The Great Geek Manual

1783
The first daily paper in the US, The Pennsylvania Evening Post, is first published by Benjamin Towne in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1876
Thomas Edison is granted three patents for “an Improvement in Duplex Telegraphs” which allows a transmitted signal be sent over the same wire as incoming signals. (US No. 178,221, -2, -3)

1896
The first documented auto accident in history occurs in New York City when a Duryea Motor Wagon, driven by Henry Wells of Springfield, Massachusetts collides with a bicycle ridden by New York native Evylyn Thomas.

1898
English chemist Morris William Travers discovers the element Krypton. He names the element after the Greek word meaning “hidden.”

1959
The first experimental hovercraft, the Saunders-Roe Nautical One (SR-N1), embarks on its maiden voyage in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The hovercraft had been designed by Sir Christopher Cockerell and built by Saunders-Roe.

1966
NASA launches the Surveyor 1 lunar lander on a mission to the Moon. Its successful soft landing in the Ocean of Storms will be the first ever by the US on an extraterrestrial body, and it will come just four months after the landing of the Soviet Luna 9 mission.

1971
NASA launches the Mariner 9 space probe on a mission to map seventy percent of the surface of Mars and to study temporal changes in its atmosphere. On November 13, the probe will reach Mars, becoming the first artificial satellite of Mars, beating out the Soviet probes Mars 2 and Mars 3 by only days. Visit the official Mariner 9 website.

1974
NASA launches ATS-6, the first direct broadcasting satellite.

1975
The European Space Agency (ESA) is established as an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the exploration of space by eighteen member states, including France, Germany, Italy, and the UK. Visit the official European Space Agency website.

1979
Video game publisher Capcom is founded as Japan Capsule Computers. By 2008, Capcom will be one of the fifty largest software companies in the world.

1987
North American Philips Company introduces the compact disc video (CD-V) format. The CD-V discs use the same full motion video system as the earlier LaserVision technology but with higher picture quality and additional space for CD digital audio. They will be marketed as “CD’s with pictures,” and most titles released on the format will be music rather than movies. Despite the superior audio and video quality of the format, it will never be commercially successful, largely because its discs require a special CD-V drive.

1995
Microsoft releases its Windows NT 3.51 operating system. The system is the first Windows system for PowerPC architecture.

1997
Cyrix releases the Cyrix 6×86MX processor. Code-name: M2 Price: US$190 – US$320 in 1000-unit quantities

Lotus Development releases version 4.5 of the SmartSuite office suite, featuring Lotus 1-2-3, Freelance Graphics, Approach, Organizer, ScreenCam, Word Pro 97. Price: US$399 or US$149 (upgrade)

2000
Palm grants 3Com a license for the Palm handheld operating system.

2001
Turbolinux releases the Turbolinux Operating System 7 for the Intel Itanium processor.

2005
Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology and the Astronomical Observatory of Strasbourg announces that the Andromeda galaxy is three times larger than previously guessed.

2006
The first virus to affect StarOffice is detected by Kaspersky Lab; however, the virus is not actively infecting systems in the wild, leading researcher to believe that it may have been developed by a teen hacker.

2007
The CBS Corporation acquires Last.fm, the online music service that allows fans with similar tastes to connect, for US$280 million in an attempt to reach younger demographics.

Sweden becomes the second country to open an embassy in the Second Life virtual world, following Maldives by just eight days. Run by the Swedish Institute, the embassy is established to promote Sweden’s culture and bolster its image among non-residents.

2008
Mozilla declares a Download Day with the intention to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours with its Firefox 3 launch on June 17, 2008.