The Great Geek Manual

This Day in Geek History: May 19

19 May 2008 Geek History

1908
Electrical engineer Frank Pearne and his son, Howard, also an electrical engineer, receive a patent for the typebar page printer. (US No. 888,335)

1910
A photo of Halley's Comet taken in 1910 The Earth passes through the tail of Halley’s Comet. A few years earlier, astronomers discovered that another comet contained Cyanogen, and scientists predicted that, if Earth passed through Halley’s comet tail, everyone would die.

1922
Charles Francis Jenkins achieves his first successful television transmission in his laboratories.

1924
Bell System engineers publicly demonstrate the first transmission of pictures over telephone wires.

1927
Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opens on Hollywood Boulevard. Read more about Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

A photo of Sid Grauman's Chinese Theatre taken in 1927

1932
John Logie Baird demonstrates the Visiophone in Paris, France. The Visiophone is an early telephone capable of transmitting both audio and video.

1940
Winston Churchill makes his first radio broadcast as prime minister.

1959
The construction of the first submarine powered by two nuclear reactors, the USS Triton, is completed on behalf of the US Navy. The ship is 447 feet long and 37 feet wide, and it has a top cruising range of 110,000 mile. Once it goes into service, it will be manned by a crew of 148. In 1960, it will become the first ship history to completely circumnavigate the globe while submerged.

The Venera 1 Space Probe 1961
Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly past another planet when it passes Venus, however, it lost contact with Earth a month earlier and is incapable of transmitting the data it collects back.

1967
The USSR ratifies a treaty with England and the United States banning the use of nuclear weapons in space.

1971
Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union. The Mars probe’s mission is to conduct of a series of scientific investigations of the planet Mars and the space around it.

1975
Aryabhata, the first Indian satellite, is launched.

1980
The National Computer Conference is held in Anaheim, California, over four days.

At the National Computer Conference (NCC), Apple Computer introduces the Apple III, featuring a 2MHz 6502A microprocessor, a 5.25-inch floppy drive, and 128KB RAM. Price: US$4,340 to US$7,800

1983
NASA launches the Intelsat V satellite.

1987
Doubleday published the fantasy novel Daughter of Empire by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0385233934) It is the book in the Empire Trilogy. Length: 394 pages

A patent for a device for “keeping a head alive” is issued to Chet Fleming. (US No. 4,666,425) The device is a cabinet which provides the biochemical support for a sustaining the bodily processes of a severed head, including oxygenated blood and nutrients circulated through tubes connected to the subject’s arteries and veins that are exposed at the neck. The patent was tested on animals, but it suggests that it could be used to treat people suffering from terminal illnesses, as well.

1993
Namco releases Rolling Thunder 3 for the Sega Genesis in North America.

1995
Right Stuff releases the versus fighting game Battle Tycoon: Flash Hiders SFX for the Super Famicom in Japan.

1996
Sony Computer Entertainment reduces the price of the PlayStation in the US, from US$299 to US$199. Visit the official PlayStation website.

1997
Hewlett-Packard (HP) begins shipping the HP 300LX and 320LX handheld computers.

Intel announces the 133MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology for notebook computers. Price: US$284 in 1000-unit quantities

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Empok Nor” first airs. (No. 524) In it, one of the station’s plasma distribution manifolds breaks down, and a team is sent to Deep Space Nine’s abandoned sister space station, Empok Nor, to salvage components. Memory Alpha entry

Universal Studios releases the science fiction film The Lost World: Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard, and Vince Vaughn, to 3,281 US theaters. It is the sequel to the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Produced on a budget of US$73 million, it will gross US$72,132,785 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit the film’s official website. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2 hrs 9 mins

Version 4.2 (Biltmore) of the Red Hat Linux operating system is released. Visit the official Red Hat website.

1998
All seven members of LØpht, a famous hacker collective based in Boston, Massachusetts, (Brian Oblivion, Kingpin, Mudge, Space Rogue, Stefan Von Neumann, John Tan, Weld Pond) testify before Congress that they could shut down the entire Internet in thirty minutes.

The Galaxy 4, a communications satellite, strays from it’s orbit and disrupts service to millions of pager customers and several television feeds. PageNet, one of the companies most severely effected, will estimates that as many as ninety percent its 40 to 45 million United States pager customers lost service.

