The Great Geek Manual

1863
Alfred Nobel is granted his first patent, a Swedish patent for the preparation of nitroglycerin.

1884
The first U.S. patent for transparent paper-strip photographic film on a temporary paper backing is issued to George Eastman of Rochester, New York. (US No. 306,594) The film consists of a layer of paper and a coating of insoluble sensitized gelatin emulsion, separated by a layer of soluble gelatin to enable separation after developing the exposed film. He invented the film in February 1884 and applied for the patent the next month. The film is flexible, can be wrapped compactly on a roller, and can be used within a roll-holder rather than in the glass plate. The method is more convenient, lighter, and less likely to break.

1888
Louis Le Prince films first motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene.

1922
The Pennsylvania exchange in New York City opens, becoming the nation’s first automated telephone service.

1939
Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) is formed in the U.S. as a collection agency for royalties.

1947
American pilot Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, breaking through the sound barrier to achieve Mach 1.07 in a rocket powered Bell XS-1 airplane over Muroc Army Air Field in Murac Dry Lake, California (which will later be the site of Edwards Air Force Base). The area is the location of the largest dry lake bed in the world, the forty-four square mile Rogers Lake. Yeager, who had broken two ribs in a riding accident the night before, fired the four rocket motor chambers in pairs, reaching a speed of almost 700mph and climbs to an altitude of 43,000 feet. The four rocket motors of the tiny needle-nosed research craft burn through its entire supply of fuel in just 2½ minutes. The XS-1 will maintain supersonic speeds for 20.5 seconds. The Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) won’t publicly disclose the event until June 10, 1948.

1957
The British Computer Society (BCS) is founded to represent those working in the Information and Communications Technology sector. It will soon become the largest professional body for computing in the United Kingdom. Visit the organization’s official website.

1960
The fourth legal definition of the metre becomes 1,650,763.73 wavelengths in vacuum of the orange-red light radiation of the krypton-86 atom (transition between levels 2p10 and 5d5). This definition is one hundred times more accurate than the previous third legal definition adopted in 1889.

1964
International Business Machines (IBM) releases new versions of the IBM 29 card punch and IBM 59 card verifier.

Philips begins experimenting with color television.

1968
The first live telecast from outer space is broadcast from Apollo 7 in orbit. Captain Walter Schirra, Jr., Major Donn Eisele, and Major Walt Cunningham, gives the American public a tour of the spacecraft and shows views through the craft’s windows. The primary objectives of the Apollo 7 engineering test flight, are to “Demonstrate Command/Service Module (CSM) and crew performance; demonstrate crew/space vehicle and mission support facilities performance during a manned CSM mission; demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability.” The Apollo 7 was launched October 11, 1968.

1971
The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction opens in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The ride is based on the Disney film of the same title.

1976
In Portree on the Isle of Skye, the last operating manual telephone exchange in the United Kingdom is closed.

1985
The first official reference guide for the C++ programming language (called “C with Classes”) is published by Bjarne Stroustrup, the language’s creator. It will go on to become one of the most popular programming languages of all time.

1987
Garry Tramiel issues a memo to all the Federated Group of Electronics Stores employees announcing reorganization. Sam Crowley is named Vice President and General Manager.

1988
Chuck Forsberg releases the specifications for the ZMODEM file transfer protocol to supersede both XMODEM and his earlier protocol, YMODEM. ZMODEM is the first telnet protocol to allow users to resume an interrupted file transfer of a file that has been interrupted. It is also improves on older protocols by offering faster transfers, introducing auto-start by the sender, an expanded 32-bit CRC, and control character quoting, which allows the it to be used on networks that might “eat” control characters.

1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Silicon Avatar” first airs. (No. 504) In it, The crew, with the help of a scientist, attempt to communicate with the Crystalline Entity. Memory Alpha entry

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