1497
Nicolaus Copernicus first begins to record his astronomical observations.
1611
Dutch astronomer Johannes Fabricius becomes the first person to observe sunspots as he observes the rising sun through his telescope. Observing the Sun becomes painful, so Fabricius and his father will soon switch to making observations using a camera obscura. Johannes will later become the first to publish information on the phenomena in his book, Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum cum sole conversione (“Narration on Spots Observed on the Sun and their Apparent Rotation with the Sun”), the dedication of which will be dated June 13, 1611.
1932
The Ford Motor Company assembly line produces the first Ford Flathead engine.
1948
The Atomic Energy Commission and the University of California at Berkeley officially announce the artificial production of meson particles using the 184 inch cyclotron at the university’s Radiation Laboratory.
1954
The first local color television commercial, a furniture advertisement for Castro Decorators, is broadcast by station WNBT-TV in New York. The advertisement is for Castro convertible sofa beds that open into a bed, and it features a young girl pulling the bed out to demonstrate how easily the conversion is.
1959
The first known radar contact is made with the planet Venus.
1961
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 1710 industrial control system. The system, which will be widely used in paper mills and oil refineries, is designed for systems that interpret data from frequent samples. Visit the official IBM website.
The Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 9 is launched, completes one orbit, returns to Earth, and is successfully recovered. The spacecraft carries a dog named Chernushka, which is Russian for “Blackie,” a dummy cosmonaut, several mice, and a guinea pig. Read more about the history of Soviet Canine Cosmonauts at About.
1965
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 2260. Read a history of the IBM 2260 Display Station. Visit the official IBM website.
1967
The Star Trek episode “The Devil in the Dark” first airs. (No. 25) In it, the Enterprise arrives at Janus VI, where Kirk must deal with a mysterious creature that is threatening the colony’s miners. Memory Alpha entry
1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Lee Hedrich scores a record-setting 5,829,783 points playing the Atari arcade game Tempest at the Arcade City arcade in Naples, Florida. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
1984
Intel and International Business Machines (IBM) announce a licensing agreement under which IBM will manufacture processors based on Intel designs for its own systems.
New World Pictures releases the horror film Children of the Corn, directed by Fritz Kiersch and starring Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R. G. Armstrong, John Franklin, and Courtney Gains, to 350 US theaters. The film is based on the short story Children of the Corn by Stephen King. Produced on a budget of US$3 million, it will gross US$2,042,821 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 1 hr 36 mins
1985
Police raid two homes in Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey and a third in Voorhees Township to shut down the Hackers’ Heaven bulletin board system (BBS), seize approximately thirty-five thousand dollars worth of hardware, including the computer on which the system was hosted, and question a number of the board’s local users, who will later be dubbed by the media “Cherry Hill Gang.” No immediate arrests are made, but the next day, prosecutor will announce plans to charge nearly twenty members of an alleged hacking group with using personal computers to make free long-distance calls through Dial America, a long distance telephone service in Camden, New Jersey. All of the groups are males, and the oldest is twenty years old.
1986
In the Sunday, March 9 issue of the Staten Island Register, a weekly paper with a circulation of about 19,500, an article written by Scott Hettrick entitled, “Zap! Video games are making a comeback” is published. Tom Sloper, the director of video games at Atari, who is responsible for making “Pac-Man” a part of the English language, says “The game business is back.” In the same article, Michael Katz, executive vice president of marketing declares that “Atari has sold out of 7800 and 5200 units and will no longer produce the 5200, which was first released in 1982.”
The Soviet spaceprobe Vega 2 flies by Halley’s Comet at a distance of approximately 8,030km.
United States Navy divers recover the largely intact but heavily-damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The bodies of all seven deceased astronauts are still inside.
1989
A Commodore 64 computer appears on the popular daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, marking the rapid acceptance of computing into mainstream culture.
1991
NASA launches the Space Shuttle Discovery on the seventieth US manned space mission. (STS 39)
1993
Apple Computer, International Business Machines (IBM), Motorola, and four other computer companies form PowerOpen Association Inc. with the goal of creating shrink-wrapped PowerPC applications and promoting the new PowerPC technology for next generation personal computers. The association will test conformity to the PowerOpen environment, which will eventually lead to Apple’s Power PC. The association will disband in 1995.
Wizards of the Coast publishes the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons supplement The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 1560765739) Length: 127 pages
1995
The First Circuit Court of Appeals reverse the July 1992 District Court ruling that Borland International infringed on copyrights held by the Lotus Development Corporation when it developed the spreadsheet application Quatro Pro to compete with Lotus 1-2-3. The Appellate court rules that the features alleged to be infringing on copyright are a “method of operation” and thus not subject to copyright. The decision will later be affirmed by the Supreme Court in a 4-to-4 tie vote.
Version 8.0 of the Trusted Unicos operating system is released.
1996
A two-year agreement between CompuServe and Time Warner under which Time Magazine’s content will be provided to CompuServe members goes into effect.
1997
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) website is hacked and defaced with racial slurs by a fourteen year old high school freshman. Visit the official NCAA website.
