1847
In Maryland, the first telegraph company is established.
1890
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for the Quadruplex Telegraph. (US No. 420,594) This new telegraph is designed to transmit and receive four independent signals over a single wire, two in one direction and two in the opposite direction. The separate transmitting keys transmit a signal with either a high or low current strength which is then received with sounders that respond only the high or the low strength signal. Read more about the Quadruplex Telegraph at the Edison Papers.
1902
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a Reversible Galvanic Battery, a battery with a revolutionary large capacity for its weight. (US No. 692,507) It makes use of Cadmium as the oxidizable element, an oxide of Cobalt or Nickel as its depolarizer, and flakes of a conducting substance, such as Graphite.
1936
Radium E, the first synthetic radioactive substance, is first produced in the U.S. by Dr. John Jacob Livingood at the University of California at Berkeley by bombarding the element Bismuth with neutrons.
1957
The first electric portable typewriter, the Model 5TE, is introduced by Smith-Corona, in Syracuse, New York. Read more about the history of the portable typewriter at Will Davis’s website.
1971
NASA astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell land on Moon aboard the Apollo 14 Lunar Module Antares.
1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Sean Middleton scores a record-setting 516,130 points playing the Atari video game Liberator at the Space Station arcade in Anchorage, Alaska. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
1989
The final game for the Sega Master System 8-bit video game console, Bomber Raid, is released.
1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Devil’s Due” first airs. (No. 187) In it, an entity claiming to be a planet’s version of the Devil returns to collect payment on an ancient contract, but Picard doubts the figure’s authenticity. Memory Alpha entry
1994
Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt sends an email to U.S. President Bill Clinton, marking the first email exchange between two heads of state.
1997
Apple Computer acquires NeXT for US$427 million in order to use the company’s OpenStep operating system as the basis for Mac OS X. Visit an archived version of the NeXT website.
Apple Computer CEO Gilbert Amelio announces plans to restructure the company in order to focus on the Macintosh. Co-founder, Steve Wozniak, returns for the first time since 1985 to serve on the executive committee with Steve Jobs as an adviser to Amelio. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.
Bill Gates makes a public statement, saying that, “I am very interested in continuing to work with Apple as we have done through history. But I am confused by the Apple operating system strategy… and have decided not to worry about the future (in this respect).”
Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and Texas Instruments (TI) announce an agreement to jointly develop a gigabyte Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chip.
1998
Bill Gates is struck in the face by a cream pie thrown by Noël Godin during a visit to Belgian government officials in Brussels. Watch a video of the incident at Bitstorm.
International Business Machines (IBM) researchers announce the first successful demonstration of the world’s first CMOS microprocessor capable of operating at one billion cycles per second (1GHz). Visit the official IBM website
The website of the D.D.D. is hacked by “th3 h4m1sh n1nj4s”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of the Mexican Finance Ministry is hacked by “LoTek, LeadRain & DES” (High Tech Teens). Visit an archived version of the defaced website.
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