512
A solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland.
1613
The original Globe Theatre in London, England burns down accidentally when a cannon discharged during a performance of William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII sets fire to the building’s thatched roof.
1888
Edison’s foreign sales agent, Colonel George Gouraud, makes a wax cylinder recording in the Crystal Palace, London of a four thousand person choir performing Handel’s Israel in Egypt at a distance of more than one hundred yards from the phonograph. It is the first known recording of classical music.
1929
Construction of the first high-speed jet wind tunnel is completed at Langley Field, California, the field laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Preliminary design work began November 14, 1928. The tunnel is capable of producing wind speeds of about 600mph, permitting the testing of aerofoils. Read more about the history of wind tunnels at the US Centennial of Flight Commission and NASA websites.
1936
NBC station W2XBS broadcasts the first high-definition television signal from the Empire State Building using a 343-line system.
1948
This day marks the installation of the thirty millionth telephone in the Bell System.
1952
BBC begins to research the size of television audiences for the first time.
1954
By a vote of four to one, the US Atomic Energy Commission decides not to reinstate access to classified information to Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb.” The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 required consideration of “the character, associations, and loyalty” of the individuals engaged in the work of the Commission. Substantial defects of character along with imprudent and dangerous associations, particularly with known subversives who place the interests of foreign powers above those of the United States, are considered reasons for disqualification. The Commission regards his associations with persons known to him to be Communists exceeds tolerable limits of prudence and self-restraint, and lasted too long to be justified as merely the intermittent and accidental revival of earlier friendships.
1961
The first US rocket to release three satellites is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Thor-Able-Star rocket Omicron 1 carries three payloads. The previous year, a similar rocket launched a payload of two satellites on June 22, 1960. A launch of eight satellites from one rocket will occur on March 9, 1965.
1972
The sci-fi film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, and Natalie Trundy, is released to US theater. It is the third sequel to the 1968 science fiction film Planet of the Apes. In it, Apes have replaced cats and dogs as pets and, shortly after, as servants. Ceaser, the son of Cornelius and Zera (who died in the previous film) leads a rebellion against the humans. The film will gross US$9,043,472 during the course of its theatrical run. IMDB listing
1979
United Artists releases Moonraker, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Roger Moore as James Bond, Michael Lonsdale, Lois Chiles, Richard Kiel, and Corinne Clery, to 788 US theaters. It is the eleventh film in the James Bond franchise and the fourth to star Roger Moore. This installment takes Bond into space, where, in the climax of the film, a platoon of marines battle a cult whose mission is to wipe out all human life on Earth in a Star Wars-style laser fight. Produced on a budget of US$34 million, the film will gross US$7,108,344 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing
1984
Warner Communications begins talking with Jack Tramiel about the possible sale of part of Atari.
1989
CompuServe, the first major commercial online service in the United States, buys The Source, one of the earliest online services available in the United States for an undisclosed sum. CompuServe will shut it down for good on August 1st.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Emissary” first airs. In it, Worf’s ex-girlfriend comes to the Enterprise to help the crew intercept a 75-year-old Klingon exploration ship which believes the Federation and the Klingons are still enemies. Memory Alpha entry
1990
Irem releases the puzzle game Kickle Cubicle as Meikyuu Shima for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in Japan.
Sega releases Ghostbusters for the Mega Drive/Genesis. The game takes place between the films Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, and the Ghostbusters are down on their luck. Random calls begin to pour in from around the city, including the eventual reappearance of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. After each case, a piece of a medallion is collected. The three Ghostbusters are trying to put together the pieces of a stone tablet.
1992
Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) and MIPS Computer Systems merged in a stock swap valued at US$333 million. SGI is a leader in computer graphics software and hardware and MIPS, founded by Stanford University Engineering School Dean John Hennessy, developed high-speed computer chips.
1995
Atari receives the first batch of Super Burnout game cartridges for the Jaguar 64-bit game system from the factory.
Namco releases the flight simulator Air Combat for the PlayStation in the US. The game is part of the Ace Combat series.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the the space station Russian space station Mir for the first time. The mission will last until July 4, 1995 and includes the exchange of Russian crew members. The docking tests a special module similar to one that was to be used to link shuttles with the international station when it was completed. For these five days, the space vehicles will form the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth. During this mission, astronauts will answer questions from school students over amateur radio, and perform life science experiments aboard the SpaceLab. The SpaceLab experiments are designed to understand how the Russian Space program combats the effects of long durations in space on the human body.
