1837
The first commercial use of an electric telegraph is successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. They ran the six-wire telegraph line 2.4km from Euston to Camden Town in London along the Great Western Railway Company railway track. This first device will prove to be impractical because the code it transmits uses simultaneous combinations of five keys and is limited to twenty letters. The letters J, C, Q, U, X and Z are omitted.
1907
Boris Rosing of St Petersburg, Russia applies for the first patent on a cathode ray tube, which will later be granted on October 30, 1910. Rosing invented the first television system to use cathode ray tubes and mirror drums.
1909
French aviator Louis Blériot flies across the English Channel in a monoplane, traveling from Calais, France to Dover, England in thirty-seven minutes. It is the world’s first international overseas airplane flight. Blériot makes the historic crossing after Lord Northcliffe, the owner of the Daily Mail, offered £1,000 to the first pilot to do so.
1920
The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast is transmitted.
1942
John Logie Baird applies for a British patent (UK No. 562,168) for “Improvements in colour television,” which involves a cylindrical cathode ray tube with two guns scanning both sides of a transparent phosphor-coated screen, one side for blue-green, the other orange-red. Because of its appearance, the tube is dubbed the “teapot.”
1946
The US detonates the “Baker” atomic bomb during the course of “Operation Crossroads” at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. This, the first underwater nuclear explosion, is intended to test the weapon against a naval fleet of war-surplus and captured enemy vessels. The bomb, encased in a watertight steel caisson, is suspended ninety feet below the landing ship and detonated by radio from a command ship at 8:45am.
1953
The Cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century, directed by Chuck Jones is released featuring Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig, and Marvin The Martain. It will go on to become one of the most famous of the Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoons, and in 2003, after many years of cult status, it will be briefly spun off into its own animated series. Read more about the history of Warner Bros. Animation.
1959
A hovercraft crosses the English Channel for the first time. The world’s first practical hovercraft, the Saunders-Roe Nautical One (SR-N1), crosses the Channel between Calais, France and Dover, England in two hours and three minutes, with pilot Captain Peter Lamb, navigator John Chaplin, and the hovercraft’s inventor, Christopher Cockerell, aboard. The event commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of Louis Blériot crossing the Dover Strait by aeroplane.
1961
Clive Sinclair founds Sinclair Radionics to develop and sell electronic devices such as calculators.
1973
The Soviet space probe Mars 5 is launched aboard a Proton SL-12/D-1-e booster. The Mars 5 mission is to orbit Mars, which will reach on February 12, 1974.
1976
The first performance of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach is held in Avignon, France. It is Glass’ first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours to complete, with no intermission.
1978
In Oldham, England, Louise Joy Brown, the first baby conceived through in-vitro fertilization, is is delivered by Caesarean section at the Oldham District General Hospital. Dubbed the first “test tube baby,” she weighs 5lb 12oz.
1983
A baboon becomes the first nonhuman primate conceived in a lab dish in San Antonio, Texas. The eggs with attached spermatozoa are transferred surgically into the oviduct of another baboon, who will later give birth to the offspring. The chief researcher on the project was Dr. Tom Kuehl.
1984
Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk as she carried out more than three hours of experiments outside “Salyut Seven.” She was selected as a cosmonaut in 1980, as part of a female team selected to upstage pending female astronaut flights on the US space shuttle. She became the second woman in space in 1982, seven months before Sally Ride became the first American female astronaut in space.
1989
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) begins shipping the Personal System/2 with an Enhanced 80386 Memory Option and 4-megabit DRAM memory chips. It is the first personal computer product to use four megabit memory chips. Price: US$3,495
US Federal District Judge William Schwarzer confirms his earlier decision in the case of Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation, removing all but ten of Apple Computer’s claims against Microsoft.
1990
As part of its fifteenth anniversary celebration, Microsoft announces that it has become the first personal computer software company to have exceeded US$1 billion in sale in a single year, having achieved US$1.18 billion in revenues in the fiscal year ending in 1990.
1991
Natsume releases the role-playing game (RPG) Chaos World for the Famicom.
1995
Randal L Schwartz convicted of hacking under Oregon’s Computer Crime Law. According to the prosecution, Schwartz illegally bypassed computer security in order to gain access to a password file while working as a consultant for Intel. According to Schwartz, he was only trying to show that management employees of Intel were selecting passwords that could be easily guessed by individuals who then could compromise computer security. Schwartz will be convicted on three felony counts, and on September 11, 1995, he will be sentenced to several years’ probation, a fine of US US$68,000, and about US$170,000 in personal legal bills.
SNK releases The King of Fighters ’95 for the Game Boy, Neo-Geo CD, and Sega Saturn. Visit the game’s official website.
1996
Tecmo release Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation to Darkness for the PlayStation in the US. ESRB: T (Teen)
1997
America Online (AOL) reveals that they have dropped plans to sell subscriber phone numbers to business partners for telemarketing purposes.
