1610
Galileo Galilei records the discovery the four largest moons of Jupiter, which will be named Callisto, Europa, Io, and Ganymede. These four moons will be collectively named the Galilean moons in his honor.
1714
British engineer Henry Mill is granted the world’s first patent for a typewriter, which is described in the patent as a “Machine for Transcribing Letters.” (No. 395) In the patent, Mills describes the device as “an artificial machine or method for impressing or transcribing of letters, one after another, as in writing, whereby all writing whatsoever may be engrossed in paper or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print; that the said machine… may be of great use in settlements and publick recors, the impression being deeper and more lasting than any other writing, and not to be erased or counterfeited without manifest discovery.”
1839
Louis Daguerre publicly demonstrates his photographic system for the first time at the Académie des Sciences in Paris, France.
1894
W.K. Dickson, an employee of Thomas Edison, receives a patent for motion picture film.
1904
The Morse code call sign “CQD” is established as a distress signal. The letters are chosen, not as an acronym, but because “CQ” had already been adopted as the general call sign for maritime use. Two years later, at the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention in Berlin, “SOS” will be adopted as the international standard distress signal.
1926
John Logie Baird gives a demonstration of his television system to a London Evening Standard reporter.
1927
The first commercial transatlantic telephone service (using radio) between London and New York City is inaugurated. The service will cost £40 a minute.
Philo T. Farnsworth, files his first patent application for a television system. It is based on an image dissector tube, neither the practicality nor the marketability of the system has yet been proven.
1929
Buck Rogers 2429 A.D. and Tarzan, two of the first adventure comic strips, debut through Dille’s syndication company, leading the way for the popularize the science fiction genre.
1934
The Flash Gordon comic strip by artist Alex Raymond debuts. The strip was created to compete with the popular Buck Rogers series, but it will quickly come into its own, eventually surpassing Buck Rogers. Flash Gordon will eventually be spun off into a live-action serial, a radio show, novels, comic books, and animated cartoons. View a high resolution scan of an early Flash Gordon comic strip at Wikipedia.
1949
Scientists at the University of Southern California announce that genes have been photographed for the first time.
1953
United States President Harry Truman hints at the existence of the H-bomb and warns against atomic war.
1954
DuMont Laboratories demonstrates its Duoscopic television receiver, a display which allows viewer to simultaneously watch two broadcasts at once.
The Georgetown-IBM experiment, the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held at the head office of International Business Machines (IBM) in New York. In the experiment, more than sixty Russian sentences are translated automatically into English using a IBM 701 mainframe computer programmed with a simple vocabulary of 250 words and just six grammatical rules. The purpose of the demonstration is to attract government interest to the project, and the event receives heavy coverage from the media, which portrays the experiment as a success. The authors of the software claim that in three to five years, machine translation will become solved problem.
1963
Ivan Sutherland introduces the Sketchpad, one of the earliest applications for the TX-0, as a part of his Ph.D. thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Sketchpad allows the direct manipulation of objects on a computer screen to create and manipulate graphics with a light pen. Sutherland’s thesis will become the basis of many future graphical user interfaces (GUI).
1970
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) announces the IBM Tariff Publishing System and IBM Traffic Profile Analysis System, two logistical programs for shipment coordination.
1982
The Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held January 7 – 10 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Visit the event’s official website.
At Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Commodore International introduces the Commodore 64 (C-64) computer. The features a 6510 processor, 64KB RAM, 20KB ROM, Microsoft BASIC, and 16 color graphics. The company also introduces the Ultimax, which features up to 2KB RAM for US$149. Price: US$600 (US$200 in 1983)
At Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Texas Instruments (TI) releases the Peripheral Expansion Box for the TI-99/4a home computer. While the “P-box” represents a significant improvement over other TI-99/4 peripherals, its price is absurdly high. In addition, there is a very limited supply of the device, leaving the few consumers who are willing to pay the price scrabbling to find one. Price: US$1,474
1984
At Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Commodore International introduces the Commodore 264. The system features a 7501 microprocessor and 64KB RAM. Code-name: “TED” (named for its Text Editing Chip)
At Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Commodore International demonstrates a prototype of the Commodore 364 computer. The 364 is a model of the Commodore 264 featuring a separate numeric keypad, 48KB ROM, and a built-in voice synthesizer.
