1655
Christiaan Huygens discovers Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, using a simple telescope with magnification of fifty, and subsequently determines the period of its revolution. The moon will be named two centuries later.
1857
Frederick Laggenheim takes the first photograph of a solar eclipse.
Leon Scott de Martinville patents the Phonautograph, the first machine to record sound, twenty years before Thomas Edison invents the first Phonograph. However, unlike the later phonograph, the device is able to record sound but unable to play it back. As such, the phonautograph will become well-known among scientists but will remain a scientific instrument used in the study of sound waves. Read more about the history of phonautograph.
1896
The first film shown in the United Kingdom outside London is given at the Pandora Gallery, in Brighton, using a “cinematographe” to project the film.
1922
George William Goddard achieves the first thrust from a liquid rocket engine. Goddard’s test engine produces four pounds of thrust, but only for only a brief time.
1925
John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of his television system at the Selfridges department store on Oxford Street in London, England. It will be ten years before the introduction of television with higher definition in Britain on November 2, 1936.
1932
MGM releases Tarzan the Ape Man, directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starring Johnny Weissmuller, Neil Hamilton, Maureen O’Sullivan, and C. Aubrey Smith, to US theaters. The film was produced on a budget of US$652,675. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 39 mins
1951
Edward Mills Purcell and H.I. Ewen of the Harvard physics lab first detects 21-cm radiation (1420.4 MHz) in outer space.
1954
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) begins producing the first mass-produced all-electronic color television receiver, the RCA CT100. The receivers’ screens are 12½ inches across with a price of US$1,000. Due to the high price of these initial television sets, it will take more than a decade for color televisions to become popular enough for regular color broadcasts to become a regular part of network programming. Visit the official RCA website.
1961
Sputnik 10 is launched into Earth orbit with a dog named Zvezdochka (Little Star) and a wooden mannequin aboard. The dog will be recovered alive.
1970
The prototype British-built airplane, the Concorde 002 makes its first supersonic flight at a speed of 700mph (1,127kph). On October 1, 1969, the French prototype, the Concorde 001, broke the sound barrier, and it will achieve Mach 2 on November 4, 1970. The Concorde 002 will achieve Mach 2 on on November 12, 1970.
1974
The United States branch of Sega legally changes its name to Sega Enterprises, Inc. Visit the official Sega website.
1977
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 3033 processor, the most powerful computer in the company’s lineup to date. Visit the official IBM website.
1979
The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center from Palmdale, California, where it was built, to be prepared for its first launch on April 12, 1981. Visit the official NASA website for the Shuttle Columbia.
1991
The first Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference (CFP) is held Monday, March 25 through Thursday, March 28 in Burlingame, California. CFP is an annual academic conference held to discuss the intersection of computer technology, freedom, and privacy issues. Visit the official Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference website.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Identity Crisis” first airs. (No. 418) In it, La Forge is transformed into an alien creature by an infection received during an away mission five years ago. Memory Alpha entry
Version 2.1 of the NEXTSTEP operating system is released.
1992
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a ten month stay aboard the Mir space station. Read a biography Sergei Krikalev.
Microsoft releases version 4.0 of the Excel spreadsheet application. Excel is the latest in a line of business applications that have made computers increasing more appealing to the mainstream public. It is based on VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet application and “killer ap,” which was written by Dan Bricklin and Ed Frankston and will be released for the Apple II in 1979.
1995
Ward Cunningham publicly launches the first wiki on the internet, the WikiWikiWeb. The wiki is a part of the Portland Pattern Repository A wiki is a software application which allows users to collaboratively create, edit, link, and organize reference content online. Cunningham dubbed the database “wiki” for the Hawaiian word for “quick” because it was built in the hope that the system might speed up the transfer of documentation and ideas between collaborating programmers. He began inviting colleagues to use the wiki nine days earlier, on March 16th. Six years later, the concept will explode in popularity when Wikipedia is launched.
1996
Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) claims that more than one million PlayStation video game consoles and seven million PlayStation game titles have been sold since the system’s launch on December 3, 1994. Visit the official PlayStation website.
1997
Version 2.2.1 of the FreeBSD operating system is released by the The FreeBSD Project. Visit the official FreeBSD website.
1998
The JTS Corporation reports a shockingly low net profit of US$65,000 on revenues of US$20.1 million. Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tom Mitchell, reveals that the company can no longer meet the criteria to remain listed on the American Stock Exchange.
2000
America Online (AOL) and eBay unveil an agreement to cross-market to each other’s customers. AOL will becomes the officially endorsed internet service provider (ISP) of eBay and eBay listings and message boards will become accessible through AOL.
2003
Ubi Soft releases Shadowbane, a free fantasy mmorpg for personal computers. Play ShadowBane online for free. ESRB: T (Teen)
2004
The Comcast cable company purchases TechTV channel from Vulcan Programming, Inc. Comcast will merge the channel with its own G4 gaming channel to form G4TechTV, which will premiere on Friday, May 28th. Visit the official Comcast website.
A prototype of a mechanized five-ton, three meter tall disaster-rescue robot, the T-52 Enryu (“rescue dragon”), is unveiled in Japan. The robot is designed to clear a path through flaming debris through which rescue workers may retrieve disaster victims. The robot can be piloted from cockpit or remotely.
Yahoo! acquires the European ecommerce search engine Kelkoo. Visit the official Yahoo! website.
2005
Blue Gene/L, the world’s fastest supercomputer, reaches a processing speed of 135.5 trillion calculations a second, beating its own previous world record. Read more at BBC News.
U1 Technology releases the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Little Fighter Online for personal computers. Visit the game’s official website. PEGI: 10+
2007
Intel releases the 1733MHz Celeron M 530 processor, featuring a 1024KB Level-2 Cache and a 533MHz Front Side Bus. Visit the official Intel website. Price: US$134
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger launches the Citizendium, a free wiki-based encyclopedia similar to Wikipedia. The site was created to improve upon the Wikipedia model by requiring contributors to use their real names, more strictly regulating contributions, and providing peer-review. Visit the official Citizendium website.
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