The Great Geek Manual

Today is Hinamatsuri, a Japanese holiday for girls.

1863
United States President Abraham Lincoln approves an Act of Congress (12 Stat. L. 806) which charters The National Academy of Sciences. The Act stipulates that the Academy will “whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment or report upon any subject of science or art.” Members of the Academy will serve pro bono, without compensation, but the actual expenses incurred for the Government’s requirements are to be paid from appropriations.

1865
Provisions for photographs are included in the United States Copyright Act.

1873
The US Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail. Read the law. Read more about the history of the Comstock laws at About.com.

1883
The first steel vessels for the US Navy are authorized by Congress. Four ships are authorized in total: the cruisers Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago, and the dispatch boat, the Dolphin. Of these, the Chicago will be the largest, with a length of 325 feet and width of 48 feet. The Atlanta and the Boston will be 270 feet long and 42 feet wide.

1885
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) is incorporated in New York as a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Bell Company. The company will serve as a long-distance carrier, connecting the local Bell companies.

1904
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison’s cylinder.

1915
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is founded. NACA is founded as an emergency measure during World War I to promote the coordination of war-related projects. The mission of the NACA, which is modeled after similar European agencies, is to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research.

1915
D.W. Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation“, one of the most controversial films in cinematic history is released in the US. Earning ten million dollars, it will be the highest grossing film in history until 1925. It is important because of its innovative technical achievements, but controversial because of its promotion of white supremacy and its glorification of the hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Read a biography of D.W. Griffith at Gilda’s Attic.

1919
The first US international airmail service goes into operation. Mail is flown seventy-four miles from Seattle, Washington in the United States to Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. The carrier is pilot Edward Hubbard, flying a Boeing type-C open cockpit biplane with pontoons.

1923
The first radio facsimile is transmitted in the US, from the US Navy Radio Station NOF, at Anacostia in Washington D.C., to the Evening Bulletin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1945
During the a Mutual Broadcasting System radio program The Adventures of Superman, Superman encounters Batman and Robin for the first time ever. It is the first of many regular appearances that Batman and Robin will make on the program as efforts to launch a separate Batman radio series will continue to fail.

1959
The first US probe to enter solar orbit, Pioneer 4, is launched.

1966
The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom announces the authorization of PAL television transmissions in color, marking Britain as the first European nation to have a regular schedule of color broadcasts. The BBC will initially air four hours of color programming a week, which will increase to ten hours a week after the first year.

1969
NASA launches the Apollo 9 blasts off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the Apollo Lunar Module for the first time over the mission’s 151 orbits of the Earth (ten days).

1971
Magnavox signs an agreement with Sanders Associates for the exclusive licensing of television video game technology. The first home video game console, the Odyssey, was developed at Sanders by a team headed by Ralph Baer.

1972
NASA launches the Pioneer 10 spacecraft on a mission to become the first spacecraft to travel through the system’s asteroid belt. The spacecraft is equipped with the Intel 4004 microchip, the first “computer on a chip.” It will be the first probe to reach Jupiter and later, the first probe to leave the solar system in 1983. In twenty years and five billion miles, the probe and microchip will still be functioning. Visit the official NASA profile of the spacecraft.

1973
The Unix timestamp hits nine decimal digits at 9:46am GMT. Visit the Unix timestamp converter.

1975
The Homebrew Computer Club first meets in a garage in Menlo Park, California. Founders Fred Moore and Gordon French play host to about thirty microcomputer hobbyists, who spend the first meeting discussing the MITS Altair 8800, a computer that can be assembled at home from a kit. Several very high-profile hackers and IT entrepreneurs will later emerge from the ranks of the Homebrew Computer Club members, including the founders of Apple Computer. The club and others like it will contribute to the popularity of the personal computer. Read more about the Homebrew Computer Club at The Startup Gallery.

1982
A United States Federal Appeals Court in Chicago, Illinois overturns an earlier US District decision and ordering K.C. Munchkin, a Pac-Man look-a-like published by the North American corporation Philips Consumer Electronics, off store shelves. K.C. Munchkin will quickly become one of the popular character games for the Odyssey2 game system. Atari and Midway Manufacturing Company filed the suit jointly.

