The Great Geek Manual

1800
In a letter, Alessandro Volta announces his invention of the voltaic pile, the earliest battery, to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society in London, England.

1886
An alternating-current (AC) electrical system is demonstrated by lighting Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts with electricity generated by the power planet of George Westinghouse.

1900
Nikola Tesla receives a patent for the wireless transmission of electric power. (US No. 645,576) View the patent online.

1916
Albert Einstein publishes an academic paper on his Theory of General Relativity entitled “Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Relativitästheorie” in the journal Annalen der Physik. Einstein’s theory accounts for the slow rotation of the elliptical orbit of Mercury, which Newtonian gravitational theory failed to explain.

1934
The first practical radar system is tested by Rudolf Kuhnold, Chief of the German Navy Signals Research Department, in Kiel Harbour, Germany. The systems uses a 700-watt transmitter on a frequency of 600 megacycles. During the test, the system successfully receives echoes off the battleship Hesse, 600 yards away. Read more about the history of the Radar.

1964
The European Space Research Organization (ESRO), the forerunner of the European Space Agency, is established per a June 14, 1962 agreement.

1977
JVC launches its VHS video format by running a two-page advertisement in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

1989
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Contagion” first airs. (No. 211) In it, the Enterprise and a Romulan vessel are infected by a virus that destory another Federation ship. Memory Alpha entry

1994
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Profit and Loss” first airs. (No. 218) In it, Quark’s old flame returns to the station, but he discovers that she no long harbors any feelings for him. Memory Alpha entry

1995
In San Francisco, California, the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) is held over three days. Visit the official WinHEC website.

In Tokyo, Japan twelve people are killed and more than thirteen hundred others sickened when packages containing Sarin gas are released on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.

1996
Infogear files for a U.S. trademark “IPhone”, which will be granted in 1999. The trademark covers “computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks.” In 1998, Infogear will release a telephone with an integrated web browser under the brand name iPhone. Shortly after Steve Jobs will announce the Apple iPhone in June 2007, Cisco will issue a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple, but on January 10, 2007, Cisco will announce a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name.

1997
Apple Computer releases the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) to commemorate the company’s twentieth anniversary. The system features a 250MHz PowerPC 603e, a 256KB Level-2 Cache, 32MB – 128MB RAM, 2MB VRAM, a 2GB hard drive, a 1.4MB floppy drive, a 4x CD-ROM drive, an FM radio tuner, and the Mac OS 9.1 operating system. The system is the first Apple desktop to feature a track pad, the first Apple desktop with a flat screen, the first Apple PowerPC desktop to diverge from the beige tower design, and the first Apple to feature a vertical CD drive. Only twelve thousand of the systems will be produced. Browse a gallery of photos of the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. Price: US$7,499

1998
Network Associates, Inc. (NAI), which acquired PGP, Inc. in December 1997, announces the sale of a version of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) outside boarders US through both a Dutch and Swiss subsidiary company, after having legally exported the source code behind PGP as a printed document to circumvent laws restricting the export of cryptographic software.

Two teenagers hack T-Online, the online service run by Germany’s national telephone company and steal the details of hundreds of bank accounts. The two sixteen year old hackers brag about their exploits, calling Deutsche Telekom‘s security for the online service “absolutely primitive.” Visit the official T-Online website.

1999
Legoland California, the the third Legoland theme park and the only one outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California. Visit the official Legoland website.

2000
The 3Com Corporation announces plans to exit the high-end data networking market and to sell its dial-up modem business to a company newly formed by the Accton Technology and NatSteel Electronics. Shipments of 3Com’s NetBuilder and PathBuilder will be discontinued on June 20, 2000. Visit the official 3Com website.

Intel releases the 850 and 866MHz Pentium III processors. Price: US$765 and US$776 in 1000-unit quantities

2001
GameDaily reports that Capcom announces that it is withdrawing from the arcade-game business, which it has been in since 1984, in order to focus on home video game development. According to a statement released by the company, arcade games accounted for only thirty percent of the company’s gross revenue at its peak.

