The Great Geek Manual

1831
The United States Copyright Act is revised to protect printed music. In addition, the term of copyright is extended to twenty-eight years, with a renewal period of fourteen years.

1862
At the age of only fifteen, Thomas Alva Edison, who has been selling candy and newspapers on the train since he was twelve, becomes the first publisher of a newspaper produced and sold on a moving train. He sets up a small press in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad train that rund between Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan. Obsessed with telegraph technology, he works manages to find a method of getting advance news. His weekly Grand Trunk Herald, a single sheet measuring seven by eight inches, includes local news and advertisements for his father’s store. Before long, Edison becomes renowned as a boy journalist. At its peak, his paper will sell about two hundred copies of his paper a day.

1879
The first demonstration of a practical incandescent filament electric light bulb is given to a seven hundred person audience by its inventor, Joseph Wilson Swan, at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. Swan will go on to established the first electric light bulb factory at Benwell in Newcastle.

1966
The United States launches its first operational weather satellite, ESSA-1. The satellite will provide cloud-cover photography to the National Meteorological Center for analysis. The satellite is equipped with solar cells which charge its sixty-three batteries and two cameras were mounted on opposite sides of its cylindrical body.

The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 lands safely on the Moon in the Ocean of Storms, three days after its launch. It’s the first rocket-assisted soft landing on any celestial body, and it’s the first space craft to successfully transmit photos from the surface of the Moon. It collects valuable data necessary for later manned missions to the Moon, most notably confirming that the surface is solid rather than a dusty quicksand. Upon striking the surface, the Soviet probe ejected a 250lb capsule with the camera that equipped with a revolving mirror system then enabled the spacecraft to take the valuable photos until February 6, when the craft’s batteries ran out.

1976
In his Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter for Altair users, “MITS Computer Notes,” David Bunnell publishes an article entitled “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” written by Bill Gates, age 21. In the article, Gates condemns both the open source movement and software piracy, lumping the two together to many people’s indignation. The article draws a great deal of attention in the computer industry, as it makes Gates the first programmer to publicly raise the issue of software piracy. The article accuses hobbyists of stealing software and preventing “…good software from being written.” He concludes with the article with what will later become the prophetic line, “…Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software.” The article is precipitated by the piracy of Altair BASIC which Gates and Paul Allen wrote. Read the full text of “An Open Letter to Hobbyists” online. View an image of the original letter.

1977
Bill Gates and Paul Allen enter into an official partnership agreement.

1984
A Long Beach, California hospital announces the birth of the world’s first baby conceived by embryo transplant.

Mattel announces it is selling its Intellivision business for US$20 million to a group lead by Terrence Valeski, an executive of Mattel Electronics.

1986
The investigation into the Space Shuttle Challenger accident begins.

Microsoft registers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and sends out thirty-eight thousand copies of the company’s fifty-page prospectus in preparation for the company’s first stock offering.

Time magazine reports on consumer frustration over the slow development of software for use in the computer industry. Reporter Philip Elmer-DeWitt complains of the delays in the release of Microsoft’s new Windows operating system, which is still under development far after its promised shelf date. Silicon Valley pundits have coined the term “vaporware” for such software, according to the magazine article.

1989
Nintendo files an amendment to its January lawsuit against Atari Games, charging patent infringement.