The Great Geek Manual

1844
Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrates a magnetic telegraph using his Morse Code to transmit the message, “What hath God wrought!” from the Old Supreme Court courthouse in Washington D.C. to his partner, Alfred Vail, at the Mount Clare Depot of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in Baltimore, Maryland. Vail responds by retransmitting the same message back to Morse. Thus, Morse formally opens America’s first telegraph line, launching America’s telegraph industry. The biblical text, from Numbers 23:23, was selected by Annie Ellsworth, the teenage daughter of the US Commissioner of Patents. Congress had appropriated US$30,000 in 1843 for a telegraph wire to be strung the eighty miles between Washington and Baltimore.

1913
An article in the journal Moving Picture World coins the term “natural history film,” a full year before the word “documentary” is first used to describe a film.

1927
John Logie Baird demonstrates television transmission by telephone over the 438 miles between London and Glasgow, exceeding the distance covered by AT&T in their April 7th trials.

1954
International Business Machines (IBM) unveils a vacuum tube “electronic” brain that can perform ten million operations an hour.

1960
MIDAS II (Missile Detection Alarm System), the first American surveillance satellite to successfully reach orbit, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Although it is intended to be part of an early missile warning system, circling the earth every ninety-four minutes, its telemetry system will fail two days later, and it will never go into service. On February 26, 1960, the first MIDAS satellite launch failed when its Atlas Agena-A booster malfunctioned, never reaching orbit.

1961
Wes Clark begins constructing the Laboratory Instrument Computer (LINC), a computer designed for biomedical research, at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. Advancing his previous work on the Whirlwind and the TX-0, Clark’s LINC system will be one of the first “user friendly” machines. It will be easily programed and maintained; user will be able to interact with the system as it operates; and it will be capable of processing biotechnical signals directly.

1962
Astronaut Scott Carpenter becomes the second American to orbit the Earth when he is launched into space aboard the Aurora 7. He makes three revolutions of the Earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 164 miles. The spacecraft then lands in the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral after 4 hours 54 minutes in flight.

1965
The PAL color television system is launched in the UK.

1968
Walt Disney receives the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of the distinguished public service and the outstanding contributions of Walt Disney to the United States and to the world. Read the official Congressional Resolution.

1972
Nolan Bushnell is sent by his employer to attend a public demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey 100 in Burlingame, California. After Atari begins marketing Pong in 1973, Magnavox will file a lawsuit against Atari claiming that Pong violates several of Magnavox Odyssey patents. In an out-of-court settlement in June of 1976, Atari will became a prepaid licensee of the pertinent patents for US$700,000, a fraction of its corporate net-worth. Despite the eventual court victory, Atari will long be credited with popularizing the video game industry, while Magnavox’s pioneering work will largely be relegated to historical footnotes.

1974
The BBC begins transmitting Ceefax service in the new unified UK teletext standard. Ceefax is the first teletext system in the world. Teletext is a television-based information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early seventies to offers a range of text-based information, including national, international, and sporting news, weather and television schedules.

1978
The Unix Users group is renamed UseNix, so not to conflict with any of the trademarks held by Bell Laboratories. Founded in 1975, the group primarily focuses on the study and development of Unix and similar operating systems.

1985
An executive staff meeting is held at Apple Computer. John Sculley confronts Steve Jobs over rumors that there will be a takeover while Sculley is in China. Jobs says Sculley should leave the company, but a majority of the senior staff support Sculley, ending the corporate coup. After numerous failures, Sulley had been planning on taking the Mac division from Jobs. After Jobs’ attempt to win Apple’s board to his side fails, however, the board authorizes Sulley to move ahead with his plans. Jobs, while still chairman, is left with few responsibilities, and four months later, Jobs will resign his position to found NeXT.

Quantum Computer Services, which will later be renamed America Online (AOL), is incorporated. Visit the official AOL website.

Think.com becomes the third .com domain.

United Artists release the film A View To A Kill, the fourteenth in the James Bond franchise, to 1,583 theaters. The film is the last in the franchise to feature Roger Moore as 007. It is also the last to feature Lois Maxwells as Miss Moneypenny. The film also stars Dolph Lundgren, Grace Jones, Tanya Roberts, and Christopher Walken. In the film, an innovative new silicon chip has been stolen by the Soviets. To save the world, Bond must uncover the plot and save the Silicon Valley from destruction. Produced on a budget of US$30 million, it will gross US$10,687,114 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG) Running Time: 2 hrs 11 mins

1989
Paramount Pictures releases the action film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, to 2,327 theaters. Produced on a budget of US$48 million, it will gross US$29,355,021 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit this film’s official website. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 7 mins

1990
The Law for Regulation of Video Salons, Video Bars, and Video Rentals is passed in Turkmenistan, giving the State Film Committee (Goskino) control over all video communications in the country, which is interpreted as including cable television. As a consequence of the law, all cable operations must be sanctioned by local Goskino administration, then formed into a subsidiary of Goskino.

1993
Sega of America announces that it will introduce a ratings system for its own video games beginning in August. The system will bear a resemblance to the one used by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The ratings are as follows: GA for “General audience”, MA-13 for Mature (Ages 13 and Up), and MA-17 for Mature (Ages 17 and Up). Visit the official Sega of America website.

The Spring Comdex and Windows World Conference are held in Atlanta, Georgia, over four days. At the event, Microsoft formally launches the Windows NT operating system. The Initial version is 3.1. The system is comprised of over four million lines of code. Price: US$495 or US$295 (upgrade)

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Second Chances” is first released. (No. 624) In it, Riker encounters a duplicate of himself created by a transporter malfunction which has been stranded on a planet for years. NASA astronaut Mae Carol Jemison gueststars in the episode. As a girl, Jemison was fascinated by science and was inspired by to pursue a career in science by the original Star Trek series. Memory Alpha entry

1999
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the Mobile AMD K6 III P processor, at clock speeds of 350, 366, and 380MHz. Price: US$249, US$316, and US$349 respectively, in 1000-unit quantities

Microsoft releases version 4.5 of the BackOffice Small Business Server for personal computers.

