The Great Geek Manual

1841
John Couch Adams decides to determine the position of an unknown planet by the irregularities it causes in the motion of Uranus. He enters in his journal; “Formed a design in the beginning of this week in investigating, as soon as possible after taking my degree, the irregularities in the motion of Uranus… in order to find out whether they may be attributed to the action of an undiscovered planet beyond it…” In September 1845, he will give James Challis, director of the Cambridge Observatory, accurate information on where the new planet, as yet unobserved, can be found. Unfortunately, the planet won’t be recognized by Cambridge until much later, when it will discovery by the Berlin Observatory on September 23, 1846. The plant will eventually be named Neptune.

1886
Karl Benz unveils and demonstrates the first purpose-built automobile in history, the Benz Patent Motorwagen, in Mannheim, Germany. The vehicle, first ever designed to be powered by a mechanical motor rather than simply being a converted horse carriage, is capable of reaching a top speed of 10mph.

The first US newspaper page set by a linotype machine is published by the New York Daily Tribune for the day’s editorial page. The machine was originally called a “Blower,” but it will be renamed “Linotype” for “line of type,” which is the amount of text that could be set at one time. Within six years, one thousand Linotype machines will have been manufactured. By 1904, there will be ten thousand linotype machines in service.

1903
The first cable laid across the Pacific Ocean is completed. It connects Hawaii, Midway, Guam, and Manila. The first official message will be sent over the line the next day. A cable across the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Hawaii was inaugurated January 1, 1903.

1928
John Logie Baird demonstrates a color television system using sequential scanning through red, green and blue filters in London.

1929
Foam rubber is invented at Dunlop Latex Development Laboratories by British scientist E.A. Murphy, who uses an ordinary kitchen mixer to create a froth in natural latex rubber. Within five years, the foam will be commercially distributed.

1938
The world speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which achieves a top speed of 126mph (203 km/h).

1952
The first surgical operation in the US to expose the heart’s mitral valve for a prolonged time is undertaken by Dr. Forest Dewey Dodrill at the Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. The patient, a forty-one year old man, is provided with The Michigan Heart as a substitute for the lower left ventricle.

1961
Three men become the first nuclear power plant fatalities in the US when an experimental reactor explodes at the Stationary Low-Power Plant of the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS), near Idaho Falls, Idaho. The explosion occurs when an eighty pound control rod was manually raised beyond a safe level, causing a core meltdown. The incident will never be wholly explained, and investigations were hindered by the extreme radioactivity contamination of the site. Later theories will speculate that one of the men sabotaged the system in order to commit suicide because of marital trouble.

1967
The Independent Television News (ITN) at Ten with newscasters Alistair Burnett and Andrew Gardner becomes the first regular half-hour television news program in the UK.

1969
The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when
The Soviet N1 rocket, which was intended to carry cosmonaut to the Moon, stalls and explodes twenty-three seconds later, triggering the largest explosion in the history of rocketry and destroying its launchpad.

1984
Atari employees are informed that all 8-bit projects have been canceled and that projects such as the Amiga are on hold.

1987
British millionaire Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand become the first to cross the Atlantic in a hot-air balloon, which they name Virgin Atlantic Flyer. They traveled a distance of 2,900 miles from from Sugarloaf Mountain, Maine, in thirty-three hours to set a new record for hot air ballooning. The balloon is the largest ever flown, having 2.3 million cubic feet of capacity.

1991
Apple Computer discontinues production of the Power Mac G4 Cube, due to low sales. Visit an archive of the official G4 Cube website.

Jim Cannavino of International Business Machines (IBM) signs a technology sharing agreement with John Sculley of Apple Computers to integrate the Mac into IBM’s enterprise systems. The agreement will allow future RISC-based Macs to use IBM’s Power PC chip, to work together on common multimedia standards, and to co-operatively produce a new object-oriented operating system.

Shared technologies are in areas of the Power PC, multimedia standards, and an object-orientated operating system (OS).

Tri-Star Pictures releases the action sci-fi film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick, in France and in 2,274 US theaters. The film is the sequel to Cameron’s The Terminator. The film features the shape-shifting T-1000, the first wholly digitally generated major film character. The T-1000, along with the film’s long list of other special effects, make this a major breakthrough in the history of cg effects. Produced on a budget of US$102 million, the film will gross US$31,765,506 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 2 hrs 17 mins

1992
Nintendo releases the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Australia.

1994
Microsoft releases Microsoft Office for NT 4.2. The office suite includes: Word 6.0 [32-bit, i386 and Alpha], Excel 5.0 [32-bit, i386 and Alpha], PowerPoint 4.0 [16-bit], and the “Microsoft Office Manager.”