1998
Capcom releases Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the Dreamcast, GameBoy Advance, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Sega Saturn in Japan and the US.
The Gigabit Ethernet Alliance announces that the IEEE has ratified 802.3z as the Gigabit Ethernet standard.
Intel introduces the Pentium II Xeon processor for use in midrange and higher servers and workstations, which operates at 400MHz, and includes 7.5 million transistors, a 100MHz bus, and a 64bit system bus.
1999
The Brazilian website of Centro de Informatica e Automaçáo do Estado de Santa Catarina S.A. is hacked by “bl0w team”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
THQ releases Rugrats: Scavenger Hunt for the Nintendo 64 in the US. The game is based on Nickelodeon’s popular animated series The Rugrats.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Companion.
2000
America Online completes the acquisition of Mapquest.Com.
Blizzard Entertainment releases Diablo II for Windows in Europe and North American and for the Mac in Germany and North America. It is the sequel to the popular game Diablo, and, like its predecessor, it’s a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game with a hack and slash or “Dungeon Roaming” style.
Capcom releases Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes for the Dreamcast in Japan. it is the fourth and final game in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise of fighting games.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) unveils the fastest computer in the world, the ASCI White. The computer was developed for the Department of Energy’s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) and is capable of processing more calculations within one second than one person could do in ten million years on a common calculator. The peak performance of the computer is 12.3 teraflops, or 12.3 trillion operations per second. This extremely high performance is achieved through parallel processing. The system’s 8,192 IBM RS6000 SP Power3 processors each run at 375 MHz. The system also includes a total of 6Tb of RAM and more than 160 Tb of IBM TotalStorage 7133 Serial Disk System capacity. The system is housed in over two hundred cabinets and fills a large room the size of two basket ball courts and weighs 106 tons. The computer runs IBM’s AIX operating systems. User applications can be developed using the wide variety of languages including FORTRAN and C/C++. Read more at the IBM website.
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) files a voluntary dismissal of their patent case against the Connectix Corporation. Connectix makes and markets a virtual PlayStation for Macintosh and personal computers. The case, originally filed on Monday, February 14, 2000, alleged that Connectix infringed on eleven Sony-owned patents.
Twenty-nine year old Ikenna Iffih, a student at Northwestern University’s College of Computer Science, pleads guilty to hacking into U.S. government computers on June 29, 2000. He will be sentenced on November 17, 2000 to six months of home detention, forty-eight months of supervised release, and US$5,000 in restitution. The targets of his attacks included the US Defense Logistics Agency, Department of the Interior, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Zebra Marketing Online Services (ZMOS), and Northeastern University.
Ubisoft releases the role-playing game (rpg) Evolution 2: Far Off Promise for the Dreamcast in North America. It is a sequel to Evolution: The World of Sacred Device. Like the first Evolution game, Evolution 2 is a dungeon crawler, with both random and predetermined dungeon maps.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! India.
Yahoo! launches the Yahoo! Player.
2001
Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment release the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack for the role-playing game Diablo II for the personal computer in Europe, North America, and Poland.
Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) reveals that they have asked their work force for volunteers to take pay cuts and/or time off in the form of a ten percent pay cut or eight paid vacation days.
Novell releases iFolder, an open source cross-platform program for sharing files across computer networks, for Windows NT and 2000 and Novell NetWare 5.1. Visit the software’s official website.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) lowers the price of the PlayStation 2 to US$281.7 beginning Friday, June 29. Nobumasa Morimoto-san of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Securities states that “…35,000 yen is not the price kids can afford…” SCEI boasts that 9.2 million PlayStation 2 units have been shipped globally for the fiscal year ending Saturday, March 31, but the net loss for the company totals 51.1 billion yen due to the sizable investments the company has made to launch the product.
Square Electronic Arts releases Final Fantasy Chronicles video game for the PlayStation in the US. The package includes Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy II in the US) and Chrono Trigger.
Sunflowers releases the role-playing game Technomage for the PlayStation in Europe.