1998
The Learning Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts, an educational software publisher, announces intentions to acquire computer game publisher Mindscape from Britain’s Pearson for US$97.5 million in cash and US$52.5 million in stock.
The website of Cheesi Software is hacked. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of IndoMarco Adi Prima is hacked by “BoKePH MeMeNDeZ & CYBeR BuG”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of the City of Poquoson, Virginia is hacked by “Zyklon”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Learning Link is hacked anonymously.
The website of Keystone Central School District in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania is hacked by “Zyklon”. Zyklon defaces the site with the message, “I love you Crystal!” View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of the Physics Department of the Brookhaven National Laboratory is hacked by “Toxic ‘n Xnec”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of the United States’ Naval Space Command is hacked by “The Noid” and “TechVoodoo”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1999
Del Rey publishes the fantasy novel The Demon Apostle by R.A. Salvatore as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345391535) It is the third book of seven in the DemonWars Saga. Length: 464 pages Visit the author’s official website.
The four millionth internet domain name, riedelglass.com, is registered.
The Internet Sacred Text Archive (ISTA) website is launched with the mission of preserving electronic public domain texts with cultural value. Visit the official Internet Sacred Text Archive website.
United States Vice President Al Gore gives an interview on CNN’s Late Edition in which he states, “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.” The statement, which will be widely misquoted as “I invented the Internet,” draws down immense criticism in the media and across the internet. Gore will be widely ostracized for the statement.
2000
Nintendo of America, Inc. agrees to provide protective sports gloves to approximately 1.2 million American consumer who purchased the Mario Party video game for the Nintendo 64 to settle a complaint raised by New York Attorney General’s offices alleging that players had sustained injuries as the result of using the system’s joystick to play the game. The estimated cost of the settlement could run as much as US$80 million or as little US$20,000, depending on the number of consumers who actually request the gloves. Nintendo also agrees to pay the state’s legal fees, which total approximately US$75,000. The Attorney General’s office had receiving nearly one hundred complaints from consumers, ranging from friction burns to minor lacerations. The injuries occurred when children playing one of several segments of the game -Cast Aways, Deep Sea Divers, Paddle Battle, Pedal Power, or Tug O’War – are required to rapidly rotate the joystick to win.
2001
Compaq Computer unveils the iPaq H3670 handheld computer, featuring 64MB RAM and the Pocket PC OS. It will be released in early April. Price: US$649
Compaq Computer unveils the iPaq H3635 handheld computer, featuring a Compact Flash slot and the Pocket PC OS. Price: US$599
2005
The CherryOS PowerPC emulator is publicly released for Windows.
In San Francisco, California, the Game Developers Conference is held over several days.
Sega acquires British video game developer Creative Assembly. Visit the official Creative Assembly website.
2006
Astronomers announce that the Cassini-Huygens probe has detected the possible presence of geysers of water on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. If proven, it would be the first example of naturally-occurring liquid water to be discovered outside Earth’s atmosphere.
At the CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany, Samsung Electronics announces the development of the first 10 megapixel mobile camera phone, the SCH-B600. It will be the first phone to feature an auto-focus, fill-light function. The phone will hit shelves in Korea on October 10th and cost 900,000 won (US$950).
Google announces its acquisition of Upstartle, the developer of Writely, an online collaborative document editing application. Google will develop the product into Google Docs. Visit the official Google Docs website.
Microsoft unveils the “Ultra Mobile PC” (UMPC) with a Windows XP derived operating system, previously dubbed Project Origami.
The NASA spacecraft Cassini-Huygens discovers geysers of liquid water on the surface of Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn. Visit the official Cassini-Huygens website.
2007
DefectiveByDesign, a Free Software Foundation initiative founded to lobby against digital rights management (DRM) technologies, publicly challenges Apple CEO Steve Jobs to prove his self-attest commitment to ending to digital rights management. Specifically, the organization calls for Jobs to remove DRM from the songs sold by independent artists on iTunes, remove DRM on Disney videos sold on iTunes, and fund a campaign to repeal the prohibition imposed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on bypassing digital rights management. The challenge comes in response to the open letter issued by Jobs on February 6, “Thoughts on Music,” in which he wrote, “Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store.”
The United States Justice Department publicly releases the results of a 126 page internal audit that found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has abused the USA Patriot Act in order to covertly obtain personal information on US citizens, including thousands of telephone records, without authorization. According to the audit, the agency under-reported the number of times that it used the Act in to force businesses to turn over customer data for three years. The USA Patriot Act was approved by Congress following the September 11th attacks to extend the bureau’s access to e-mail, financial, library, and telephone records of suspected terrorist without court approval.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota announce that their studies have shown that the normal use of cell phones caused no detectable interference with medical equipment used in hospitals.
Warner Bros. releases the film 300, directed by Zack Snyder and starring Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, Rodrigo Santoro, and Andrew Tiernan, to 3,103 US theaters. The film is an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel 300. Produced on a budget of US$60 million, it will gross US$70,885,301 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit the film’s official website. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 1 hr 57 mins
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