At an international symposium on the ethics of human cloning and stem cells, it’s announced that human stem cells had been cultured in a laboratory for the first time, using tissue taken from aborted human embryos. The team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, was led by Dr. John D. Gearhart, a professor of gynecology and obstetrics. He issued the “progress report” of his research before it had been published, he said, to spark discussion about establishing guidelines for the ethical use of stem cells.
1998
The website of Fundación Hábitat Colombia is hacked by “splOit”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of The Internet Credit Card is hacked by “splOit”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Mobile Oil Company of Columbia is hacked by “splOit”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1999
The Brazilian website of the Ministério da Previdência Social is hacked by the hacking group “bl0w team”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
Version 5.4 of Vim, an open source, multiplatform text editor, for personal computers. This version includes basic file encryption among other improvements. Vim is short for Vi IMproved. Visit the application’s official website.
2000
Eos publishes the fantasy novel Acorna’s World by Anne Mccaffrey, Elizabeth A. Scarborough, and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0061050954) Length: 320 pages
The website of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation is hacked by “datagram”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
2001
Namco releases the platform game Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil for the PlayStation 2 in the US. ESRB: E (Everyone)
2002
Hewlett-Packard introduces the Jornada 928 handheld computer, featuring a 133MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 710 processor, 64MB RAM, the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 operating system, a 16-bit color screen, a Compact Flash slot, a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, and a CompactFlash Type I slot. The Jornada 928 will be Hewlett-Packard’s only Pocket PC phone released under the Jornada branding, and it is only released in the United Kingdom. The phone is a European GSM Dual band device capable of accessing General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Weight: 6.8 ounces
Princeton University admissions officials gained unauthorized access to a website at rival Yale University containing personal information about applicants to the Ivy League school, according to officials at both institutions. The incident raises serious questions as to the security of the school’s systems and the level of privacy afforded the school’s applicants.
2003
Nintendo releases the racing game F-Zero GX for the GameCube in Japan. It’s the sixth installment in the F-Zero series. Visit the game’s official website. CERO: A (All ages)
Paramount Pictures releases Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, directed by Jan De Bont and starring Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciarán Hinds, Chris Barrie, Noah Taylor, and Til Schweiger, to 3,222 US theaters. The film is an adaptation of the Tomb Raider video game series. Produced on a budget of US$95 million, the film will gross US$21,783,641 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hr 50 mins
The Stargate SG-1 episode “Enemy Mine” first airs. (No. 707) In it, SG-1 discovers a planet with rich deposits of Naqahdah but a local population of Unas take exception to the presence of the mining team. GateWorld entry
2004
Bam! releases the hack and slash game Bujingai: The Forsaken City for the PlayStation 2 in North America. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
The fan film World’s Finest, directed by Sandy Collora and starring Clark Bartram and Michael O’Hearn, is released. The film features DC Comics characters Batman and Superman, along with several other DC Universe characters, such as Lois Lane, Two-Face, and Lex Luthor. It is intended to demonstrate the possibility of such a movie in the future, and to pay homage to the iconic nature of the characters. IMDB listing
2005
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signs a bill into law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors. The law, which takes effect January 1st, bars stores from selling or renting extremely violent or sexual games to minors. Violators could be fined up to US$1,000 under the law. The bill also requires stores to clearly label their games with content ratings and to post signs explaining the rating system. Video game industry groups immediately file a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, Illinois, challenging the new Illinois law. The groups claim that the law is a restriction on free speech. “It will limit First Amendment rights not only for Illinois residents, but [also] for game developers and publishers, and for retailers who won’t know what games can and cannot be sold or rented under this vague new statute,” claims Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association states in a press release. The law is designed to address rising public concerns since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. On December 2, 2005, US District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly will declared the Illinois game restriction law unconstitutional.
Microsoft launches Windows Genuine Advantage on its website. The technology scans a user’s computer to ensure the Windows software in use is legal, before allowing updates to be downloaded.
Tapwave announces bankruptcy and discontinues the Zodiac Palm-based handheld video game system.
Version 3.0.5 of the Scientific Linux operating system is released by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN). Visit the software’s official website.
Version 8.0.3.1 of the Netscape web browser based on Mozilla Firefox 1.0.6 is released.
2006
Namco releases Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in the US. It is the seventh game in the Tekken video game franchise. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
The OpenDarwin team announces that it will be shutting down because its maintainers feel that the project has “become a mere hosting facility for Mac OS X related projects,” and that the efforts to create a stand-alone Darwin operating system have failed. They also state that the “Availability of sources, interaction with Apple representatives, difficulty building and tracking sources, and a lack of interest from the community have all contributed to this.” Visit the project’s official website.
2007
Spike releases the survival horror game Escape from Bug Island for the Wii in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: M (Mature)
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