1830
The first regular steam train passenger service in the U.S. begins.
1860
Johnson William Richardson sets out on the first successful Pony Express run between Saint Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California at about 7:15pm. He will arrive in Sacramento on April 14, at 1:00am.
1923
Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready complete the first nonstop coast-to-coast airplane flight from New York to San Diego after twenty-six hours and fifty minutes.
1934
Famous Funnies, the first comic book to go on sale in the United States, hits newsstands.
1938
Television station W2XBS in New York broadcasts the first book review program in the U.S.
1953
The TV Guide magazine debuts. For years, it will be the most read magazine in the United States.
1955
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announces that it will defend poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the proprietor of City Lights Bookstore against obscenity charges brought against him for allegedly promoting obscene material by the sale of the book Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg. Ferlinghetti will later be found not guilty.
1968
Dr. Denton Cooley of the Texas Heart Institute performs the first successful heart transplant in the United States on Everett Thomas, whose heart was damaged by rheumatic heart disease. The patient will survive for 204 days with a heart harvested from a fifteen year old girl.
1971
The Japanese tokusatsu (live-action) television series Kamen Rider premieres, marking the beginning of the long-running franchise.
1972
Magnavox kicks off a national promotional tour for the Odyssey video game in Phoenix, Arizona.
1973
The Sears Tower in Chicago becomes the tallest building in the world when it is topped out at 1,451 feet (442 m), surpassing the World Trade Center. The building was designed by Bruce Graham.
1975
Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, forfeiting the title of World Champion to Karpov.
1978
The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail is sent by Gary Thuerk, a marketing representative of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to all 393 users of ARPANET on the west coast of the United States. The e-mail is an invitation to a demonstration of DEC’s new Decsystem-20 computer. The message took several day to prepare, as all of the address had to be typed in manually, and the message was carefully composed. It elicits an immediate and negative reaction. Thuerk will receive a torrent of complaints and an official reprimand from the administrators of the government-run network. Read more about the first spam in the article “Reaction to the DEC Spam of 1978″.
1982
Walt Disney Productions files a suit against Williams Electronics for infringing Disney’s Tron trademark with the arcade video game Robotron: 2084. Visit the official Disney Corporate website.
1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Leo Daniels scores a record-setting 2,269,230 points playing the Deluxe arcade game at the Light Years Amusement in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
Mattel files a lawsuit against Atari, accusing it of luring away three employees who helped develop game cartridges compatible with Mattel’s Intellivision game system. Visit the official Mattel website.
1984
Apple Computer announces that seventy-two thousand Macintosh computers have been shipped in the first hundred days since the system was introduced. In an interview with USA Today, Mac product manager Barbara Koalkin boasted, “We could have sold 200,000 Macintoshes if we could have built them.” Visit the official website of Apple Computer.
Dell Computer is founded in Austin, Texas. Visit the official Dell website.
1993
The Star Trek: The Generation episode “Frame of Mind” first airs. (No. 621) In the episode, Riker finds himself a prisoner in an alien mental institution. Memory Alpha entry
1996
Columbia Pictures releases dark fantasy film The Craft, directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True, is released to 1,757 US theaters. In it, a girl who moves to Los Angeles from San Francisco meets three friends who begin to explore the world of witchcraft. As she becomes increasingly distanced from the other three girls, she discovers that her best friends have become her worst enemies. Produced on a budget of US$15 million, the film will gross US$24,819,936. Although the film won’t make much of an impact at the box office, its characters will re-invigorate interest in Gothic fashion and Wiccan culture among the MTV Generation. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 1 hr 45 mins
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment releases the action film Barb Wire, , directed by David Hogan and starring Pamela Anderson, to 1,312 U.S. theaters. It is based on the Dark Horse comic of the same name. The film, which was primarily developed as a vehicle for the career of Baywatch star Pamela Anderson was poorly received by both critics and audiences, ultimately bombing at the box office. It will gross US$1,844,426 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 1 hr 38 mins
Suspected “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his remote cabin outside Lincoln, Montana. Kaczynski, a domertic terrorist who allegedly carried out a campaign of neo-Luddite mail bombings, will be held up by the media as a prime example of a “loner.” Journalist Anneli Rufus will later use this as an example of the media’s consistent, erroneous use of the term “loner” in her book, Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto.
1997
Garry Kasparov beats IBM’s Deep Blue in the first of six matches that many will consider the ultimate test of artificial intelligence. Kasparov will eventually loose the match along with the US$1.1 million purse to the IBM supercomputer, which he had previously claimed could never surpass a human’s ability to play chess. After losing the sixth and final game of the match, Kasparov will accuse IBM of building a machine specifically to beat him. Observers will later state that he was frustrated by Deep Blue’s quickness although they expected him to win with unconventional moves. The RS/6000 SP parallel processing computer can analyze 200 million chess positions per second.
1998
New Line Cinema releases the science fiction film Lost in Space, directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Lacey Chabert, Heather Graham, and Matt LeBlanc, is released to 3,306 U.S. theaters. The film is a remake of the classic CBS television series Lost in Space. Produced on a budget of US$80 million, it will gross US$20,154,919 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 10 mins
Universal Studios releases the action film Mercury Rising, directed by Harold Becker and starring Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, and Miko Hughes is released to 2,386 U.S. theaters. The film is based on Ryne Douglas Pearson’s 1996 novel, Simple Simon. In it, an undercover FBI agent, played by Willis, protects a nine year old autistic boy who becomes the target of government assassination attempts after he cracks a top secret NSA encryption code. It will gross US$10,104,715 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: R) Running Time: 1 hr 52 mins
NetChannel, a web-enhanced television company, is discontinued, leaving nearly ten thousand subscribers without service. On Thursday, May 7, America Online (AOL) will reveal plans to acquire NetChannel.
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