The Great Geek Manual

1884
The state of Mississippi approves the first state-supported college for women, the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.

1889
Almon Brown Strowger files a patent for an automatic telephone system. The system is functional, and it will be installed in the town of Laporte, Indiana in 1892, but the system patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 will beat out Stowger’s patent in terms of popularity.

1894
Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton sells the first bottles of his tonic, Coca-Cola. He created the liquid in his backyard from a combination of cinnamon, coca leaves, lime, and kola nuts brewed in a brass kettle in an attempt to find an alternative to alcoholic beverages during prohibition. He markets the formula as a brain and nerve tonic for medical use, but he’ll later add carbonated water and sell it as a beverage.

1907
German engineer Alfred Maul is issued a patent for a camera-carrying space rocket. It can carry photography equipment and scientific instruments and return safely. Maul is the same engineer who in 1904, successfully took aerial photographs of the ground from a height of 600 meters (2,000 ft.) by attaching cameras to a black powder rocket, thereby creating the first instrumented sounding rocket.

1923
Dr. Lee De Forest, the inventor of the radio tube, demonstrates the first motion picture system to feature sound recorded onto a track of the film at a press conference. He calls the system, which he developed in 1920, Phonofilm. To demonstrate the system, he shows a film that features dancers and musicians with music playing in the background, without dialog. The narrow strip of dark and light running along the margin of the film’s photo frames are converted into cell by a photocell built into the system’s projector.

1934
John Logie Baird publicly demonstrates his television system to the Prime Minister and senior BBC officials among others at the Film House at 142 Wardour Street in London, England.

1953
Television is first broadcast in Hawaii.

1973
The BBC begins test transmissions of the world’s first teletext system, Ceefax. The system offers a range of text-based information, including news, weather, and television schedules.

1976
Knopf publishes the historical fantasy novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0394494008) Length: 193 pages

1974
The Soviet spacecraft Mars 6 enters into orbit around Mars and launches its lander, which will return atmospheric data during its descent but fail before reaching the planet’s surface.

1977
Del Rey publishes the fantasy novel The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks as a paperback, less than three months after publishing a hardcover edition. (ISBN-10: 034524804X) Length: 726 pages

1980
Del Rey publishes the science fiction novel Split Infinity by Piers Anthony as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345286456) It is the first book in the Apprentice Adept series. Length: 372 pages

1981
Soyuz T-4 carries two cosmonauts to the Salyut 6 space station.

1983
Del Rey publishes the fantasy novel White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345303075) It is the third and final book in The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Length: 485 pages

1984
Del Rey publishes the science fiction novel The Integral Trees by Larry Niven as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345312708) Length: 240 pages

1986
The first Centrum fur Buro- und InformationsTechnik (CeBIT) exhibition, the world’s largest computer expo, is held in Hanover, Germany. The event attracts 2,142 exhibitors and 334,400 visitors. The event was previously a part of the annual industry exhibition, but beginning with this year, it is held separately, a month after the industry fair, due to its increasing popularity. Centrum fur Buro- und InformationsTechnik translates to “Centre of Office and Information technology.” Visit the official CeBIT website.

The Giotto space probe, which was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), encounters Halley’s Comet the Comet. On March 14, the probe will make a close pass to examine the comet’s nucleus. Visit the official website of the Giotto mission.

The Oracle Corporation goes public with revenues of US$55 million. Visit the official Oracle website.

1987
Del Rey publishes the science fiction novel The Annals of the Heechee by Frederik Pohl as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345325656) It is the fourth book in the Heechee Saga. Length: 338 pages

1990
The Alien Nation episode “Rebirth” first airs. (No. 19) In it, Sikes becomes convinced that there’s a Tenctonese criminal on the loose with the ability to resurrect the dead.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Offspring” first airs. (No. 316) In it, Data creates a female version of himself to serve as a daughter, but when Starfleet command learns of the development, an Admiral comes aboard to demand that the new android be removed from the Enterprise. Memory Alpha entry

1993
K Amusement Leasing releases 2020 Super Baseball for the Super Famicom in Japan.

Paramount Pictures releases the science fiction film Fire in the Sky, directed by Robert Lieberman and starring D. B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, Craig Sheffer, Peter Berg, and James Garner, to 1,422 US theaters. It is based on the book The Walton Experience, which tells the real life account of Travis Walton, who claims to have been abducted by a UFO on November 5, 1975. The film will gross US$6,116,484 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 1 hr 49 mins

A US federal judge awards Steve Jackson Games of Austin, Texas US$50,000 plus expenses which will include US$250,000 in legal fees for its lost profits in 1990, following the March 1990 United States Secret Service raid investigating alleged computer hacking activities which resulted in extensive equipment seizures. The judge also rules that the Secret Service violated the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) when it seized stored messages from many of the BBS users who were not suspected of anything. Read the ruling in Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service at MIT’s website, or read more about the whole case at Steve Jackson Games.

