The Great Geek Manual

1963
Dr. E. Stanley Crawford of the Baylor University College of Medicine makes the first implantation of an intrathoracic left artificial ventricle in a human being.

1965
The Soviet Union launches the Zond 3 satellite on a mission to perform a Lunar flyby.

1966
NASA launches Gemini 10.

1968
Robert Noyce, Andy Grove, and Gordon Moore found microprocessor manufacturer Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, California. In 1971, Intel will release its first microprocessor, the 4004 for a calculators.

1980
The first Indian satellite, Rohini 1B, is launched into orbit by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

1984
“BIOC Agent 003″ publishes a document entitled “The Course in Basic Telecommunications Part I” to popular bulletin board systems (BBS). The document will become one of the most successful phreak documents of the golden age of BBS systems.

1989
The United States Department of Commerce announce plans to permit the export computers with data processing rates over 6.5 million bits per second to the Soviet Union and the Eastern-bloc.

1990
The airlock hatch of the Soviet space station Mir is damaged when it was pushed back on its hinges by residual air escaping as it was being opened. Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Aleksandr Balandin are forced to remain behind an interior airlock in a separate part of the station for eight days before they could make repairs on their next spacewalk, July 26th.

1990
Version 0.99.11 of the Linux operating system is released.

2000
National retailer Circuit City announces that it begin carrying Macintosh computer products, three years after dropping the line.

2001
Apple Computer announces the Power Mac G4, featuring a 867MHz processor, a 133MHz system bus, 2KB Level-3 cache, four 33MHz PCI slots, three DIMM slots, a SuperDrive, a 60GB hard drive, and 128MB RAM. Price: US$2,499

2002
Sony releases the PlayStation 2 game console in a new Ocean Blue translucent case in Japan. Price: US$250

2005
The Cassini spacecraft performs the closest flyby yet of Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn.

2006
Sony Electronics unveils its first internal Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive for computers, the BWU-100A. The device supports up to 50GB of data on BD-R or BD-RE discs. The drive is capable of burning a full 25GB disc in 50 minutes. The drive will be available in stores August. Price: US$750

2008
The Australia ISP Internode becomes the first commercial internet service provider to announce that it would offer full IPv6 connectivity to its customers.

Warner Bros. releases the superhero film The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, and Aaron Eckhart, to 4,366 US theaters, surpassing the 4,252 theaters Spider-Man 3 was initially released on to set a new record for the widest opening in history. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, specifically the 1996 series The Long Halloween, and it is the second film in Nolan’s film series which reboots the franchise. On January 22, 2008, actor Heath Ledger, who had played the part of the Joker, died from a toxic combination of prescription drugs, generating enormous media attention for the film. Produced on a budget of US$185 million, it will gross US$158,411,483 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 30 mins