1907
French inventor Paul Cornu flies the first helicopter. The “flight” carries the vehicle roughly one foot off the ground and only lasts twenty seconds but it is the first flight of the first helicopter.
1928
Vladimir Zworykin is granted a patent for a color television imaging tube that employs cathode ray tubes and a screen composed of a mosaic of squares in the three primary colors. Several later biographers will call him the “true inventor of television.”
1955
The first live US television program originating from outside the continental United States comes from Havana, Cuba.
1957
Gordon Gould, a doctoral research student at Columbia University and a former member of the Manhattan Project, completes the design of a light-emitting version of the microwave emitting maser, which he names Light Amplication by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation (LASER).
1971
The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first space probe to orbit another planet, when it enters the orbit of Mars. The probe’s mission is to return photographs that will map seventy percent of the surface and to conduct a study of the planet’s atmosphere.
1974
Atari releases Touch Me to arcades. In 1977, this game will be the inspiration behind the Simon handheld game. The game features four colored buttons, which players must select in a sequence identical to the one shown to them.
1981
Microsoft holds their second annual meeting in the Seahawks Room of the Ramada Inn across Lake Washington from Seattle.
1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Scott Safran, age 15, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey sets a world record by scoring 41,336,440 on Atari’s Asteroids after playing the game for fifty-three hours and four minutes at the All-American Billiard Company in Newton, Pennsylvania. The record is especially significant due to the difficulty of the game, for having wrested the high score from famed gamer and actor Leo Daniels, and, later, for standing for twenty-five years. Twenty years after the winning game, on April 22, 2002 edition, Newsweek will publish a story about Walter Day, official scorekeeper of the video and arcade game world and the founder of http://www.twingalaxies.com, and his search for Safran following his record breaking game entitled, The Disappearing Asteroids Ace. In it, Day chronicles his search for the boy, which, at one point had lead to “Wanted” poster being hung in arcades around the nation and a thousand dollar reward for information. However, the search ends in Day’s discovery that Safran had died in March 1989 in a fall from his family’s roof while trying to rescue his cat. “I must say, I was crushed,” Day said. “Here I was thinking that we’d be able to have a great ceremony with him smiling and accepting all the accolades that he so richly deserved. And then I find out that he’s no longer with us.” Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.
1983
On of the earliest transistorized computers ever designed, MIT TX-0, is re-activated for the third and final time at The Computer Museum in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Designed at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the machine was reconstructed by John McKenzie and MIT Professor Jack Dennis.
1984
Jack Tramiel holds his first press conference since acquiring Atari to announce his intention to manufacture and market a new line of 16 and 32-bit computers.
1989
Atari announces that it has begun shipping the STacy computer, a portable version of the 1040ST, featuring a 8 MHz Motorola MC 68000 CPU, 1 or 4 MHz RAM, a backlit monochrome Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) display, a keyboard, a trak-ball mouse, a built-in 3.5″ double-sided drive, and a 20 or 40 MB hard drive. Weight: 15lb
Atari introduces the 1040STe, the latest generation in the 1040ST line of computers. The system features “Enhanced Capabilities for Home, MIDI Applications,” including a 4,096 color extended palette, 8-bit digital stereo sound, and exceptional hardware-based scrolling technology. The system is expected to ship during the first quarter of 1990.
Atari introduces a True 32-bit Bus System, the TT 030, featuring an 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU, two serial ports, resolutions of up to 640 x 480 in color or 1280 x 960 in monochrome. The system is announced to be available during the first quarter of 1990. Price: US$2995 (2MB RAM, 50MB hard-drive)
The Fall COMDEX tradeshow is held in Las Vegas, Nevada, over five days. At it, International Business Machines (IBM) strongly endorses Microsoft Windows for low end computers and Microsoft publicly endorses OS/2 as a platform for higher-end computers. They also announce that they have entered into an agreement to jointly develop a range of software offerings for personal computer using Intel 386 and 486 processors through the nineties, including improved versions of MS-DOS, Microsoft LAN, and Microsoft OS/2.
