The Great Geek Manual

1906
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, are granted a US patent for their “new and useful improvements in Flying Machines”. (US No. 821,393) It is the first airplane patent in the US.

1925
Tokyo Broadcasting Station becomes the first Japanese radio broadcaster. Later in the year it will move to Atagoyama, where it will begin regular transmission.

1930
An audience at Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady becomes the first to see closed-circuit television projected onto a big screen.

1933
The Loch Ness Monster is first reportedly sighted by John Mackay in Scotland.

1967
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the longest-running children’s series on US television, airs its first episode.

1969
The Apollo 10 Lunar Module passes within 15.4 km of the surface of the Moon. The pass is intended to test the craft’s landing radar, visual observation of lunar lighting, stereo photography of the moon, and execution of a phasing maneuver using the descent engine. An error in switch position brought a heart-stopping moment when the Lunar Module ascent stage went into wild gyrations after separation from the descent stage. The error may have been fatal if it had occurred during take off from the surface on a landing mission.

1973
Xerox PARC engineer Robert Metcalfe writes a thirteen page memo in which he describes a method of transmitting data from early personal computers to the newly developed laser printer, as part of his (Harvard) PhD thesis. He calls his multipoint data communications system “Ethernet.” The term refers to medium-independent transmission of data packets, in reference to the discredited theory that an “ether” in space allows transmission of light rays between the Sun and the Earth. Metcalfe and David Boggs will later create the first Ethernet network (running at 2.944 Mbps) between two computers named Michelson and Morley, after the 19th century scientists who disproved the existence of ether. A US patent for “a Multipoint data communication system with collision detection” will be issued to Metcalfe on December 13, 1977, and Ethernet will eventually become the world’s most popular network standard. (US No. 4,063,220)

1977
Pertec purchases Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) and the Altair line for US$6 million in stock.

1979
The discovery of a Clovis type projectile point found in association with Mastodon remains provides the first solid evidence of the coexistence of humans and the American mastodon in Eastern North America. Paleontologist Russell W. Graham of the Illinois State Museum made the discovery during a state sponsored excavation in the Kimmswick Bone Bed, near Imperial, Missouri.

1980
In Japan, Namco releases what will arguably become the most influential arcade game of all time, Pacman. At the time of its release, most arcade games are space shooters. By introducing a new genre, Pac-Man blazes the way for a whole host of innovations that contribute to the rise in popularity of arcade games. More than 100,000 units will be shipped to the US alone, where the game will become an icon of eighties pop culture.

1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Eric Glick, age 18, scores 1,311,290 points playing Atari’s Tempest after one hour and thirty minutes at a 7-11 convenience store in Houston, Texas. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1984
In Atlanta, Georgia, the Comdex/Spring ’84 trade show is held, over four days. About fifty thousand people attend.

At the Comdex trade show, Hewlett-Packard shows the LaserJet laser printer. It is based on the Canon 300 dpi LBP-CX laser printer. Price: US$3500

At the Comdex trade show, Lotus Development introduces the Framework application for the IBM PC.

1989
Compaq Computer introduces the Compaq Deskpro 386/33 computer, models 84, 320, and 650, featuring a 33 MHz 80386DX processor, 64KB 33 MHz cache, and 2MB RAM. Price: US$10499 to US$17999

The first successful transfer of cells containing foreign genes into a human being is performed at the National Institutes of Health. The cells are altered cancer-fighting cells placed in the blood of a cancer-patient.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Up the Long Ladder” first airs. In the episode, Picard must unite two separate groups of descendants of an ancient colonizing mission to ensure their survival. One is a group of technologically advanced clones, while the other a group of primitive rural Irish farmers.

1990
Microsoft officially releases the Windows 3.0 operating system at a ceremony held by CEO Bill Gates at the City Center Theater in New York City. Microsoft spends US$3 million on opening-day marketing, as part of a US$10 million promotional campaign. The new version of Microsoft’s operating system, which will later be credited with making IBM-compatible computer user-friendly, boasts a streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capabilities for the Intel 386 processor. This version also allows addressing memory above 640kB. It will sell over one hundred thousand copies within two weeks of its release.

1992
20th Century Fox releases the science fiction film Alien³, starring Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, and Lance Henriksen to 2,227 US theaters. Produced on a budget of US$50 million, it will gross US $19,449,867 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 1 hr 54 mins

California Superior Court confirms the arbitror’s ruling in the arbitration between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

1993
A full-length movie, “Wax: Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees,” is broadcast on the Internet for the first time. This version of the movie had to be converted into black and white, and transmitted at the rate of two frames per second. The eighty-five minute movie first appeared in theaters around 1992. An earlier online version, the “WaxWeb,” wasn’t the original movie, it was an adaptation consisting of hypertext, thousands of still pictures and audio files, and hundreds of video clips. It inspired communication theorists to discuss such subjects as “machine-mediated narration” and “specialized fiction.” View an archived version of the movie online.