1996
Microsoft announces the acquisition of Colusa Software Inc., a developer of object-oriented programming tools. Colusa’s primary product, Omniware, allows users to download programs from the Internet and run them in a fully protected memory space. Industry analysts speculate that such software could be used to compete with Sun Microsystems’ Java.

1997
Acclaim releases The Crow: City of Angels for the Saturn in the US. It is loosely based on the film The Crow: City of Angels.

Namco, Poligon Pictures, and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) found Dream Pictures Studio in a joint venture with a combined capitalization of ¥200 million (US$1.6 million) to focus on the production of fully computer generated feature films.

The National Semiconductor Corp. completes the sale of Fairchild Semiconductor. Many consider Fairchild the “original” Silicon Valley company.

1998
Bandai releases the versus fighting game Gundam: Battle Assault for the PlayStation in Japan.

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) makes the previously voluntary incorporation of (V-chip) filtering technology into televisions mandatory. The technology provides parents with an embedded ratings system with which to gauge the suitability of programming for children and to allow parents to automatically block unsuitable programming. Visit the official FCC website.

Tecmo releases the versus fighting game Dead or Alive for the PlayStation in Japan.

1999
Twentieth Century Fox releases the science fiction film Wing Commander, directed by Chris Roberts and starring Freddie Prinze, Jr., Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard, Tchéky Karyo, Jurgen Prochnow, and David Warner, to 2,019 US theaters. According to Electronic Arts (EA), Wing Commander is the first feature film based on an original computer game series. It is based on the video game, Wing Commander, by Origin Systems, Inc. (OSI), an Electronic Arts company. Produced on a budget of US$30 million, the film will gross US$5,114,365 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 40 mins MPAA Rating: PG-13

2000
A Brazilian hacker group known as “Crime Boys” attack the websites of US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Training Center, the US Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Command (ROTC), and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The Crime Boys’ hack into the National Training Center site, which is part of the BLM, at 8pm, and deface the agency’s homepage with a message protesting corruption in Brazil’s government. The message they leave reads, “Hello, Crime Boys [sic] entered in your server for two reasons, for him to be badly configured, or better, very badly configured, and to protest against the Brazilian government, a corrupt government, that nothing does for Brazil to improve.” The hacks are described by another hacker using the handle “-artech” as unsophisticated exploitation, usually of Active Perl and Microsoft FrontPage. As a result of the attacks, NASA will block all Internet traffic from Brazil.

2001
Handspring introduces the Visor Edge handheld computer, featuring an 33MHz MC68VZ328 DragonBall processor, 8MB RAM, a 4-bit grayscale 160×160-pixel display, and version 3.5.2H of the Palm OS. Weight: 4.8 ounces

Konami releases the turn-based tactics game Ring of Red for the PlayStation 2 in Canada and the US. It is among the last games released for the PlayStation 2. ESRB: T (Teen)

2002
Electronic Arts (EA) releases LEGO Creator: Harry Potter for Windows in the US.

Electronic Arts (EA) releases the first-person shooter (FPS) James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire for the GameCube and Xbox. ESRB: T (Teen)

Ubisoft releases the real-time strategy (RTS) game Warlords Battlecry II for Windows in the US. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)

2003
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) introduces twelve new Athlon XP-M “Thoroughbred” mobile processors based on Centrino architecture, with 256KB Level-2 Caches, 266MB Front-Side Buses, and speeds of 1.66, 1.8, 2.0, and 2.13 GHz, respectively.

Major notebook computer manufacturers announce the availability of models based on Intel’s Pentium M processor.

2004
Eidos releases the survival horror game Resident Evil Code: Veronica is releases for the GameCube in PAL regions. Visit the game’s official website. BBFC: 15

Sammy Studios releases Seven Samurai 20XX for the PlayStation 2 in North America. The game’s storyline is loosely based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai. ESRB: T (Teen)

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) releases the stealth-based survival horror game Siren as Forbidden Siren for the PlayStation 2 in Australia and Europe. Visit the game’s official website. PEGI: 16+