2004
Activision releases Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 2 in the US. It the sequel to the game Spider-Man: The Movie and is based on the film Spider-Man 2.
Sony Computer Entertainment releases the third-person shooter SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. It’s the sequel to SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs.
2005
CCP Games releases the Exodus: Cold War content patch. Cold War contains an extensive new tutorial sequence and a storyline introduction. Challenging “Level 4″ agent missions are added for experienced players, as well as “COSMOS” constellations where in-space agents give out story-driven missions and unique rewards. The freighter and dreadnaught capital ships, full-fledged player-owned “outposts,” and improved NPC pirate factions bring deep space play to a new level. This expansion also adds Unicode chat support, allowing for communication in Asian, Cyrillic, and Greek languages.
Chronic Logic and Stardock release Gish for Windows in Germany.
A new patch allows Everquest players to remain in the Mines of Gloomingdeep tutorial level up to their level ten. The level previously only supported players up to level five.
Operation Site Down is conducted by the FBI in cooperation with law enforcement agents from ten other countries. The operation executes seventy raids in the United States and twenty in the ten other countries. These raids target leading warez groups which distribute and trade copyrighted games, movies, music, and software over the Internet. During the course of the raids, the FBI will seize 118 desktops, 13 laptops, and 4,567 disks. The operation will close down ten major filesharing networks, including eight major warez servers, and result in at least thirty-two charges and twenty conviction in the first year alone, though the operation will be considered on-going by the US Department of Justice even after that. Read the official Department of Justice press release.
The science fiction film War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, and Tim Robbins, is released to 3,908 US theater. The book is the fourth remake of the original 1953 film adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel of the same name. Produced on a budget of US$132 million, the film will gross US$64,878,725 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing
2006
Bandai releases Super Dragon Ball Z for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.
CDV releases the role-playing game Night Watch for Windows in North America. The game is based on the Russian novel and the movie.
Hollywood Pictures releases the horror film Stay Alive, directed by William Brent Bell and starring Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush, Jimmi Simpson, Adam Goldberg, and Milo Ventimiglia, to 2,009 US theaters. After the brutal death of a friend, a group of friends find themselves in possession of a video-game called “Stay Alive,” the blood-curdling true story of a seventeenth century noblewoman known as the Blood Countess. After playing the game, the friends realize that when they die in the game, they die for real. As they begin dying in the ways that they died in the game, the remaining friends realize that they must defeat the Blood Countess or accept their fate. Produced on a budget of US$9 million, the film will gross US$10,726,406 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing Visit the movie’s official website.
Konami releases Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS in Japan. It is the first Castlevania video game to appear on the Nintendo DS, and is a sequel to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
The LA Times publishes a scathing editorial condemning the United States’ space shuttle program. “The shuttle is an unsafe, expensive way for humans to explore space just a few hundred miles above Earth. The problem with the shuttle isn’t chunks of foam, it’s the shuttle itself. NASA should mothball the program and put the nation’s scientific and technological expertise to better use.”
Matrix Games releases Panzer Command for the personal computer. It’s a turn-based strategy game following the historical operations of war for both the German and Soviet sides of the Eastern front.
Nintendo releases the pet simulation Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS in China.
Nintendo releases Super Mario 64 DS for the Nintendo DS in China. The game is an enhanced remake of the 1996 video game Super Mario 64. The remake includes new characters, levels, modes of play, and minigames, as well as updated graphics designed to take advantage of the capabilities of the DS system.
Nintendo releases the Nintendo DS portable gaming system in China.
Sega releases Chromehounds for the Xbox 360 in Japan.
Ubisoft releases the third-person shooter Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (aka Ghost Recon 3 or G.R.A.W.) for the Xbox 360 in Japan.
Version 2.0.3 of OpenOffice.org, a free cross-platform office suite of applications, is released.
2007
Apple releases the iPhone. Visit the official iPhone website.
Electronic Arts releases Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for personal computers, the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox 360, and Wii in Europe. It is based on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling and the film adaptation. Visit the game’s official website. PEGI: 7+
Microsoft releases the stealth action game Tenchu Z for the Xbox 360 in Europe. Visit the game’s official website.
Sega releases the racing game Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in Australia. Visit the game’s official website. OFLC: PG
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