The Great Geek Manual

1657
The first practical pendulum clock is patented by Christiaan Huygens. Huygens’ works towards building an accurate time-keeping device to assist in his astronomical observations.

1884
The first commercially successful gravity-powered American roller coaster goes into operation at Coney Island, New York. Park guests can ride a train with seats facing sideways that rolls over undulating tracks on top of a wooden structure six hundred feet long. The train begins its circuit at a height of 50 feet at one end and is pulled downhill by gravity until its momentum dies. Passengers then disembark and the train is pushed by attendants over a switch to a higher level. The passengers then return to their seats to ride back to the original starting point. Admission on the Thompson Switchback Railway is five cents, and it will gross an average of US$600 a day.

1888
After allegedly working for five days and nights without rest, work, Thomas Edison and his associates finish a prototype of an improved Phonograph. The new Phonograph features an electric motor and uses wax cylinders like the graphophone invented by Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter. The completion of the device is commemorated by one of the most famous photographs ever associated with spirit of innovation.

1903
Henry Ford incorporates the Ford Motor Company with ten investors and US$28,000 in capital. The company will begin building automobiles on Mack Avenue in Detroit, Michigan in a converted factory that formerly produced wagons.

Pepsi is registered as a trademark with the US Patent Office by Pepsi-Cola Co. Pharmacist Caleb D. Bradham created the soft drink to boost his store’s business in the summer of 1898 with carbonated water, sugar, vanilla, oils, pepsin, and kola nut extract. Customers of his New Bern, North Carolina pharmacy originally called it Brad’s Drink, but as the drink grew in popularity, Bradham changed the name to Pepsi-Cola to emphasize its pepsin and kola nut ingredients, stressing their supposed health benefits.

1922
Henry A. Berliner demonstrates the first helicopter prototype, a war-surplus Nieuport 23 fighter, for representatives of the US Bureau of Aeronautics in College Park, Maryland.

1951
The US Census Bureau dedicates the first UNIVAC computer, and runs afoul of its first programming error. Once the bugs are corrected, the UNIVAC I will become the first commercial computer to come to be widely known to the public. Remington Rand will eventually sell the department forty-six machines at a price of more than one million dollars each.

1959
Just days before he was to be married, George Reeves, who played Superman in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men and the television series Adventures of Superman, is found dead of a gunshot wound in his home with his Luger nearby. The death will later be ruled a suicide, but the incident will long be surrounded by other theories. The incident will become a series of tragedies that will become known as the Superman curse.

1960
Paramount Pictures releases the suspense film Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, is released to US theaters. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Robert Bloch, which was in turn based on the real-life crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Hitchcock acquired the film rights anonymously through an agent for the very small sum of US$9,000. Produced on a budget of approximately US$807,000, the film will gross approximately US$32 million domestically during its theatrical run. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: M) Running Time: 1 hr 49 mins

1963
Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, age 26, becomes the first woman in space aboard the Vostok 6. Her mission will last for three days, during which she will study the issues surrounding weightlessness. Read more about Tereshkova at Astronautix.

1977
Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates incorporate Software Development Laboratories (SDL), the forerunner of Oracle Corporation in Redwood Shores, California. Visit the official Oracle website.

1978
Universal Pictures releases Jaws 2, directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, and Jeffrey Kramer, to 640 US theaters. The film is the first sequel to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 Oscar winning classic Jaws, set four years after the events of the original film. Produced on a budget of US$20 million, the film will gross US$9,866,023 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 1 hr 56 min

1980
The US Supreme Court rules that a patent can be issued for a genetically-engineered bacterium (US No. 4,259,444) in the case of Diamond vs. Chakrabarty. In a landmark decision, the judges hold five to four that the Patent Office should recognize any new and useful “manufacture” or “composition of matter,” and that the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance in patent law. Arguments were heard on March 17, 1980, when microbiologist Ananda Chakrabarty appealed the rejection of his 1972 patent application for a human-made, genetically engineered bacterium capable of breaking down crude oil, which no naturally occurring bacteria could do.

1988
Intel releases the 80386 SX processor as a cheaper alternative to the original i386, which had been re-branded as the i386DX. The chip’s narrower 16-bit time multiplexed bus is not only less expensive, but also easier to integrate with 16-bit devices.