1996
20th Century Fox releases the sci-fi movie Independence Day, directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox, Judd Hirsch, Mary McDonnell, Robert Loggia, and Randy Quaid, to 2,882 US theaters. Many theaters premiered the film a day early, on the second, because July 2 is the day that the action in the film starts. Referred to by many as “the Star Wars of the nineties,” the film is packed with computer generated scenes of buildings, cities, and space ships exploding with amazing realism as aliens attempt an extermination of all mankind. Produced on a budget of US$75 million, the film will gross US$50,228,264 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 33 mins

1997
California’s Ergonomic Standard take effect, the first legislation in the US to attempt to regulate repetitive motion injuries (RMI) in the workplace, goes into effect. The regulations lay out guidelines intended to prevent repetitive motion injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. Read the regulations.

1999
At the Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, Billy Mitchell, age 33, plays a “perfect” game of the arcade version of Pac-Man over six hours, achieving the highest score the game allows: 3,333,360. The perfect score can only be accomplished by eating every dot, fruit, and ghost in all 256 levels without dying even once. This new world record was witnessed and confirmed by Walter Day founder of Twin Galaxies and publisher of the Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records. According to Day, the achievement is among the most difficult achievements in arcade gaming. One of the employees of the arcade, the second largest in the world, videotapes the entire six-hour session. Billy Mitchell is father of three children and president of Rickey’s World Famous Sauces, a manufacturer of Louisiana hot sauces. He resides in Hollywood, Florida. Read more at Wired.com.

The Brazillain website of the Superintendência do Desenvolvimento da Amazônia is hacked by the hacking group “bl0w team”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The Brazilian website of Telemar is hacked by the hacking group “bl0w team”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

2000
AOL acquires Mapquest.

The Brazilian website of the Claudionor Ramos Advocacia E Consultoria Empresari is hacked by the hacking group “Crime Boys”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

2001
Apple Computer releases Mac OS X Server Update 10.0.4.

Apple Computer states that it will stop producing and marketing its Power Mac G4 Cube due to disappointing sales since its introduction in late July of 2000.

2002
Columbia Pictures releases the comic book film Men in Black II, directed Barry Sonnenfeld by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, and
Rip Torn, to 3,557 US theaters. It is the sequel to Men in Black, based on the Malibu Comics series The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham. In it, Kay has since returned to the comforts of civilian life while Jay continues to work for the Men in Black, the highly funded yet unofficial government agency that regulates all things alien on Earth. While investigating a seemingly routine crime, Jay uncovers a diabolical plot masterminded by Serleena, an evil Kylothian monster who disguises herself as a sexy lingerie model, and the matter becomes a race against the clock as Jay must convince Kay, who not only has no memory of his time spent with the agency but is the only person with the expertise to save the galaxy to reunite with the MIB before Earth is destroyed completely. Produced on a budget of US$140, the film will gross US$52,148,751 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 28 mins

NASA launches Contour (COmet Nucleus TOUR), an unmanned US satellite on a mission to get within sixty miles of a comet nucleus to study frozen samples of the solar system from its infancy. It was launched aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral. After orbiting Earth until August 15, 2002, the satellite’s onboard rockets will send it toward an encounter with Comet Enke in 2003, then Comet Schwassman-Wachman 3 in 2006. It is equipped with a special debris shield so that it can navigate closer to the comets and survive bombardment from the minute particles of dust and frozen water that form a comet’s most distinctive feature, its tail. The shield includes a layer of Kevlar, the material used in bullet-proof vests.

2003
In Oakland, California, a pre-trial hearing is held in the patent dispute InterTrust v. Microsoft. The judge rules against Microsoft on all thirty-three disputed issues. InterTrust claims Microsoft infringed on patents related to the digital security technology in Windows XP, Office XP Suite, Windows Media Player, Xbox, .NET platform, and other software.

2004
The third annual Free Comic Book Day. Visit the official Free Comic Book Day website.

2005
Computer microchip manufacturer AMD successfully petitions a Delaware court to order that third parties in its antitrust suit against Intel preserve documents in their possession that may later be required as evidence.

The first VODcast, an RSS on-demand TV channel, is launched.

2006
At 04:25 UTC, an asteroid labeled as 2004 XP14 passes within 268,624 miles (432,308 km) of Earth’s center of mass, just 1.1 times the Moon’s average distance from Earth’s atmosphere. The size of 2004 XP14 is not precisely known. Based on optical measurements, the object is from 300 to 900 meters in diameter. Due to the proximity of its orbit to Earth and its estimated size, the object has been classified as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” (PHA) by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From Earth, the asteroid could be best seen passing above the west coast of North America.

Both SEGA and Ubisoft announce that they feel that the price of the Playstation 3 is a concern.

Microsoft denies that they will release an updated Xbox 360 with an internal HD-DVD drive.

2008
Google is ordered to divulge the viewing habits of every Youtube user to Viacom.

NASA announces that the MESSENGER probe has discovered water in the atmosphere of the planet Mercury.