1992
The Ulysses spacecraft, an international project to study the poles of the Sun, flies past Jupiter, using the planet’s gravity to swing it out of the ecliptic plane and toward the poles of the Sun.
1996
The single largest online event in history, “24 Hours in Cyberspace,” takes place. Coordinated by photographer Rick Smolan, the project’s goal is to capture photos representing a day in the life of internet users around the world in order to demonstrate the tremendous impact the internet has on their lives. Photos are taken and sent digitally to editors working in real-time to choose the best to be be posted to the project’s website, cyber24.com. The website receives more than four million hits in the twenty-four hours in which it takes place. A photographic exhibition will be unveiled at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History on January 23, 1997, featuring 70 photos from the project.
U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Communications Decency Act into law. The Act amends the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the first attempt by the U.S. Congress to regulate pornographic content on the Internet. While the law is intended to protect children from obscene material, the Act causes a widespread uproar among legal advocated and media pundits who argue that its vague language violates the first amendment right to free speech. Many web masters protest by changing their website’s background to solid black, blacking out their site altogether, or displaying displaying blue ribbon icons downloaded from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The day is dubbed “Black Thursday” in the press. On June 12, a panel of Federal judges will block enforcement of the Communications Decency Act as the result of a lawsuit brought by fifty-seven plaintiffs, including Bill Gates“>Bill Gates.
1998
Fifteen websites, including Rebel Tech, TextScape, and Web Signal are hacked by “Bill Gates Hackers”. View an archived version of the defaced websites.
Twenty-three websites, including All Pets go to Heaven, Cyber Secret, and Everything Pages are hacked by “bR41N c4nDy”. View an archived version of the defaced websites.
The website of Century Die Company is hacked by “Lord-Acid & |razor|”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Danehip Entertainment is hacked by “Lord-Acid & |razor|”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Innovative Tech Works is hacked by “TechVoodoo Crew”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Nuvocom is hacked by “No|d Crew”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Thermocrete is hacked by “JF_”, also known as “Josh Freedaleman” of the “CoF” crew. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Uniformed Services University of the Health, a military server, is hacked by “No|d Crew”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1999
Idealab founder Bill Gross announces that his company will offer to send ten thousand qualified applicants a free computers. The computers are 333MHz Compaq Presario computers complete with fifteen inch monitors. The computers are financed with advertisements displayed on their screen as they browse the Internet. Visit the official Idealab website.
2000
The CBS network airs an episode of Judging Amy in the U.S. featuring a Nintendo 64 video game system being played without a cartridge to the lasting derision of the gaming community.
COC Services Ltd., the Dallas-based holder of Mexican-based CompUSA franchises, files multi-million dollar suit against CompUSA and Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim Helu. The suit alleges that Carlos tried to keep COC out of the personal computer market in Mexico and that he used the firm to obtain confidential information to benefit his computer businesses. Visit the official CompUSA website.
Several prominent websites experience outages for several hours due to denial of service attack (DoS) attacks launched by an unknown hackers who will later be revealed to be a fifteen year old Montreal high school student named Michael Calce using the handle “Mafiaboy“. Buy.com is hit at 10:50am and receives up to twenty-four times the normal amount of hits until after 2pm. At 3:20pm, eBay.com is hit hard and disables the site for the rest of the day. At 4pm CNN.com is hit with attacks that continue for four hours. At 5pm, Amazon.com is targeted, as well. The teen will be charged with two counts of mischief to data on April 19, 2000. After pleading guilty, Mafiaboy will later be sentenced to eight months in a youth detention center.
2004
Version 2.0.40 of the Linux operating system is released. Visit the official Linux website.
2005
The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode “Game” first airs. (No. 614) In it, two teenagers drive up on a side to run down a hooker before beating her to death and robbing in imitation of a violent video game called “Intensity,” which is clearly intended to represent the real world franchise Grand Theft Auto. In the episode, the sequence is an “Easter Egg” in the game that could only be unlocked with a code – an allusion to the Hot Coffee minigame controversy. In the episode, the two teens claim video game addiction as a defense for their crimes.
2010
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issues new guidelines for registering a .cn top-level domain. Under the new guidelines, individuals will be required to meet with regulators and submit identity cards and photos of themselves before registering a new domain.
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