1994
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Collaborator” first airs. (No. 224) In the episode, a Bajoran who aided the Cardassian occupation forces wants to return home. Memory Alpha entry

1995
Astronomers Amanda S. Bosh and Andrew S. Rivkin discovers two new moons of Saturn in photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Star Trek: Voyager episode “Learning Curve” first airs. (No. 116) In the episode, Tuvok singles out several Maquis members who have not fully integrated into the Voyager crew for additional training. Memory Alpha entry

1996
Paramount Pictures releases the film Mission: Impossible to 3,012 theaters in the US. It is the first movie based on the popular sixties television series of the same name. The film features a large number of computers, including a black laptop computer which is used to monitor several video cameras, another computer running the Netscape web browser, and a portable Apple computer. A Verbatim 230MB optical disk also appears in the film. Produced on a budget of US$80 million, it will gross US$45,436,830 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 50 mins

1997
Adobe Systems ships the Illustrator 7.0, a vector-based drawing program for Windows and Macintosh, in Canada and the US. Price: US$595, upgrade US$99

Apple Computer announces that it will make its Newton Systems Group a subsidiary company.

Gateway 2000, Inc. shifts its stock trading from the Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol of GTW.

1998
Connecticut-based, PanAmSat Corporation announces that they have rerouted the majority of pager signal traffic to the Galaxy 3R satellite after the Galaxy 4 satellite dropped from full operation Tuesday, May 19 and left millions of pager customers without service.

DisneyQuest opens at Downtown Disney West Side at the Walt Disney World Resort in Walt Disney World. It provides five stories of high-tech attractions, mainly consisting of advanced video games and simulators.

GT Interactive releases the first-person shooter Unreal for Windows.

Microsoft submits a request to United States District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to consider granting Microsoft until late December to respond to substantial antitrust lawsuits recently brought against them. The lawsuits stem from alleged business practices implemented by Microsoft including the integration of Internet Explorer into their popular applications.

Version 5.1 (Manhattan) Red Hat Linux is released.

1999
The Mortal Kombat: Conquest episode “Vengeance” first airs in the US. The episode is the twenty-second and final episode of the series.

2000
Intel introduces two new Xeon computer chips targeting the network server market. The new chips run at 700MHz, are manufactured using 0.18 micron technology, and feature and integrated cache. The one megabyte cache version will sell for US$1,177 and the two megabyte cache version will sell for US$1,980.

PHP 4.0 is released. This version adds more advanced two-stage parse/execute tag-parsing system called the Zend engine.

Rare releases the first-person shooter Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64 in North America.

Toysmart.com, a company majority-owned by Walt Disney, announces that they have stopped operations over the past weekend.

2001
America Online (AOL) announces plans to raise its monthly fee for unlimited Internet access from US$21.95 to US$23.90. The new fee will take affect in their July billing cycle.

Microsoft“>Microsoft announces that shipments of handheld computers based on Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system (os) have exceeded 1.25 million units.

Microsoft“>Microsoft releases Windows Media Player 7.1 for the Pocket PC.

2002
In Los Angeles, California, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show is held, over three days. Sixty thousand people attend the event.

BattleBots holds it’s seventh event May 22 – 27 at Treasure Island, San Francisco. Nearly five hundred robots are in compete in the tournament, which will become Season 5.0 for Comedy Central’s BattleBots television series.

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Shockwave, Part I” first airs. (No. 126) In the episode, Starfleet orders Enterprise to return home when the crew seemingly causes the destruction of an alien planet they were exploring. Archer is visited by former crew member Daniels, who traveled through time to warn him that the Suliban are trying to sabotage Enterprise’s mission, and the two travel through time to try to thwart the Suliban’s plans. This episode is the season finale of season one. Memory Alpha entry

2006
GNU Go 3.7.10 is released. GNU Go is a free software program by the Free Software Foundation that plays Go. Its source code is quite portable, and can be easily compiled for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, as well as for other platforms. The program plays Go against the user, with between 8 to 12 kyu strength. Multiple board sizes are supported, ranging from 5×5 to 19×19. Visit the official GNU Go website or download GNU Go for Windows.

In the UK, British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) satellite service starts to install subscriber set-top boxes for reception of high definition channels.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is shown for the first time in its entirety outside of Harmony Gold at the Cannes Film Market in the Grey One Theatre to an audience of distributor representatives and staffers. According to Robotech.com, the audience reportedly cheered at the end of the screening. It will be awarded Best Animated Sci-Fi Feature at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival, although it will be the first animated feature ever shown in the festival’s history. IMDB listing

Superscape releases Alien vs. Predator 3D, a 3D first person shooter, for mobile phones.

Wired Magazine released the text of AT&T documents, currently under court seal in the EFF case, that allegedly describe National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap arrangements. On the same day, Newsweek runs a cover story on the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy along with several stories summarizing what is known about the topic and speculations on the situation.

2007
The NASA Spirit Rover team announces the discovery of a patch of soil on the surface of Mars composed almost entirely of silica. The discovery is touted as evidence that there may previously have been liquid water in the Gusev crater.