the Apollo 8, American astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William Anders become the first men to orbit the Moon. During the course of the mission’s ten lunar orbits, the astronauts validate many of the technical procedures which will be used in upcoming lunar missions, take star sightings to pinpoint landmarks, survey landing sites, take pictures, and transmit two television broadcasts to Earth. Frank Borman suffers the first space motion sickness in history due to the large space afforded by the craft’s Command Module. Launched on December 21, 1968, the mission will end on December 27, 1968.
1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Victor Ali scores scores a record-setting 80,364,995 points on Atari’s Missile Command after playing the game for forty-eight hours at the Cinedome 7 Theater in Fremont, California. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
1986
The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California, becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without refueling. The Voyager began December 14 and traveled 24,986 miles over 216 hours, at an average speed of 115.8 mph. The flight nearly doubles the previous distance record set in 1962 by a United States Air Force Boeing B-52H.
1994
Netscape Communications, Spyglass, and the University of Illinois settle their legal contentions over web browser patents out of court. Netscape agrees to pay US$2.2 million in damages and up to US$1.4 million in licensing deals with other companies.
Universal Pictures releases the action film Street Fighter, directed by Steven E. de Souza and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, and Ming-Na, to 1,671 US theaters. It’s based on the best selling video game series of the same name published by Capcom. In it, Colonel Guile and various other martial arts heroes fight against the tyranny of Dictator M. Bison and his cohorts. Produced on a budget of US$35 million, it will gross US$6,859,495 domestically in its opening weekend. Produced on a budget of US$35 million, the film will gross US$6,859,495 in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2 hrs 42 mins
1996
JT Storage of San Jose, a disk drive company, begins releasing pallets of Atari Jaguar liquidator Tiger Software for US$20 each piece and software for US$1 per unit. Industry speculators expect that the units will be bundled and sold at clearance prices.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) declares that the PlayStation game Twisted Metal 2, has become a holiday hit with more than three hundred thousand copies shipped.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) extends its customer service to make it available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The expanded service is, in part, facilitated by a new automated phone system.
The website of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is hacked by “\StOrM\”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1997
Civil libertarian John Gilmore publishes strong authentication source code on the Internet, despite attempts by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) to restrict such software. He publishes Domain Name System Security software that contains a complete copy of the RSAREF cryptography software from RSA Data Security, Inc. Gilmore explains that, “Internet publication of cryptography software is considered an export by the US Government, and often requires government permission under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). But those regulations specifically exempt programs which merely prove that information is authentic (authentication), rather than hiding the information (privacy).”
The website of MPM Software is hacked by “z0mer”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1998
Priceline.com announces that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise US$115 million through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of common stock.
2002
An Iraqi MiG-25 shoots down a U.S. MQ-1 Predator. The incident is the first time in history that a manned aircraft and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had ever engaged in combat.
United States district court Judge J. Frederick Motz orders Microsoft to include the Sun Microsystems Java Runtime Environment (JRE) in Windows. Microsoft announces that it will appeal the decision.
2004
Tor Books publishes the fantasy novel Ordermaster by L. E. Modesitt Jr. as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0765312131) It is the thirteenth book in the Saga of Recluse series. Length: 496 pages
2006
Version 2.0 beta 1 of the EasyPHP WAMP bundle under a GNU General Public License. The package includes an Apache server, a MySQL database, and the PHP extension. Visit the application’s official website.
2007
The United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II, age 81, launches he own “Royal Channel” on the YouTube video sharing website. Representatives of the Crown reported that the Queen planned to use the channel to issue her 50th annual televised Christmas message.
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