1993
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Aquiel” first airs. (No.613) In it, Geordi falls in love with an officer who has come under investigation for apparently murdering her commanding officer. Memory Alpha entry
1996
Nintendo announces additional delays to the launch of the Nintendo 64 video game console. The new release date is Monday, September 30, 1996. Visit the official Nintendo website.
Texas Instruments (TI) Japan Ltd. and Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. announce an agreement to jointly develop a system of two speaker, theater-like surround sound with the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) chip.
The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act (CDA). The bill is Congress’s first serious attempt to regulate the pornographic content of the Internet. However, in 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the law, ruling it unconstitutional.
1998
The website of Netbank is anonymously hacked.
1999
America Online (AOL) announces that it will acquire Moviefone the largest movie listing and ticket sales service in the U.S. Visit the the official Moviefone website.
International Business Machines (IBM) introduces the RS/6000 SP supercomputer, featuring a POWER3 microprocessor which can perform up to two billion operations per second. Price: US$56,160
Microsoft announces a new version of the Windows CE operating system, with additional support for color displays. Visit the official Windows CE website.
The Morse code distress signal SOS is officially retired and replaced by the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. SOS was first adopted by the German government on April 1, 1905
The website of the American Conservative Union is hacked by “Diablo”.
The website of the United States Navy Recruiting Command is hacked by “Diablo”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
2001
Hackers later identifying themselves as the “Virtual Monkeywrench” steal the personal data, including names, cell phone numbers, home phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and information concerning passports, of twenty-seven thousand attendants of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Fourteen thousand credit card numbers are also stolen along with their corresponding names. Notable victims include former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and U.S. President Bill Clinton. The security breach won’t be revealed until the hackers, a group of anti-globalization protesters, send the data to the Swiss weekly newspaper SonntagsZeitung.
2003
The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, just sixteen minutes before it’s scheduled to set down in Florida. (STS-107) All seven astronauts aboard die, including: Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Mike Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Lauren Clark, and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut in space. Later investigations will reveal that a piece of the shuttle’s foam insulation broke off and impacted the wheel under its left wing. Visit the official NASA STS-107 Crew Memorial Webpage.
Tor releases the science fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0765304368) The book is notable because it is released under a Creative Commons license online available for free. It will be nominated for a Nebula Award in 2004. Length: 208 pages Visit the author’s official website.
2004
It is estimated that one million computers around the globe have been infected with the Mydoom computer worm as the virus launches its massive distributed denial of service attack (DDOS), the largest in history. In response, SCO Group removes its website from the DNS at 17:00UTC, as Asia passes into February 1st.
2006
The journal Nature publishes a study that confirms a 84% probability that the dwarf planet Eris is larger than Pluto. In August, Pluto will consequently be declared a dwarf planet.
Western Union announces on its website that it has discontinued its telegram service. Founded in 1851, the company completed the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861. Visit the official Western Union website.
2007
Ice Age 2 becomes the first movie uploaded to bittorrent networks in the Blu-Ray format. The title is first released through the private BitTorrent tracker, HDBits.org, the same site where the first HD-DVD title (Serenity) was released January 14th, and it is a whopping 22GB in size.
2008
Microsoft makes an unsolicited US$44.6 billion bid to acquire search giant Yahoo! in an attempt to compete with Google dominance of the search market. The offer will be rejected on February 10, and on May 3, Microsoft will withdraw its offer. The move is a bid on Microsoft’s part to gain on the market share of search leader Google.
|
|
|