Commodore International announces that during 1983, the company sold a record-breaking US$1 billion of computers.
1985
Sakigake, Japan’s first interplanetary spacecraft is launched. It will fly past Halley’s Comet on March 1, 1986. Visit the craft’s official website.
1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Data’s Day” first airs. (No. 411) In it, Data keeps a journal of a day in his life for Commander Bruce Maddox, in which he discusses the impending marriage of Chief O’Brien and Keiko, hisdance lessons with Dr. Crusher, the birth of a new baby, and the arrival of a Vulcan ambassador. Memory Alpha entry
1992
AT&T releases its first video-telephone. Price: US$1,499
1993
The Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held in Las Vegas, Nevada. 3DO announces the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer CD-based video game system, developed by Electronic Arts, Kleiner Perkins, Matsushita, and Time Warner. 3DO won’t manufacture the systems, opting instead to license the design to various hardware manufacturers. Despite the incredible amount of hype accompanying the product’s launch, it will largely be a failure due to its exorbitant price. Price: US$699.95
At Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Advanced Gravis announces the UltraSound 3D sound card.
At Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I-Motion introduces the survival horror game Alone in the Dark for DOS computers. The game sets the bar for later games of the genre, including Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and it will continue to exert a fundamental influence over horror games for years to come. ESRB: T (Teen)
1994
Mark Abene, known by the web handle “Phiber Optik”, a former member of the hacker groups Legion of Doom and Masters of Deception, begins serving a ten month sentence at the Schuylkill federal prison in Pennsylvania. Abene’s friend and college, Eric Gordon Corley, known by the web handle Emmanuel Goldstein accompanies him to drop him off and record the event for his documentary Freedom Downtime.
1997
The Macworld Conference & Expo is held January 7 – 10 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. Visit the event’s official website.
At the Macworld Conference & Expo, Apple Computer introduces a 500MHz Macintosh that uses a Exponential Technology processor. Apple is a major investor in the Exponential processor manufacturer, which has emerged from obscurity in the last year following its announcement that it will manufacture the 500MHz chip used in this system. The two companies have co-developed the chip, dubbed the X704.
At the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak appear before the press together for the first time since 1984 to announce Apple’s plans to release an operating system code-named Rhapsody in 1998. This new operating system will run Java applications, current Mac applications, and Next OS applications.
At the Macworld Conference & Expo, Microsoft releases version 4.2.1 of the Microsoft Office suite for the Macintosh. Price: US$499
At the Macworld Conference & Expo, Microsoft releases the first test version of FrontPage for the Macintosh and Internet Explorer 3.0 web browser.
Microsoft forms the Macintosh Business Unit, a unit devoted to producing software for the Apple Macintosh. Visit the unit’s official website.
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) officially discontinues development and support for the Mosaic web browser, which it first released in 1993. Visit the application’s official website.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Chat. Visit the official Yahoo! Chat website.
1998
Amazon.com suffers technical problems which shuts the website down from 10am for nearly eight hours.
At the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steven Jobs announces a projected US$47 million profit for Apple Computer in the first quarter, returning Apple to profitability.
The NASA Lunar Prospector Moon orbiter is launched on a mission to survey the Moon from a low polar orbit.
The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) homepage is hacked by “D.A.M.M.”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of the West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing is hacked by “OptikLenz”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1999
A coalition of hackers, including the Chaos Computer Club, Cult of the Dead Cow, and L0pht groups, as well as the staff of the highly esteemed magazines 2600 and Phrack issue a joint statement condemning the Legions of the Underground’s (LoU) December 29, 1998 declaration of war against China and Iraq. Read the letter of condemnation at Cult of the Dead Cow.