1989
Columbia Pictures releases the science fiction comedy film Ghostbusters II, directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, and Ernie Hudson, to 2,410 US theaters. The film is the sequel to the 1984 blockbuster Ghostbusters. Produced on a budget of US$29,472,894, the film will gross US$29,472,894 domestically in its opening weekend. The opening weekend will set a record for the biggest three-day opening weekend gross in history, but that record will be shattered a week later by the opening of Batman. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 1 hr 42 mins

1995
Warner Bros. releases the action film Batman Forever, directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, and Chris O’Donnell, to 2,842 US theaters. Though the film will have the highest opening weekend of 1995 and continue to be a financial success, it will widely be considered to be a critical failure. Produced on a budget of US$100 million, it will gross US$52,784,433 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 2 mins

1997
In New York City, New York, the PC Expo trade show is held, over three days. At the event, a dozen hardware manufacturers announce plans to release a NetPC, including Acer, Compaq, Dell, Gateway 2000, HP, IBM, Mitac International, Mitshubishi Electric, NEC, Pionex Technologies, Unisys, and Zenith Data Systems. NetPC is a standard for diskless personal computers intended to be used to access the Internet or to be operated on a network.

PGP Inc releases version 5.0 of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Mac. This version features a revolutionary new graphic user interface, a transparent connection with the e-mail softwares, a stronger type of public key, and three separate session key algorithms.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Call to Arms” is first aired. (No. 526) In it, Sisko realizes that the Dominion is insinuating itself into the Alpha Quadrant, and he is determined to stop the invasion. Memory Alpha entry

1999
Microsoft releases Windows 98 Service Pack 1.

2000
The Brazilian website of Restaurante Universitário, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, is hacked by “PanicooL” of the “BiOS Crew”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

Twentieth Century Fox releases the animated science fiction film Titan A.E., directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman and featuring the voice talents of Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, and Drew Barrymore, to 2,734 US theaters. The film will not be financially successful. Produced on a budget of US$75 million, the film will gross US$9,376,845 domestically in its opening weekend. After its opening weekend, Fox Animation Studios will be shut down and a video game being developed for the PlayStation will be canceled in order to save money. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 1 hr 34 mins

2003
Microsoft releases the last version of Internet Explorer to be made available for the Mac OS X, version 5.2.3. Visit the official website of Internet Explorer for the Mac..

Sony introduces the Clie PEG-NX73V handheld computer, featuring the Palm OS 5.0, a 200MHz processor, a digital audio player, a keyboard, 16MB RAM, a 0.31 mega-pixel camera, and a 320×480 pixel color screen. Price: US$499.99

Sony Electronics introduces the Clie PEG-NX80V handheld computer, featuring the Palm OS 5.0, a 200MHz processor, a digital audio player, a keyboard, 32MB RAM, a 1.3 mega-pixel camera, and a 320×480 pixel color screen. Price: US$599.99

2004
Version 0.7 of Mozilla Thunderbird, a free, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation, is released. This version includes several notable improvements, including a smaller download size, improved IMAP support, and an updated extension and theme managers. Visit the official Thunderbird website..

Version 0.61 of the operating system Desktop Light (DeLi) Linux is released. DeLi is a Linux Distribution for older computers, with processors ranging from 486 to Pentium II. It focuses on desktop usage, and includes an email client, graphical web browser, and office programs such as a word processor and spreadsheet program. A full installation, including XOrg and development tools, requires no more than 350MB of harddrive space. Visit the software’s official website.

2005
International Business Machines (IBM) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology announce that they are working on a computer model of the brain, creating a 3-D simulation of the neocortex.

2006
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) file suit in the Federal District Court of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to overturn a new law imposing fines for selling violent video games to minors. US District Court Judge James Brady grants a temporary restraining order preventing the state of Louisiana from enforcing the new law.

Version 2.41 of Sleipnir, a Japanese tabbed web browser for the Windows operating system, is released by Fenrir & Co. Visit the software’s English language website.

2007
Yahoo! officially retires the Yahoo! Auctions service, which it had launched in 1998 to compete against auction giant eBay. The service was preferred by many users to other services due to its no-fee policy (revenue was produced through advertising), but the service ultimately failed to gain traction against Ebay. During its shut-down, Yahoo! takes the unusual step of endorsing its main rival, eBay, as its “preferred” service.