240 BC
Chinese Astronomers record the first confirmed perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet. The account is confirmed by Babylonian, Japanese, and Mesopotamian astronomers.
1791
After a proposal in the journal Académie des sciences by Borda, Condorcet, Lagrange, Laplace, and Monge, the French National Assembly finally decides that a metre will be defined as ten millionth of the distance between the north pole and the equator.
1842
Physician Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia first uses ether as an anesthetic in surgery. The patient is James Venable, and the surgery is to remove a tumor from the man’s neck.
1858
Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is granted the first US patent for a lead pencil with an eraser. (US No. 19,783) One-fourth of the length of the pencil contains a piece of india-rubber, so that cutting one end prepares the pencil for writing and cutting the other end prepares it for erasing.
1950
The invention of the phototransistor is announced by Bell Telephone Laboratories of Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was invented by Dr. John Northrup Shive.
1951
The first commercial computer, the UNIVersal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC I), is unveiled by John William Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, formally of the University of Pennsylvania. The computer was manufactured under the company name of Sperry Rand Corporation for the United States Census Bureau. Although the Census Bureau will begin using the computer at the end of March, it won’t actually be moved to the Census Bureau for months. The system is capable of performing 1,905 operations per second and storing data on magnetic tapes. The event raises concerns at International Business Machines (IBM) because the new computer will replace many of the punch card machines previously supplied by IBM. The UNIVAC will remain in operation through 1963, and it will also be sold to companies such as General Electric and Sylvania.
1953
Albert Einstein announces his revised unified field theory.
1955
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea two Oscars, one for Art Direction – Set Decoration and one for Special Effects. The film is the third cinematic rendition of the classic Jules Verne science fiction novel.
1961
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 1203 unit for preparing checks for automated demand deposit accounting. Visit the official IBM website.
1964
The Merv Griffin’s game show Jeopardy! debuts on the NBC network with Art Fleming as host. Visit the official Jeopardy! website.
1976
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) announces new teller terminals and powerful, advanced controllers for the IBM 3600 finance communication system. Visit the official IBM website.
1978
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces a powerful, dual-processor version of the IBM 3033. Visit the official IBM website.
1982
The Space Shuttle Columbia lands at the White Sands Missile Range in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the completion of mission STS-3.
1983
Warner Books publishes Pilgrim in the Microworld: Eye, Mind and the Essence of Video Skill by David Sudnow as a hardcover. (ISBN: 0446512613) The book is dedicated to “Paul, Jessica, Larry and Danny; With the fearful prayer that the only ICBMs they ever encounter are the Atari sort.” It revisits Sudnow’s initial experiences with video games and his views on the industry as a sociologist and a musician. Length: 227 page
1990
IBM releases version 1.2 of its proprietary AIX/370 and AIX PS/2 operating systems.
1992
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The First Duty” first airs. (No. 519) In it, Wesley is investigated after a Starfleet Academy flight training accident. Memory Alpha entry
1993
AT&T Graphics Software Labs closes. It had been responsible for the development of such software as Comet CG, Panorama, Rio, StudioMaster, and Topas.
1994
Nintendo names Rare and Williams as partners and a self-described “dream team” in the development of Project Reality, a modification for the computer game Battlefield 2 that produces a more realistic combat environment. Visit the official Project Reality website.
1997
Fawcett Books publishes the fantasy novel In the Shadow of Evil : The Handkerchief by John Saul as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0449227886) It is the fourth book in the Blackstone Chronicles. Visit the author’s official website. Length: 96 pages
1998
Two sixteen year old teenagers hack into the ISP of Germany’s national telephone company, T-Online, stealing hundreds of bank account numbers and playing online games for free. They will later brag about their exploits to the German magazine c’t, calling the company’s security for its online service “absolutely primitive.” Later, the teens will also claim to have destroyed all of the financial data they stole without using it.
The website of AQ Art & Design is hacked by “zhad0w & wierdo”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1999
According to some source, including Russian newspapers, the main NATO web server is hacked and forced offline for at least a half-hour by anti-NATO activists. It is believed that the hacking was performed by the same group that defaced the White House website; however NATO will never official confirm the hack.
Settlement talks between Microsoft and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) break down.
2000
DailyRadar.com reveals that Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) is expected to recall and replace as many as 1.25 million PlayStation 2 startup software disks for copies that do not enable consumers to play DVD movies from any region on the PlayStation 2 game system which was initially distributed in Japan.
In an article written by Tony Smith, The Register reveals that two classic video game emulators, MAMED and MESSD, can be operated on certain digital cameras from Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, and Minolta. MAMED is based on the well-established Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) and MESSD is a derivative of Multi Emulator Super System (MESS).
The website of White Power is hacked anonymously. The defaced website contains a script that crashes the computer of any user who attempts to load the website. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of YahooMart is hacked by “wkD”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
Yahoo! reveals that the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into Yahoo’s consumer information practices. A Yahoo! Spokesperson will state that the company believes that the investigation was triggered by a January report by the California Healthcare Foundation criticizing Yahoo! for its privacy practices. Visit the official FTC website.
2001
Bill Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corporation, pledges that the launch of the forthcoming Xbox video game system will be accompanied by eleven game titles developed by Sega Corporation. Visit the official Xbox website.
Officials report that almost thirty students have been suspended from Lincoln High School in Stockton, California for conspiring to hack into school computers to alter official attendance records in order to qualify school functions such as prom.
Quantum sells its hard drive business to Maxtor, but continues selling other storage products and services. Visit the official Quantum website.
2004
Microsoft reduces the price of the Xbox video game system in the US from US$179.99 to US$149.99, and in Canada from CDN$249 to CDN$199.99. Visit the official Xbox website.
In the case of SCO v. IBM, IBM amends its counterclaims to apply two declaratory judgments stating that neither its AIX developments nor its other operating system developments had infringed on SCO Group copyrights.
2005
Cinemaware Marquee releases the computer game Darwinia for the Mac OS X in the UK. PEGI: 7+
Version 2.4.1 of the Python programming language is released. Visit the official Python website.
2006
NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency launch the thirteenth mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Expedition 13. Aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz TMA-8, astronaut Marcos Pontes becomes the first Brazilian in space. Read a biography of Pontes at the NASA website.
2008
In Lakeland, Florida, a group of six high school girls using two boys as lookouts brutally beat a sixteen year-old girl named Victoria Lindsey as they video tape the event in order to post the video to the popular video sharing site YouTube. When the eight teens, who range in age from 14 to 18, are later apprehended and charged with kidnapping (a first-degree felony) and battery, the incident will make national headlines. Though it was far from the first incident in which minors had committed violence for the purpose of creating videos to post online, the case will be among the most highly covered by the media. Media stories will raise concerns regarding the national rise in “cyberbullying” incidents. Though the video will be seized by the Polk County Sheriff’s department and everyone involved with the case will be placed under a gag-order by the courts, the video will be released under media pressure, after which, it will ironically be posted to YouTube, where it will briefly become one of the site’s most popular videos.
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