1989
The AmiExpo trade show is held in New York, over three days. The event is attended by 11,863 visitors. Commodore announces the A590 hard drive for the Amiga 500 and reports that the A2286 AT Bridgeboard had begun shipping in the previous week.

1991
The beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers after being chased for speeding is captured on amateur video by bystander George Holliday. The video, which shows four officers restraining and beating King while six other watch, will be widely broadcast, creating public outrage.

1995
Seiji Sanda, the president of Apple Japan, Inc., resigns over unresolved matters between Apple’s American and Japanese companies.

1997
Intel begins shipping Pentium OverDrive processors with MMX technology. Prices: US$399 for 125 MHz and 150 MHz processors, and US$499 for 166 MHz processors.

McAfee releases version 3.0 VirusScan with the Hunter Virus Detection Engine.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) announces a reduced suggested retail price of US$149 for the PlayStation game console. The company also announces that its Greatest Hits titles will be sold for a new low price of US$24.99. Greatest Hits are game titles that have sold more than one hundred fifty thousand units, that have also been on the market for over a year.

The website of the Loran International is the victim of a denial of service (DOS) attack.

1998
The website of Izmir College in Turkey is hacked by “Painfall for Ravena”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of the internet service provider (ISP) NetDex, Inc. is hacked by “The Analyzer” and “The Enforcers”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

The website of the University of Bordeaux is hacked by “Magica de Bin”. View an archived version of the defaced website.

Bill Gates, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft, appears at a Senate hearing to denies charges that Microsoft has sought to established a monopoly in the operating system market. Jim Barksdale, president of Netscape Communications also attends the hearing to make allegations that Microsoft has been systematically attempting to drive Netscape out of business.

1999
Activision and Expert Software jointly announce a merger in which Expert Software shareholders will receive US$2.65 a share from Activision for a total cost of about US$23 million. The companies expect the transaction to be completed in June of 1999.

The website Monicalewinsky.com is hacked by “MagicFX”. In a later interview with Forbes, MagicFX claims that he hacked the site because he was “anti-Clinton.” View an archived version of the defaced website.

2000
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announces it is phasing out its K6-III processor line.

Konami releases Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness for the Nintendo 64 in Europe. ELSPA: 11+

The website of Playstation 2 is hacked by anonymously. View an archived version of the defaced website.

2001
Per Lidén releases version 0.5.4 of the CRUX operating system. CRUX is a lightweight Linux distribution optimized for i686 systems, specifically designed for experienced Linux users. Visit the system’s official website.

2002
Palm introduces the Palm m130 handheld computer, featuring a 1.8 x 1.8 inch 65,536-color display, a USB docking cradle, a secure digital slot, the Palm OS, and 8MB RAM. The lithium ion battery can power the unit for about one week. Price: US$279

Palm introduces the Palm m515 handheld computer, intended to replace the m505. The system features a 2.2 x 2.2 inch 65,536-color display, a USB docking cradle, a secure digital slot, the Palm OS, and 16MB RAM. The lithium ion battery can power the unit for about one week. Price: US$399

2003
Konami releases the stealth action game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for the PlayStation 2 in North America. ESRB: M (Mature)

Version 8.4.2 of the Tcl/Tk programming language is released.

2005
In the Arkansas state legislature, Senator Shawn Womack introduces a bill that would require stores that rent or sell games with an Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating of M to display them at a minimum height of at five feet from the floor.

DreamCatcher Games releases the turn-based game Domination for Windows in the US. ESRB: T (Teen)

The first solo non-stop and fastest flight around the world without a refueling ends when Steve Fossett sets down at the Salina Municipal Airport in Saline County, Kansas sixty-seven hours after taking off from that same location. Fossett’s craft is The GlobalFlyer, a single-engine, single-use experimental jet plane. The flight was five years in planning, and it was sponsored by Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Officials report that computers at the admission departments of the business schools at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Stanford University, among others, are hacked by someone using the handle “brookbond.” The hacker gained access to internal admissions records then assisted applicants to the school in discovering their application’s status in advance of the schools’ official notification. On March 4, school officials at Harvard and Stanford will inform the public that applicants whose trespassing was detected will not be admitted to the schools.

2007
There is a total lunar eclipse.