1847
In Maryland, the first telegraph company is established.
1890
Thomas Alva 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 website.
1902
Thomas Alva Edison is issued a patent for a Reversible Galvanic Battery, a battery with a revolutionarily 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 US 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 Atari’s 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 mythic figure from the past claims to have returned to collect payment on an ancient contract, but Picard is doubtful as to the figure’s authenticity. Memory Alpha entry
1994
Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt sends an email to US 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 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 Noel 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.
1999
The Connectix Corporation announces that the San Francisco Federal District Court has rejected Sony’s request for a temporary injunction preventing the shipment of the Virtual Game Station, a PlayStation emulator for the Apple Macintosh. Visit an archived version of the Virtual Game Station website.
Hitachi announces that it will discontinue its personal computer manufacturer in the United States, merging its operations into Hitachi Data Systems. Visit the official Hitatchi website.
2000
EarthLink merges with MindSpring to become the second largest internet service provider (ISP) in the US, after America Online (AOL). Visit the official EarthLink website.
Electronic Arts (EA) announces releases the simulation game The Sims for personal computers in Brazil and the US. The game, somewhat reminiscent of David Crane’s Little Computer People for the Commodore 64, casts players in the role of God over a virtual community as they live out their lives. It lacks the objectives for most game. Price: US$49.99
2001
Per Lidén and CRUX Linux community release version 0.5.2 of the CRUX Linux operating system. The Crux distribution is targeted at advanced Linux users. Visit the official Crux website.
2002
Jason Diekman, known by the handles “Dark Lord” or “Shadow Knight”, is sentenced to twenty-one months in federal prison, an additional three years of supervised release, restriction on his access to computers, and fines of over US$87,000 in restitution for intercepting of user names and passwords from a number universities, including Harvard, and admittedly hacking to “hundreds, maybe thousands” of computers, including systems at California State University at Fullerton, Cornell University, Harvard University, Stanford University, and University of California campuses in Los Angeles and San Diego.
2003
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 2133MHz Athlon MP 2600+ processor, featuring a 256KB Level-2 Cache and a 266MHz Front Side Bus.
2004
Harvard University sophomore Mark Zuckerberg founds the social networking site Facebook under the domain “thefacebook.com”. Membership was originally intended for Harvard students. Within a month, over half of the college’s undergraduates had registered with the website. In March, the service was expanded to include Columbia, Stanford, and Yale students as well.
The Star Trek: Enterprise first airs. (No. 314) In it, Archer uses a daring gambit to try to trick the scientist behind the Xindi superweapon into revealing the weapon’s location. Memory Alpha entry
The upgrade of Abiline, the Internet2 backbone, from 2.5Gbps to 10Gbps is completed.
2005
The Star Trek: Enterprise first airs. (No. 413) In it, Archer struggles to united the races before raiders destabilize the region. Memory Alpha entry
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