Midway Games releases Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. to arcades. It will later be released for the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation. ESRB: M (Mature)

Namco releases the versus fighting game Tekken 3 for the PlayStation in Japan.

1999
After a sixteen year lull, Twentieth Century Fox releases a new Star Wars movie, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, directed by George Lucas and starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Natalie Portman to US theaters. Produced on a budget of US$115 million, the motion picture shatters box-office records with the largest single day gross in history – over US$28.5. The film goes on to gross US$64,820,970 in the opening weekend and more than US$102.7 million within its first five days. IMDB listing

LucasArts releases the racing game Star Wars: Episode I: Racer for the Nintendo 64 in the US. The game is based on the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. ESRB: E (Everyone)

The SourceGear Corporation releases the free open source word processor AbiWord for the first time. The name “AbiWord” is derived from the root of the Spanish word “Abierto” which means open. AbiWord is supported on BeOS, Linux, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, and other operating systems. Visit the official AbiWord website.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Extreme Measures” first airs. (No. 723) In it, Sloan appears in Julian Bashir’s quarters, baited by a fake announcement of a cure for the plague ravaging the Changelings. When Sloan sees no way to get out of Bashir’s interrogation, he kills himself, but as his body dies, Bashir and O’Brien use an “optronic engrammatic interpreter” to infiltrate Sloan’s mind. Memory Alpha entry

The Star Trek: Voyager episode “Warhead” is first aired. (No. 525) In it, the crew recovers an artificially intelligent device embedded in rock, but once aboard Voyager, it takes control of the Doctor and reveals itself to be an active weapon of mass destruction. Memory Alpha entry

2001
Summoner Apple Computer opens the first two locations of the twenty-five retail stores which will be opened in the US by year’s end. One is located in McLean, Virginia and the other is located in Washington, D.C. Within the first weekend of their opening, they will attract 7,700 shoppers, and they will sell a combined total of US$599,000 of merchandise. Visit the official Apple Store website.

THQ releases a port of the PlayStation 2 game Summoner for Windows in Europe. Visit this game’s official website.

2003
Microsoft agrees to license Unix technology from the SCO Group. Visit the official SCO website.

2004
DreamWorks SKG releases the animated feature Shrek 2, directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon and featuring the voice talents of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, and Jennifer Saunders, to 4,163 US theaters. The film has the fourth highest grossing opening day in US history. Produced on a budget of US$150 million, it will gross US$108,037,878 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit the film’s official website. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 1 hr 33 mins

Microsoft releases Microsoft Office 2004 for the Macintosh. Visit the official website for Microsoft Office for Windows.

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Countdown” first airs. (No. 323) In it, Archer seeks support from the aquatic Xindi to stop the reptilians and find the Sphere Builders who are directing them. Memory Alpha entry

2005
The final version of the Netscape Browser, version 8.0, is released, followed a few hours later by version 8.0.1, which incorporates the key security patches of Firefox 1.0.4. Visit the official Netscape website.

Germany’s Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court) rules that, for the purposes of exploitation rights contracts, DVD media does not fall into the category of as-yet-unknown technologies, for which contracts may not be made under German law, but is analogous to videocassettes.

Hudson Soft and Ubisoft release Bomberman for the Nintendo DS in Japan. Visit the game’s official website. CERO: A (All ages)

Nintendo releases the puzzle game Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! for the Nintendo DS in Japan. Visit this game’s official website. CERO: A (All ages)

Nintendo releases the puzzle game DK King of Swing for the Game Boy Advance in Japan. CERO: A (All ages)

Nintendo releases WarioWare: Twisted! for the Game Boy Advance in Australia. OFLC: G (General)

Twentieth Century Fox releases the science fiction film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, directed by George Lucas and starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and Hayden Christensen, to 3,661 US theaters. The motion picture sets the record for the largest midnight opening of all-time with a US$16.5 million take. Within hours of the film’s release, a workprint of the film was leaked to filesharing networks. Produced with a budget of US$113 million, the films will gross US$108,435,841 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit the film’s official website. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2 hrs 26 mins

Metal Gear Acid 2 for the PlayStation Portable 2006
2K Games releases The Da Vinci Code for Windows, the PlayStation 2, and Xbox in Europe and North America. The game is based on the novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. ESRB: T (Teen)