New York City police disclose that thirty-two year old high school dropout, Abraham Abdallah, allegedly duped more than two hundred Forbes-listed corporate Chief Executive Officers out of millions of dollars by using computers to obtain credit records to “borrow” their identities in order to transfer funds and fraudulently purchase merchandise. Abdallah’s victims include Paul Allen, Michael Eisner, Steven Spielberg, Ted Turner, and Oprah Winfrey.

Teradyne, Inc., a manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment, announces that it has plans to lay off 650 employees and that it will delay the salaries of its remaining personnel. Visit the official Teradyne website.

2002
At the Macworld Conference & Expo in Tokyo, Japan, Apple Computer introduces the 10GB iPod. Visit the official Apple iPod website. Visit the official Macworld Conference & Expo website.

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Rogue Planet” first airs. (No. 118) In it, the crew encounter an alien hunting party on an uncharted planet. Memory Alpha entry

Tor Books publishes the fantasy novel A Dragon’s Ascension by Ed Greenwood as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0765302225) It is the third book in the Band of Four series. Length: 384 pages

Tor Books publishes the fantasy novel Rulers of the Darkness by Harry Turtledove as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0765300362) It is the fourth book in the darkness series. Visit the author’s official website. Length: 656 pages

2003
The data recorder or “black box” of the Space Shuttle Columbia was recovered near Hemphill, Texas.

Victor Gollancz Ltd. publishes the science fiction novel Broken Angels by Richard Morgan as a hardcover. (ISBN 0-575-07323-3) It is the second book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. Length: 400 pages

2004
The BBC announces that actor Christopher Eccleston will play the Ninth Doctor when the popular science fiction series Doctor Who returns to television after a nine year hiatus. TV.com entry

2005
Hackers break into a housing and food service computer system at the California State University at Chico. The system contains the identity information of about fifty-nine thousand current, former and prospective students, as well as faculty and staff members. The hackers install root kit software on the system that allowed them to secretly store games, movies, and music on the system’s computers. They also attempt to break into other university computers, but are unsuccessful, according to later reports from school officials. While there is no indication that the hackers specifically targeted confidential information, the University will notify those whose information is in the database to expect the worst. As a result of the break in, the university will no longer require students and employees to provide Social Security numbers in its campus identification systems.

Yahoo! acquires Ludicorp, the company behind the popular photo sharing website Flickr for approximately US$40 million. Visit the official Flickr website.

2006
Amazon.com releases a statement explaining that it had modified the results its site returns when users query the term “abortion.” Entering the query had previously prompted the site’s search engine to ask “Did you mean adoption?” as part of an automated usability feature. After receiving complaints that the results made the company appear biased on the issue because entering the query “adoption” didn’t trigger a similar response, the question was removed from the results.

The film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is released on DVD in the UK and becomes the fastest selling DVD in UK history, selling six copies per second on the day of its release and 1.4 million copies in the first week following its release alone.

2008
In an article published in the advance online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Erik C. Madsen of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri announces that he had successfully corrected a genetic mutation in the embryos of zebrafish so that the embryos developed normally. Using the same technique, they predict that may be able to prevent upwards of one-fifth of human genetic birth defects, the portion statistically caused by genetic splicing defects. The work is an enormous step towards a future in which doctors can tailor a treatment to an individual’s genetic makeup.

The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rules that the identities of filesharers may not be revealed to media companies alleging infringement. In future, only those accused of what the court terms “heavy crimes” such as child pornography, kidnapping, or murder will have their privacy breached. The ruling is a major blow to organizations seeking to clamp down on peer-to-peer networks.

2009
The final episode of the science fiction series Battlestar Galactica, “Daybreak, Part 2” first airs. (No. 422) In the episode, which is two hours long, Admiral Adama leads Galactica into battle to rescue Hera from a Cylon Colony positioned on the cusp of a black hole. In doing so, though, the ship is irreparably damaged. In it’s final jump, Starbuck uses Hera’s musical notes as coordinated to make one final jump. The series consisted of seventy-three episodes, a two-part miniseries that acted as a “back door pilot,” one TV movie, and twenty-seven internet webisodes. It was based on the popular 1978 series of the same name.