Intel confirms that its next-generation processor, code-named Katmai, will be official called the Pentium III.
Microsoft announces that it will acquire the video game developer FASA Interactive.
2000
Microsoft acquires Visio Corporation, the developer of diagramming software. The acquisition is the largest in Microsoft’s history.
2002
Adobe Systems releases version 2 of Adobe LiveMotion for Windows. Visit the application’s official website.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 1.66GHz Athlon XP 2000+ processor, featuring a 256KB Level-2 Cache and a 266MHz Front-Side Bus. Price: US$339 (US) in 1000-unit quantities
Apple Computer releases the redesigned iMac, featuring a 15 inch LCD flat screen mounted on a pivoting arm, a 700MHz or 800 MHz PowerPC G4 processor and Apple’s SuperDrive. Price: US$1299, US$1399, and US$1799, respectfully
A Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive SM, and Nielsen/NetRatings eSpending report is released reporting that, in November and December alone, Americans spent US$13.8 billion online. During the same period in 2000, Americans spent US$12 billion.
Intel introduces 2GHz and 2.2GHz Pentium 4 processors, featuring a 8KB Level-1 data cache, a 12KB Level-1 instruction cache, a 512KB Level-2 cache, a 400 MHz system bus, and two pipelined FPUs. The processors support Hyper-Threading, MMX, SSE, and SSE2 instructions. Code-name: Northwood Price: US$364 and US$562 respectively in 1000-unit quantities
2003
At the Macworld Conference & Expo, Apple Computer introduces the iLife application suite, which includes iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes, as well as Safari. Apple also releases the Keynote presentation software. Price: US$49 (iLife), US$99 (Keynote)
At the Macworld Conference & Expo, Apple Computer introduces the PowerBook G4, featuring a 1GHz G4 processor, 512MB RAM, a seventeen-inch monitor display, Gigabit Ethernet, a SuperDrive, a 60GB hard drive, and FireWire 400 and 800. Price: US$3,299+
Intel announces the new brand name for its next-generation mobile processor technology, “Centrino“.
Microsoft releases Windows Media Player 9 for Windows, featuring video-smoothing technology. Visit the application’s official website.
The first official Swiss online election is held in Anières, Genèva.
Nintendo introduces the Game Boy Advance SP handheld video game system in the US. It features a flip-up illuminated screen, a built-in rechargeable battery, and complete compatibility with the Game Boy Advance. The unit is expected to go on sale March 23. Price: US$100
Tor Books releases the fantasy novel Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan as a hardcover. (ISBN 0-312-86459-0) It is the tenth book in The Wheel of Time series. Visit the author’s official website. Length: 704 pages
The verdict acquitting Jon Lech Johansen, also known as DVD-Jon, of all charges in the matter of hacking DVD security codes is announced. This being the verdict of the district court, two further levels of appeals are available to the prosecutors of the Økokrim, a Norwegian crime unit that investigates and prosecutes economic crimes. The unit will file an appeal on January 20, 2003 and, on February 28, the appeals court (Borgarting lagmannsrett) will agree to hear the case. On December 22, 2003, DVD-Jon will be acquitted by the appeals court.
2004
Sony releases the PlayStation 2 video game system in China, beginning in Guangzhou and Shanghai.
2005
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) releases a white paper outlining a series of legislative proposals that would make it easier to prosecute copyright infringers. In it the BSA claims that recent court decisions represent an “impediment to effective enforcement” of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
2007
Szymon Stefanek releases version 3.2.0 of the KVIrc IRC client for Mac OS X and Windows. Visit the application’s official website.
2008
AMD released the 2600MHz Athlon 64 LE-1640 processor, featuring a 1,024KB Level-2 Cache, and 1GHz Hypertransport.
Apple unveiled its first eight-core 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon “Harpertown” MacBook Pro.
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