The Great Geek Manual

1881
Sir William Huggins makes the first photographic spectrum of a comet (1881 III) and discovers Cyanogen (CN) emission at violet wavelengths.

1930
The first radar detection of an aircraft takes place in Anacostia, DC.

1938
Scores of eyewitnesses observe the explosive roar of a huge fireball streaking over Butler County, Pennsylvania. A cow is struck and injured by a falling stone, which turns out to be an olivine-hypersthene chondrite (amphoterite). Two pieces of the stone meteorite, named the Chicora for the region in which it fell, are found. The two halves have masses of 242g and 61g and are discovered several miles short of the calculated point of impact of the main mass, which isn’t found. The original total mass is an estimated 519 tons before it explodes about twelve miles up.

1947
The first known sighting of an unidentified flying object, or UFO, is recorded when pilot Kenneth Arnold reports noticing nine luminous disks he describes as “saucers” as he flies near Mount Rainier, Washington.

1957
In the case of Roth v. United States, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment. FindLaw entry

1963
Home video recorder technology is first demonstrated at the BBC News Studios in London by Norman Rutherford and Michael Turner of Nottingham Electronic Valve Company (NEVC). The recorder is a Telcan fixed-head longitudinal videotape recorder. The machine uses quarter-inch tape running at 120 ips (10 feet/sec) past fixed heads, carrying two low-resolution black and white 15-minute tracks. The open-reel machine is mounted on the top of a television cabinet. The machine will never go on sale, as both will the Telcan and NEVC corporations will collapse. Price: £61 19s (£61.90)

1964
The Picturephone video telephone system is first demonstrated in U.S.

1975
A moon tremor, caused by Taurid meteors, is detected by the seismometer network left on the Moon’s surface by American astronauts. The major series of lunar impacts between the June 22nd and 26th of 1975 represents five percent of the total number of impacts detected during the eight years of the network’s operation, and includes numerous one ton meteorites. The impacts are detected only when the nearside of the Moon (where the astronauts landed) is facing the Beta Taurid radiant. At the same time, there is a lot of activity detected in Earth’s ionosphere which is linked with meteor activity. The Taurid meteor storm crosses the Earth’s orbit twice a year, during the period between June 24th and July 6th and the between November 3rd to November 15th.

1982
Commodore International announces that James Finke will leave the company as president at the expiration of his contract on June 30th.

1983
Warner Bros. releases the sci-fi film Twilight Zone: The Movie, directed by Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller, and Steven Spielberg and starring Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Vic Morrow, Scatman Crothers, Kathleen Quinlan, John Lithgow, and Burgess Meredith to 1,275 U.S. theaters. The film remakes three classic episodes of the original Twilight Zone television series and includes one original story. The film is perhaps made headlines when a helicopter accident took the lives of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors during the film’s production. Produced on a budget of US$10 million, the film will gross US$6,614,366 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 1 hr 41 mins

1986
Democratic House Representative Albert Gore introduces Senate Bill 2594, the Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986. The bill calls for a study of the possibility of creating fiber optic links to supercomputer centers, requiring the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to issue a report on the subject.

1987
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) releases the sci-fi comedy film Spaceballs, directed by Mel Brooks and starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga, Rick Moranis, Mel Brooks, Dick Van Patten, George Wyner, and Joan Rivers, to 1,384 U.S. theaters. The film’s plot and characters contains numerous parodies of elements from the Star Wars trilogy. The script was written by Mel Brooks in just six months, and it was approved by George Lucas, as he was a big fan of Brooks’ previous films. Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic was also involved in producing the visual effects of the film. Produced on a budget of US$22.7 million, the film will gross US$6,613,837 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 1 hr 36 mins

1988
Touchstone Pictures releases the comedy film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, directed by Robert Zemeckis (live-action) and Richard Williams (animation) and starring Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer, and Kathleen Turner, to 1,045 U.S. theaters. Produced on a budget of US$70 million, the film will gross US$11,226,239 domestically in its opening weekend. At US$70 million, Roger Rabbit is one of the most expensive films to date, but it will prove to be a sound investment, earning over US$150 million during its theatrical run. The film is notable for including a unique combination of animation and live action, as well as a combination of cartoon characters from different studios (Disney and Warner) in a single film. It is also one of the last performances of Golden Era voical actors Mel Blanc and Mae Questel. The film will win four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards ceremony in 1989. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 1 hr 43 mins

1993
Severe Tire Damage, without the permission of the Rolling Stones, use the MBONE to perform some songs preceding and following the Stones’ concert. Described in the press as a “renegade band” who “electronically crash[ed] the party,” Severe Tire Damage will take credit for being the first musical group in history to perform a warm-up set in a different city than the headliner band. Somewhat peeved, the Rolling Stones soon described their computer-savvy competitors as “furry Palo Alto Geeks.”

Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter is severely injured by a mailbomb he receives from the Unabomber. He will lose the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand.

1994
The Computer Game Developers Association is formed by Ernest W. Adams to promote and strengthen the video game industry and to promote computer games as an art form. Visit the organization’s official website.

1995
GTE Entertainment releases the 3D fighting video game FX Fighter for the personal computer. It is the first realtime 3D fighting game to be developed for the PC. The game features eight different characters, eight different arenas, movie cut-scenes, and forty attacks per fighter. The player selects a character to play against eight of the best fighters in the universe for the prize of the most powerful weapon in the universe.

1996
After repeated threats via email and snail mail Network Solutions drops 9,272 domain names from its Domain Name System (DNS) tables for failure to pay their domain name fees.

1997
3DO completes the sale of its hardware business to Samsung for US$20 million.

Nintendo releases the racing game Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 64 in Europe. It is the sequel to the popular Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

The United States Supreme Court lets stand a ruling in favor of Nintendo that overturns a jury’s decision to award US$208 million in damages to Alpex Computer in a patent infringement case filed in 1986. Alpex’s claim was that the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) violated a 1977 patent for a device that displays video images.

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