Microsoft and International Business Machines (IBM) issue a joint statement announcing that Microsoft will hold back features in the development of Windows to promote industry acceptance of OS/2.
Someone using the name Dave Rhodes uploads the Make Money Fast pyramid scheme letter to Usenet for the first time. The electronic chain letter will become so infamous that the phrase “Make Money Fast” will become synonymous with the word scam. It’s uncertain whether or not Dave Rhodes is real person, but some people will later claim that he was a student at Columbia Union College.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Price” first airs. (No. 308) In it, Troi falls in love with a charismatic negotiator who vies for rights to a wormhole. But several different groups are after the wormhole as it may be the only known stable wormhole in existence. Memory Alpha entry
1990
President George Bush presents Jack St. Clair Kilby and nine others the National Medal of Technology for the “well-being of the nation through the development or application of technology.” Kilby was recognized, “For his invention and contributions to the commercialization of the integrated circuit and the silicon thermal print-head; for his contributions to the development of the first computer using integrated circuits; and for the invention of the hand-held calculator, and gate array.” Visit the National Medal of Technology website.
The world’s first webpage is created and published online by Tim Berners-Lee. The page contains Berners-Lee’s notes, specifications for HTML, HTTP, and URI, along with other information related to his World Wide Web project. Visit Tim Berners-Lee’s official website.
1992
Sony Pictures Entertainment releases the horror film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Sadie Frost, Richard E Grant, and Anthony Hopkins, to 2,491 US theaters. Produced on a budget of US$40 million, it will gross US$30,521,679 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 2 hrs 7 mins
1995
The Comdex Fall ‘95 trade show is held, over five days in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event features 1,950 exhibitors, with 207,000 visitors in attendance.
1996
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) begins limited shipments of its K6 processor with MMX instructions, at speeds of 166 to 200MHz.
Tom Clancy and Virtus Corp. found Red Storm Entertainment, a game developer that primarily develops games based on books by Tom Clancy. Visit the company’s official website.
The website of Länsstyrelserna is hacked anonymously. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of Telia is hacked by the “Swedish Internet Terrorism Enterprise (S.I.T.E)”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
1998
The discovery of the one thousandth pulsar in our galaxy is announced by the Jodrell Bank Observatory at the University of Manchester. The pulsar was discovered using the sixty-four meter Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.
The theatrical trailer for Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace premiered with the film Meet Joe Black, starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlani. Many hardcore Star Wars fans paid full admission to see Meet Joe Black only to leave after the trailer had run. Several months later, another trailer for the film appear before the science fiction flop Wing Commander. The second appearance of the trailer caused a great deal more media hype because it was screened at the ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas and was aired on the television news programs Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight.
2000
Intel releases the 733 and 766 MHz Celeron processors. Price: US$112 and US$170 each in 1000-unit quantities
Yahoo! launches the Yahoo! Movies short film directory. Visit the website.
2001
Eos publishes the fantasy novel Guardians of the Lost by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0061051799) Length: 512 pages
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Sponsor Matches.
2002
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “The Communicator” first airs. (No. 208) In it, after a short trip by Archer and Malcolm on a planet, Reed discovers he lost his communicator on the pre-warp planet and is captured while trying to retrieve it. Memory Alpha entry
2003
Sony drops the price of the PlayStation 2 in Japan to ¥19,800 (about US$180).
2004
The first public version of the IceBB open source Internet forum system, Alpha 1, is released. Visit the software’s official website.
2006
Google completes the acquistion of Youtube for US$1.65 billion.
Sun Microsystems announces that it will be licensing its Java source code under the GNU General Public License and release HotSpot and the Java Compiler under the same license. Visit the official Java website.
Version 2.0 of the Linux Mint is released. Visit the system’s official website. Code-name: Barbara
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