1618
Johannes Kepler formulates the Third Law of Planetary Motion. The third law states that, “The squares of the orbital periods of planets are directly proportional to the cubes of the semi-major axis of the orbits.” In other words, the period of a planet’s orbit around the Sun is determined by its distance from the Sun.
1775
Joseph Priestley, having discovered oxygen, experiments with mice in his home laboratory to determine whether or not it is necessary to support life.
1952
An artificial heart is used for the first time in a 41 year-old man. The heart keeps him alive for eighty minutes.
1955
Computer pioneer Doug Ross demonstrates the “Director” tape for MIT’s Whirlwind machine. The Director, which is the predecessor of operating systems for computers, relays instructions to the 4 year-old, 4,500 vacuum tube machine.
1960
For the release of Psycho, director Alfred Hitchcock and his distributor, Paramount, mandate that no one is to be admitted to theater auditoriums after the film has started so as not to spoil the suspense. This is the first step in what will eventually become the industry standard practice of holding discrete exhibitions of films, rather than continuously playing them throughout the day, as had previously been the practice. IMDB listing
1964
American International Pictures releases the horror film The Last Man on Earth, directed by Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona starring Vincent Price and Franca Bettoia, to US theaters. The film is based on the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 26 mins
1976
The largest single recovered stony meteorite in history (1,774kg) falls in Jilin, China, during a meteor shower that drops over four thousand kilograms of extra-terrestrial rock.
1978
The first episode of the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series airs on BBC Radio 4. The series is notable for being the first comedy series to be produced in stereo.
1979
The first extraterrestrial volcanoes are discovered on Io, a satellite of Jupiter, by the Voyager 1 space probe.
In Eindhoven, Netherlands, Philips publicly demonstrates a prototype of the first optical digital audio disc format (the Compact Disc) at a press conference.
1982
The Dallas Morning News prints a story entitled “Pac-Man’s doing Navy duty”, a syndicated article written by Bob Greene. In the article, Bob introduces Chief Petty Officer Julie Red, age 27, who had been named the best of the Navy’s 3,500 recruiters. Petty attributes her success to her tactic of hanging out in video game arcades and challenging young men to games of Pac-Man.
1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Bruce Borsato scores a record-setting 313,330 points playing the arcade game Buck Rogers at the Electric Pizazz arcade in Trail, British Columbia. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
IBM introduces the IBM Personal Computer XT. It features a Intel 8088 processor, a 10MB hard drive, eight expansion slots, serial port, 128 kB RAM, 40Kb ROM, a keyboard, and one double-sided 360kB floppy drive. The “XT” stands for eXtended Technology. Price: US$4,995
1991
Video game developers Broderbund Software and Sierra On-Line announce their intention to merge into a new company named Sierra-Broderbund.
1992
Version 0.95 of the Linux operating system is released. This is the first version capable of running X Window System. Visit the official Linux website.
1993
The nine month “Akron Anomaly BBS” case comes to an end, with Sysop Mark Lehrer pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “Attempted Possession of Criminal Tools” (his computer) to avoid a felony conviction. Lehrer had first been charged with distribution of pornography to minors, based on the presence of adult GIFs in a non-adult section of his BBS. The Akron, Ohio police department quickly withdrew this case and changed the charge to distribution of child pornography, though that charge was never proven.
1996
Acclaim Entertainment releases Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for the Genesis in the US.
John Dondzila releases Vector Vaders, the first new Vectrex-compatible video game in twelve years. Vector Vaders is a Space Invaders clone. Read more about Vector Vaders at Classic Game Creations.
Nintendo announces a two month delay in their plans to launch the Nintendo 64 in Japan. The company also announces the system’s launch titles, which will include: Virtual Chess 64, Super Mario 64, PilotWings 64..
Yahoo! acquires online communications company Four11. The company’s webmail service, Rocketmail, became Yahoo! Mail.
Visit the official Yahoo! Mail website.
|
|
|
