1799
American astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass makes the first written record of a meteor shower in the US, the Leonids meteor shower, from a ship off the Florida Keys. He writes, “In every instant the meteors were as numerous as the stars,” and that the “whole heaven appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets, flying in an infinity of directions, and I was in constant expectation of some of them falling on the vessel. They continued until put out by the light of the sun after day break.”
1901
The first Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded to Wilhelm Röentgen for the discovery of X-rays.
1915
Theodore William Richards of Harvard University becomes the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
1937
Alan Turing publishes a paper entitled “On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungs-problem.” In it, Turing provides an abstraction that will form the basic theory of computability for several decades. Later renamed the Turing Machine, this abstract engine described in this paper will provide the fundamental concepts of computers that other inventors will later conceive independently.
1941
The first heredity clinic in the US is opened by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The clinic collects data on human heredity and offers family counseling.
1946
In Japan, the United States Army holds a contest pitting a champion abacus against a soldier operating the using the most cutting-edge calculating machine of the day. In four out of five rounds, the abacus user won.
1975
According to a later application filed with the New Mexico Office of the Secretary of the State, Microsoft begins using its tradename “to identify computer programs for use in automatic data processing systems; pre-programming processing systems; and data processing services including computer programming services.”
1976
Del Rey publishes Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and credited to George Lucas as a hardcover. (ISBN 0-345-40077-1) The book, which was based on Lucas’ original film screenplay, is the first Star Wars novel published. It includes several scenes that did not make it into the film that released shortly after its publication.
1980
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) announces the IBM 3081 processor complex and the IBM 3033 model group 2, two processors that will extend the power and range of IBM’s largest computer systems. Both processors are developed and manufactured in Poughkeepsie, New York.
The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn, passing within 77,000 miles of the planet’s south pole, and it transmits images of Saturn’s rings across nearly a billion miles of space, back to NASA.
1981
The Space Shuttle Columbia 2 becomes the first spacecraft to be reused on a second mission when it is launched at 3:10pm GMT from Cape Canaveral.
1983
Microsoft Windows is first mentioned on Usenet.
1984
Astronaut Joseph Allen execute the first salvage operation in space when a US$35 million Palapa B-2 communication satellite is retrieved by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Lotus Development officially announces the Jazz office suite for the Macintosh 512K, which will include communications functions, database, graphics, spreadsheet, and word processing. The software will go on to be a complete failure, despite the incredible success of the company’s Lotus 1-2-3 for IBM-compatible computers. Later critics will credit the software’s to overpricing and a lack of brand recognition caused by not giving it the Lotus name. Read an archived review of the software at Atari Magazine. Price: US$595
Richard Sandza’s article on the world of the Hacker BBS, “The Night of the Hackers“, appears in Newsweek Magazine. The article introduces many would-be hackers to BBS technology and significantly contributed to the popularity of BBS communities in the mid-eighties.
1990
The Fall ‘90 COMDEX trade show is held Monday, November 12 through Friday, November 16 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event features 1,850 exhibitors and attracts 126,000 visitors. IBM demonstrates the 486-based PS/2 90 and 95, Micropolis demonstrates SCSI hard drives, Microsoft demonstrates their Windows 3.0 operating system, Motorola debuts their 68040 microprocessor, Oracle Database demonstrates servers for OS/2 and UNIX, and SCO demonstrates their Open Graphics Operating System. The keynote speech entitled “Information at Your Fingertips” is given by Bill Gates.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Future Imperfect” first airs. (No. 408) Riker finds himself sixteen years into the future, his memory of the intervening period erased by a dormant virus. Memory Alpha entry
With help from Robert Cailliau, Tim Berners-Lee publishes a “formal proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal is based on an earlier proposal, Information Management: A Proposal, written in March 1989.
1991
Del Rey publishes the fantasy novel The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345374746) It is the third book in The Elenium trilogy. Length: 467 pages
1996
The website of Kriegsmans Fur is hacked by “The Ghost Shirt Society”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1997
Iomega announces that it has sold ten million Zip drives.
1998
Be announces Release 4 of the BeOS operating system, for Intel and PowerPC computers. The new release better integrates with Windows, with the ability to better interface with files and a full set of keyboard shortcuts. The system is expected to be released in December. The company also announces that Hitachi will include the operating system on its computers. Price: US$69.95 (online) or US$99.95 (retail)
Diamond Multimedia Systems reveals plans to cut twenty percent of its work force, about one hundred eighty employees.
Eidos Interactive hosts a World Premiere Party for Tomb Raider III at Bimbo’s 365 Club at 1025 Columbus Avenue in San Francisco, California.
2000
At the Comdex trade show, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates demonstrates a proposed Tablet PC initiative, which would convert handwritten pen strokes into graphics.
Namco releases Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness for the Nintendo 64 in the US. ESRB: E (Everyone)
2001
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announces the 950MHz mobile Duron processor. Price: US$160
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announces the 1.2GHz mobile Athlon 4 processor. Price: US$525
The first uncompressed real-time gigabit HDTV transmission over a wide-area IP network takes place on “Internet2.”
2002
A thirty-six year old unemployed London sysadmin named Gary McKinnon, also known by the handled “Solo,” is indicted for what US authorities describe as the “biggest hack of military computers ever detected.” McKinnon allegedly exploited poorly-secured Windows systems to attack ninty-two networks run by NASA, the Pentagon, and twelve other military installation scattered over fourteen states from February 2001 through March 2002. Several private businesses are also affected by the attacks, which caused an estimated US$900,000 in damages. Prosecutors said that McKinnon “stole passwords, deleted files, monitored traffic and shut down computer networks on military bases from Pearl Harbor to Connecticut.”
Ubisoft releases Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance in the US. ESRB: T (Teen)
2003
Marek Jedlinski (Tranglos Software) releases version 1.6.5 of the freeware text editor Keynote for Windows. This is last version of the application released before development is discontinued in October 2005. Visit the application’s official website.
Nokia confirms that hackers have cracked the copy protection system of games designed for the N-Gage video game system.
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “North Star” first airs. (No. 309) In it, Archer and the crew try to discover why a 19th century-era Human settlement has been placed in the middle of the Expanse. Memory Alpha entry
2004
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “The Augments” first airs. (No. 406) In it, Dr. Soong’s Augments devise a plot to wage war on the Klingons. Memory Alpha entry
2007
The first system with 65536 processors, JUGENE, goes into service at the Jülich Research Centre in Germany. With a processing speed of 167 TFLOPS, it is the fastest supercomputer in Europe and the sixth fastest computer in the world.
|
|
|
Comments are closed
