The Great Geek Manual

1496
Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine of his own design. In the 2002 BBC television series Leonardo, it will be theorized that da Vinci, who was a devout pacifist, may have purposefully designed the flying machine to fail, so that it could not be put to a military use. Read more about the documentary at the The Sydney Morning Herald’s website.

1838
Morse code is first transmitted by Alfred Vail from Morristown, New Jersey.

1899
The word “automobile” is first printed in an editorial column in The New York Times.

1919
Professor Ernest Rutherford splits an atom for the first time, thus earning the title of “father” of nuclear physics. He accomplishes the split by bombarding Nitrogen atoms with Alpha particles emitted by radioactive materials to produce Oxygen.

1951
The television series Dragnet, which will become the first network-sponsored television program on December 24, 1953, premieres on the NBC network. The series will shortly become the highest rated crime series on television, and it will also go on to become one of the first television series to be exported from the US.

1957
At a press conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Hamilton Watch Company introduces the world’s first electric watch. The watch is the result of over ten years of research and development that began in 1946, and the novelty of a watch that didn’t need to wound made it an instant success. The line of watch will continue to be wildly popular until 1969, when the company discontinues the line’s production. Visit the official website of the Hamilton Watch Company.

1969
The Star Trek series episode “Whom Gods Destroy” first airs. (No. 69) In it, Kirk visits an asylum where he is held hostage by an insane starship captain who believes that he is destined to control the universe. Memory Alpha entry

1971
The United Kingdom’s first open University broadcast, a session of a course entitled “Introduction to Mathematics,” airs at 11:00am.

1977
The Apple Computer Corporation is incorporated by Steven Paul Jobs and Stephan Gary Wozniak, and the company moves from Steve Jobs’ parent’s garage to a building on Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino, California. Armas Clifford Markkula Jr., formerly of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, comes out of retirement to become Apple’s first chairman, investing US$250,000 in venture capital to finance the company. Later financing will come from venture capitalists such as Arthur Rock and Associates, Capital Management Corporation, and Venrock Associates. Apple’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) will be take place three years later.

1983
Time Magazine dubs the personal computer “Machine of the Year” rather naming a “Man of the Year.” Time publisher John A. Meyers writes, “Several human candidates might have represented 1982, but none symbolized the past year more richly, or will be viewed by history as more significant, than a machine: the computer.”

1984
The “Plover-NET” bulletin board system (BBS) is launched by hackers “Lex Luthor” and “Quasi Moto,” using GBBS software running on an Apple II+ system. It will hosting a wide range of hacking and phreaking tutorials, collectively dubbed the “G-Philes,” and it will go down in history as one of the principal centers of the hacker subculture on the Internet in the eighties.

1987
Packard Bell announces plans to launch the C115, featuring a 120MHz Pentium processor, 16MB EDO RAM, a 1.2GB hard drive, a 8x CD-ROM, a 33.6Kbps modem, and a 14-inch color monitor. Price: US$999

Viacom publicly issues an order for Internet websites to remove any and all unauthorized Star Trek graphics or face legal action.

1991
Electronics manufacturer Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan acquires the Music Corporation of America (MCA Inc.) for US$6.9 billion.

1993
The television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premieres with the episode “Emissary, Part I“. (No. 101) The series will run for 176 episodes over seven seasons. Set on a space station rather than a star ship as other Star Trek series are, this spin-off of the Star Trek franchise will become known for its character development and extended story arcs. The series will earn reliably solid ratings which will decline in later seasons due to the proliferation of science fiction series on television. Memory Alpha entry

1998
The Association of Optometrists website is hacked by “OG” (Older Generation).

The homepage of the University of Costa Rica is hacked by “TikoZ”.

The website of Bolling Air Force Base Washington, D.C. is hacked by “Team CodeZero”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of Davis-Monthan AirForce Base is hacked by “Team CodeZero”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of Marin California K-12 Schools is hacked by “OPTIKLENZ”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

1999
A report issued by the economics ministry of Taiwan reveals that an estimated four hundred thousand small to medium businesses are not prepared for the pending Y2K problem.

The US Mars Polar Lander is launched. The Mars Polar Lander, also known as the Mars Surveyor ‘98 Lander, is a companion to the Mars Climate Orbiter. It was meant to touch down on the southern polar layered terrain, less than 1,000 km from the south pole, near the edge of the carbon dioxide ice cap in Mars’ late southern spring. The last telemetry from the spacecraft was sent just prior to atmospheric entry on 3 December 1999. No further signals have been received from the lander since, and the cause of this loss of communication is a mystery.

2000
Yahoo! stocks close at an all-time high of US$475.00.

2001
Intel releases the 800MHz Celeron processor, featuring a 100MHz system bus and a 128KB Level-2 Cache. Price: US$170 in 1000-unit quantities

Intel releases the 1.3 GHz Pentium 4 processor, featuring a 400MHz Front Side bus and a 256KB Level-2 Cache.

Robot Wars sends out letters to amateur robot enthusiasts in an attempt to recruit robots for a new season of the television series scheduled to be shot in March.

2003
Apple introduces iLife, a suite of applications for editing and publishing digital content, at the Macworld Conference & Expo. Price: US$49