1858
The Donati Comet is first seen named after its discoverer. Giovanni Battista Donati, of Florence, Italy.
1875
Alexander Graham Bell discovers that he can hear the sound of a twanging clock spring transmitted over a wire while working on his experimental “harmonic telegraph.” Bell’s assistant Thomas Watson, was attempting to free a reed from the pole of an electromagnet when it twanged. Bell, working it the telegraph’s receiving room heard the noise and came to realize that transmitting speech should be possible, as the complexity of the twang bore a resemblance to the tones of a human voice.
1891
Thomas A. Edison is issued a patent for his “Sextuplex Telegraph.” (U.S. No. 453,601)
1896
The first radio patent was issued to Guglielmo Marconi in England for his wireless telegraphy apparatus, described as “Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus Therefor.” (UK No. 12,039)
1955
Construction of the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch facility in Soviet Kazakhstan begins. While it is built as a long-range missile facility, it will eventually be expanded for launching space missions.
1961
International Business Machines (IBM) releases the IBM 1301 Disk Storage system. Each module of the 1301 has twenty-five disks, each of which features fifty tracks per inch with a 520 bits per inch density and a total data storage capacity of 28MB (28 million characters). As many as ten modules can be added to an IBM 7000 series mainframe or IBM 1410 using the IBM 7631 file control unit for a total of up to 280MB of storage for the 7000 series or 250MB for the 1410. Read more at the system’s official IBM website.
1966
The NASA lunar lander Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) on the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to set down on an extraterrestrial body. In the course of its lifetime, it will transmit over eleven thousand television pictures of the surface of the Moon back the Earth.
1988
International Business Machines (IBM) introduces the PS/2 Model 70 with the 80386 processor at 16, 20, and 25MHz clock speeds. IBM also introduces the PS/2 Model 25 LS and PS/2 Model 50 Z. Visit the official IBM website.
1994
Vic Tokai releases the racing game Top Gear 2 for the Sega Genesis in North America.
1997
Compaq Computer introduces the TFT500 15.1-inch active-matrix flat-panel display. Price: US$3,799
Intel releases the 233MHz Pentium MMX processor. Price: US$594 in 1000-unit quantities
The Spring ’97 COMDEX, Spring Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and Windows World ’97 trade shows are held in Atlanta, Georgia, over four days. Visit the official CES website. Visit the official COMDEX website.
1998
The CIH computer virus is first discovered in Taiwan.
1999
Arthur A. Levine Books publishes the fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling as a hardcover in the US. (ISBN-13: 978-0439064866) It is the second book in the Harry Potter series. The book was originally published in the UK on July 2, 1998. Visit the author’s official website. Length: 352 pages
2000
Sony announces it plans to sell the PlayStation 2 chipset to other manufacturers. Visit the official PlayStation website.
The website of Tennis Korea is hacked by “senn”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
2003
The Walt Disney Company publicly launches the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Toontown Online for personal computers. It is marketed as the first such MMORPG, designed for children with kid-safe restrictions. Visit the game’s official website. CERO: A (All Ages) ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 3+
2004
Electronic Arts releases Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for Windows, the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It is based on the novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling. ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G (General)
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