1826
Wilhelm von Biela, an Austrian military officer, discovers Biela’s Comet during its perihelion approach. It is the third periodic comet to be discovered.
1885
The American Telephone & Telegraph Company is incorporated as a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone company in New York.
1935
Nylon is discovered by Dr. Wallace H. Carothers of DuPont.
1939
The word “Dord” is discovered by an editor in the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation. Dord turns out to be a typographic error which had been intended to be printed as “D or d”.
1953
James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to their friends that they have determined the chemical structure of the DNA molecule. The formal public announcement won’t be made until April 25, in the April issue of the journal Nature. Watson and Crick aren’t the only scientists who have been trying to make the discovery. Later, in his book, The Double Helix, Watson will write about the intense competition to be the first to discover the structure of DNA.
1956
Jay Wright Forrester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is awarded a patent for his coincident current magnetic core memory. (US No. 2,736,880) The device, which Forrester describes as a “multicoordinate digital information storage device,” will become the standard for computer storage devices until it’s usurped by solid state RAM in the mid-seventies.
1959
The Discoverer 1 satellite is launched. It is the first satellite to be put into polar orbit.
1966
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) creates a new regulation aimed at protecting the right to privacy by prohibiting eavesdropping of private conversations by the direct or indirect use of radio-controlled devices. Visit the official FCC website.
The Star Trek episode “The Cloud Minders” first airs. (No. 76) In it, the Enterprise’s mission to obtain a life-saving mineral are complicated when terrorist strike out at the city which provides the mineral. Memory Alpha entry
1990
NASA launches Space Shuttle Atlantis on the sixty-fifth manned space mission. (STS-36) The mission is for the United States Department of Defense.
1994
The Star Trek: The Next Generation releases the episode “Eye of the Beholder” first airs. (No. 718) In it, Troi investigate a death that occurred before the Enterprise was launched. Memory Alpha entry
1996
Version 1.07 of AdeptXBBS, a port of XBBS written by Mark Kimes for the OS/2 operating system, is released. It was developed by Julie Strietelmeier.
1997
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) launches the Net Yaroze development system for the PlayStation video game system for programming enthusiasts. Visit the official Yaroze website. Price: US$750
The website of Åsö Gymnasium is hacked by “PM”.
The website of Passagen is hacked by “THC”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1999
The Chapter 11 reorganization of JTS Corporation is revised in United States Bankruptcy Court into a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
LucasArts releases the space simulation game Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance for Windows in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E (Everyone)
PeopleSoft, Inc. of Pleasanton, California, the second largest provider of business management software, reveals plans to dismiss four hundred thirty employees, or about six percent of its work force. The firm will also take a charge against earnings in the first quarter for nearly US$175 million to create a new business group called Momentum.
Reuters news service reports that a British military communication satellite has fallen under the control of hackers who have issued terms for its release back to the British government. The newspaper quotes unnamed security sources which claim that the satellite was seized nearly two weeks prior.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) hosts a conference for software and peripherals developers January 28 – 29 at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California.
2000
The Quintus Corporation acquires Mustang Software, developers of the popular Wildcat! BBS and other communications software, in a deal valued at approximately US$290 million.
Sega Enterprises, Ltd. publicly announces that lower-than-expected sales of the Dreamcast video game system have lead to deep financial losses. Sega requests assistance from its largest shareholder, CSK Corporation.
Version 0.9.5 of OpenSSL, an open source implementation of the SSL and TLS protocols. Visit the official OpenSSL website.
2001
Intel unveils seven new optical-networking chips. The chips allow an optical signal to travel up to four hundred percent farther than before with speeds up to ten gigabits per second.
The last cable segment of the Southern Cross Cable between Hawaii to California goes into operation. The fibre optic segment operates at 160Gbps.
Microsoft releases BackOffice Server 2000, which includes Exchange Server 2000, ISA Server 2000, Host Integration Server 2000, SMS 2.0, SQL Server 2000, and Windows 2000 Server.
2002
Disney CEO Michael Eisner testifies at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on the protection of digital content from piracy. Eisner claims that Apple Computer advertisements for the iPod encourage copyright violations.
Victor Gollancz Ltd. releases the science fiction novel Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan as a hardcover. (ISBN: 0-575-07321-7) It will be the first novel in the Takeshi Kovacs series. In the cyberpunk story, humanity has perfected the science of transferring human consciousness between engineered bodies. Length: 416pp
2005
Legislators in Illinois introduce a bill to ban the sale of violent or sexually explicit games to anyone under the age of eighteen. Governor Rod Blagojevich will sign the “Safe Game Illinois Act” into law on July 2, but on the same day that the act is signed into law, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the largest video game industry trade group in the US, will announce that it will file suit to overturn the law. On December 2, an Illinois District Court issues a permanent injunction against the act, ruling that the two criminal laws it created, the Violent Video Games Law and the Sexually Explicit Video Games Law, both violate the First Amendment. On November 28, 2006, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit will uphold the lower court’s ruling.
2006
Acclaim Entertainment re-enters the video game industry.
Apple Computer discontinues the Mac mini. At its introduction at the Macworld Conference & Expo in January 2005, Steve Jobs described it as the “most affordable Mac ever.” www.apple.com/macmini/“>Visit the official Mac mini website.
Scientists at the Hubble space telescope publish the largest and most detailed image yet produced by the telescope. It is a sixteen thousand by twelve thousand pixel photo of the the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101).
2007
The New Horizons space probe uses the planet Jupiter as a gravitational slingshot to changes its trajectory to place it on a path towards Pluto.
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