The Great Geek Manual

1883
The first long-distance telephone service between Chicago and New York City is inaugurated.

1898
An automobile is sold for the first time in history.

1930
The planet Pluto is officially named. The name was suggest by a eleven year-old girl named Venetia Burney from Oxford, England. The name was selected from three suggestions by a unanimous vote of the members of the Lowell Observatory. The other two possible names were “Cronus” and “Minerva.” Read more about the history of Pluto.

1959
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) invites applications for over-the-air paid television experiments, for a three-year period. Only one trial will be permitted in any market with at least four commercial television stations.

The “Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation” (MASER) is patented by Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes. (US No. 2,879,439) The device is an apparatus for producing coherent electromagnetic energy from excited atoms. It will be used to amplify radio signals.

Robert Noyce of Texas Instruments (TI) publicly demonstrates the first integrated circuit. The circuit demonstrated consists of a sliver of Germanium with five components, each linked by wires.

1964
Relay II relays the first trans-Pacific broadcast made via satellite.

1965
The first “teach-in” is held at the University of Michigan to protest the U.S. government’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The students who stage the anti-war demonstration hope to slow the escalation of the war. Soon after, teach-in demonstrations will be held across the nation, and many historians will later cite the protests as a crucial factor in influencing the government’s later decision to withdraw from Vietnam.

The NASA spacecraft Ranger 9 transmits images of the Moon to homes across the U.S. before it crash lands ten miles (16km) northeast of the lunar crater Alphonsus.

1982
Microsoft U.K. Ltd. is incorporated. Visit the official Microsoft UK website.

1992
NASA launches the Space Shuttle Atlantis on a mission to study the Earth’s atmosphere. (STS-45) The first Belgian to travel into space, Dirk Frimout, is aboard the shuttle as a member of the crew. It is the first space mission dedicated to studying the environment.

1996
NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid transfers from the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Russian space station Mir, beginning a five-month stay. (STS-76) On July 15, 1996, she will break the U.S. space endurance record of 115 days.

1997
Apple Computer releases the MessagePad 2000 personal digital assistant. The device features a blazing fast 160MHz StrongARM processor. Price: US$949 Weight: 1.4lbs

1998
Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. offers 7.5 million common shares in an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Visit the official EB Games website.

In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys, ages eleven and thirteen, open fire on fellow students at Westside Middle School while remaining hidden in the nearby woodlands. Both boys are heavily armed and wearing full camouflage. Four students and one teacher are killed and ten others are injured in the incident. Because of the clearly premeditated nature of the crime, first-person shooter (FPS) games came under criticism in the media. Read more about the massacre at CNN.

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