1838
Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrate early elements of the telegraph system, including a code which will come to be known as Morse code.
1896
The X-ray machine is exhibited as the “Parisian sensation” to the public for the first time in the US at Casino Chambers in New York City, for twenty-five cents admission.
1903
Guglielmo Marconi’s third North American wireless station in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, transmits a two thousand word signal, including a message from President Theodore Roosevelt, to the station at Glace Bay, Canada to be forwarded to Poldhu, England, but due to the signal’s strength, it is received directly by England, becoming the first transatlantic radio signal to be transmitted eastward.
1938
J.W. Bryce writes a memorandum outlining the development of the Harvard Mark I, which will be completed in 1944. The Harvard Mark I will be the first fully automatic computer. Once complete, it will be capable of computing three additions or subtractions a second and storing seventy-two numbers in its memory.
1961
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorizes AT&T to conduct experimental radio stations for Project Telstar, an Earth-satellite communications study. Telstar is the first active communications satellite as well as the first privately owned satellite. It transmits telephone and high-speed data communications.
1969
Pulsars are first identified by astronomers at the University of Arizona.
1978
Early in the morning, the 2.4 acre roof of the Hartford Coliseum in Hartford, Connecticut collapses under the weight of ice and snow deposited by a winter storm. The roof is notable for being among the first large-span roofs made possible by computer design. The stadium is empty at the time of the collapse, but it had been full just hours before.
1982
According to Walter Day of Twin Galaxies, this day marks the beginning of the “Golden Age of Video Arcade Games“, which he says ends January 5, 1986. Opinions vary, many putting the start of the age at a much earlier date, somewhere in the seventies. However, Day’s prominence in the video game community lends a great deal of weight to his opinion.
The Amusement Trades Exhibition (ATE) is held January 18 – 21 at the National Exhibition Center in Birmingham, England. At the event, Atari operates an independent booth for the first. The booth’s main feature is the game Tempest.
Time magazine acknowledges the success of the video game industry with a cover title that reads, “Video Games Are Blitzing the World.” Inside, Steve Juraszek, a Mount Prospect, Illinois high school student, is profiled as the Defender world champion. The issues features an article covering Juraszek’s sixteen hour, sixteen million point, single quarter championship game. The same issue also discusses the popularity of video games, revealing that, to date, 96,600 PAC-MAN, 70,000 Asteroids, and 60,000 Space Invaders arcade machines have been produced in the United States.
1983
Apple announces that 750,000 Apple II computers have been sold to date.
The CP/M ’83 Show is held in San Francisco, California.
Franklin Computer demonstrates the Franklin Ace 1200 at the CP/M Show, featuring an 8-bit processor, 128KB RAM, a color display, a keyboard, a 143KB floppy drive, a built-in speaker, a CP/M card, and a 80-column text card. Price: US$2,200
Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model 12 at the CP/M Show, featuring a Zilog Z80A processor, 80KB RAM, a keyboard, a 1.25MB floppy drive, and TRS-80 Model II compatibility. Price: US$3,200
1984
Release 29 of the Infocom interactive fiction game Planetfall is published for personal computers. It is Infocom’s eighth title.
1985
Gorizont 11 satellite is launched.
1987
For the first time in its history, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was seen by over 100 million viewers in the past week. The audience was measured during the week of January 12-18.
1988
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Datalore” first airs. (No. 113) In it, the Enterprise discovers a disassembled android identical to Data at the abandoned Omicron Theta colony. After reassembling the android, Lore, put the Enterprise in danger. Memory Alpha entry
1990
Four Secret Service from the Chicage Task Force and a representative of Bellsouth agents visit Craig Neidorf in St. Louis, who publishes the hacker magazine PHRACK under the handle “Knight Lightning”, regarding an article published in PHRACK Issue 24, entitled “Control Office Administration Of Enhanced 911 Service by The Eavesdropper.” The article included information obtained from stolen E911 documents. Neidorf cooperates fully, and the next day the agents will return with a search warrant. They won’t seize his computer because, it’s hard drive is missing. He will be indicted on February 6, and his trial will be held July 24-27. Read more in The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling.
1991
The winter National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show is held January 18 – 21 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The show features seven hundred exhibitors, including Atari, which attends the event to demonstrate its popular MIDI-based hardware and software for its 16-bit computer line. Atari is the first computer manufacturer to feature an exhibit at the NAMM show. Visit the event’s official website.
1994
Proceedings in the case filed by Stac Electronics, a small software company, against Microsoft. Stac Electronics alleges that Microsoft blatantly infringed upon patents related to Stacker, the company’s data-compression application. In February, Microsoft will loose the suit, and Stac Electronics will be awarded US$120 million dollars in damages. Read more about the case… or read the text of Stac Electronics’ patent infringement complaint against Microsoft.
1998
“LithiumError & ChiKo Torremendez” hack the website of the Association of Indonesian Young Businessmen, the Bank PSP, the Directbank Corporation, Fortune Indonesia, Golongan Karya, Indo Net, the Indonesian Capital, Indocement, the Indonesian Food Affairs Ministry, the Indonesian General Education Ministry, the Indonesian ISP Association, the Indonesian National Police, the Indonesian PIP, the Indonesian Supreme Audit Board, the Jakarta Convention Center, the Jakarta Provincial Government, Novus Asia, Selamat Datangv, Serang Golf, and the Tarumanegara Institution.
The website of Community Oriented On Line Networks, Inc. is hacked by “Mr 90″. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Kommanet B.V. is hacked by “critic”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Kennebec Valley Technical College is hacked by “Zyklon”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Maine College is hacked by “Zyklon”.
2000
A Colombian Government website is hacked by “I.D.K.” (Immortal Daemon Killers). View an archived version of the defaced website.
Intel releases the 600MHz Mobile Pentium III processor, featuring SpeedStep technology. The processor operates at 500MHz on battery power, consuming about half as much power as during normal operation. Code-name: Geyserville
2001
AltaVista announces its intentions to cut about a quarter of its workforce, or about two hundred employees.
The sixteen year old Canadian computer hacker known as Mafiaboy pleads guilty to fifty-six of sixty-six counts of mischief in connection with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that crippled several major websites, including Amazon, CNN, eBay, and Yahoo. Under Canadian law, his real name isn’t made public. He was arrested on April 15, 2000 and charged four days later.
2005
Ignition Entertainment releases the puzzle game Zoo Keeper for the Nintendo DS in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: E (Everyone)
2006
SNK Playmore releases the versus fighting game Samurai Shodown V for the Xbox in the US. It is the eighth game in Samurai Shodown/Samurai Spirits series. ESRB: T (Teen)
2007
Four families file suit against News Corp. and its MySpace social-networking website, alleging that their underage daughters were sexually abused by adults they met through the site. The families are seeking monetary damages of several million dollars.
The FreeBSD Project releases version 6.2 of the FreeBSD operating system. Visit the system’s official website.
Nintendo releases the Nintendo DS Browser, a web browser for the Nintendo DS handheld game system in Australia. Visit the application’s official website.
Nintendo releases the Nintendo DS video game system in South Korea. Visit the system’s official website.
Nintendo releases the racing game Excite Truck for the Wii in Japan. Visit the game’s official website. CERO: A (All ages)
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