PC Data, an independent research firm, releases the results of a survey of 6,305 individuals. According to the survey, fifty-seven percent of respondents do not believe that playing violent video games makes people violent. Only thirty-one percent of respondents believe that parents should prohibit children from playing violent games, however, fifty-two percent of respondents did feel that parents should limit the time spent playing violent video games.

2000
Paramount Pictures releases the action film Mission: Impossible II, directed by John Woo and starring Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames to 3,653 theaters. Produced on a budget of US$125 million, the film will gross US$57,845,297 domestically in the opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 3 mins

Intel releases the 933MHz Pentium III processor, featuring 256KB of Level-2 on-chip cache. Price: US$794 in 1000-unit quantities

PhD candidate Nelson Robert Holcomb, age 36, is arrested on the campus of Colorado State University at Fort Collins for trying to extort a new car and other items from Wayne, New Jersey online publisher Audible Inc. which sells downloadable audio content online and is backed by a number of big-name investors, including Microsoft and Compaq Computer. Holcomb allegedly sent the publisher a series of threatening emails, revealing that he had found a way to download the publisher’s books without payment and threatening to alert the media about the vulnerability unless Audible met his demands. In one email sent on April 29th, Holcomb, calling himself “Tupelo”, demanded cash equal to the value of the Audible site’s content, a new Volvo station wagon, two Diamond Rio digital audio players, and unlimited, free downloads of Audible content. The company agreed by email on May 2 to all but the cash demand. The next day, a person using an account at Colorado State University emailed Audible, identifying himself as Rob Holcomb and offering to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The sender gave a mailing address and work phone number at the university’s chemistry department in Fort Collins, Colorado for delivery of the ransom merchandise. Holcomb also allegedly sent a fax to Audible from a machine in the CSU chemistry department. Thursday, May 25, he will be charged with interstate commercial extortion.

The Star Trek: Voyager episode “Unimatrix Zero, Part I” first airs. (No. 626) In it, Janeway, B’Elanna and Tuvok attempt to infiltrate a Borg Cube in an attempt to preserve a group of Borg who are able to exercise their individuality in a dream-like state while they are regenerating. The episode is the season finale of the series’ sixth season. Memory Alpha entry

2001
Mac OS X Server 10.0 is released. Visit the official Mac OS X server website.

Mediamark Research, Inc. releases data from a semi-annual report indicating that about forty-three percent of adults aged 55 to 64 use the Internet. According to Mediamark, 133 million (about two-thirds) of all adults in the United States have access to the Internet at home or work.

Officials of Sequoia Hospital in Northern California announces a new program whereby some newborn babies will be assigned an e-mail address within minutes of their birth. The new program is a partnership with Namezero.com.

2002
Kim Schmitz, also known as “Kimble”, is convicted of insider trading. Schmitz made a profit by buying US$375,000 worth of shares of the nearly bankrupt company LetsBuyIt.com and falsely announcing his intention to invest €50 Million in the company, creating the largest single-day rise of a share price in the history of the German stock market. Schmitz then quickly sold all of his shares. When later convicted, he will become the first and only person to have ever been convicted for insider trading in Germany.

Rockstar Games releases Grand Theft Auto III for Windows in Australia and Europe. In Australia, the game will be refused classification (RC) upon its release after Rockstar failed to submit the game to the Office of Film and Literature Classification for rating. It will then be banned for being unsuitable for minors and because Australia lacks a rating that restricts sales of a game to adults, such as R18+. Visit the game’s official website. OFLC: RC PEGI: 18+

2005
NASA scientists announce that Voyager 1, the most distant man-made object from Earth, has entered the heliosheath and is about to leave the Solar System, entering the interstellar medium.

Version 5 of the Fetch FTP client is released. Fetch is a full-featured GUI-based FTP client for the Mac. Visit the official Fetch website.

2006
The Fourteenth World Computer Chess Championship begins in Turin, Italy. The tournament, which will run through June 1, will be won by Junior, with a score of 9 out of 11. Shredder will come in second place went to Shredder.

South Korean consumer-electronics manufacturer Samsung Electronics releases the world’s first computers to feature solid-state flash memory, the Q1-SSD and Q30-SSD, both of which have 32GB solid state drives (SSD). Visit the official Q1 website.

2007
Buena Vista releases the adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy, Naomie Harris, Tom Hollander, Stellan Skarsgard, and Chow Yun-Fat, to 4,362 US theaters. Produced on a budget of US$300 million, it will gross US$114,732,820 domestically in its opening weekend. Visit this film’s official website. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 48 mins

Dell begins offering three models with version 7.04 of the Ubuntu Linux operating system pre-installed. The systems offered with Linux are the XPS 410n desktop (a high-end PC), the Dimension E520n desktop (a budget system), and the Inspiron E1505n notebook. Visit the official Dell website.

2008
Microsoft announces that it will abandon its efforts to digitize books and journals for the purpose of internet archiving, commenting that the service no longer fits with plans for its overall search engine strategy. Many industry analysts feel that the move is a deliberate effort by Microsoft to stop appearing to play catch up to the more popular Google search engine. According to the announcement, Microsoft will take down two separate sites on which it allows users to search the digitized books and journals the following week, and Microsoft Live Search will direct surfers to non-Microsoft sites.