The Great Geek Manual

1764
Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

1783
Frenchman Jean- François Pilâtre de Rozier makes a tethered, captive-balloon ascent, in the gardens of La Muette. The Montgolfier-made balloon, Aerostat Reveillon, is “the first man to leave the Earth,” rising to the end of a 250 foot tether and remaining aloft for fifteen minutes before landing safely.

1878
Thomas Edison establishes the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with a syndicate of leading financiers, including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts, who advanced him US$30,000 for research and development. Edison’s goals is to connect his lights in a parallel circuit, subdividing the current, so that, unlike arc lights, which are connected in a series circuit, the failure of one light bulb will not cause a whole circuit to fail. The company will eventually become a part of General Electric in 1892.

1910
The first air-sea rescue using radio saves the crew of the airship America.

1928
The airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, christened on the July 8, 1928, lands in New Jersey after its first transatlantic crossing from Germany. It is 775 feet long and 100 feet high and had a cruising speed of 73 mph. The Naval Air Station Lakehurst, located in Lakehurst, New Jersey, was the western terminus for the commercial transatlantic flights of the German dirigibles Graf Zeppelin and, later, the Hindenburg.

1940
A five hundred pound German bomb scores a direct hit on the Broadcasting House in London during the 9pm BBC newscast, killing seven people. The BBC will not later report on the incident, as it is BBC policy not to comment on-air on such interruptions.

1950
The first American radio paging service, Aircall of New York City, sends the first page to a doctor who is on a golf course twenty-five miles away. Subscribers carry a six ounce pocket radio receiver and can hear their call numbers repeated in numerical sequence on the air at least once a minute within a thirty mile radius. Read more about the first pager at the website of The Center for the Study of Technology and Society.

1951
In the UK general election campaign for the October 25th election, each of the three main parties is allocated fifteen minutes of television time to make party political broadcasts. In the first party political broadcast on British television, Lord Samuel speaks on behalf of the Liberal Party.

1953
The British nuclear test detonation, Totem 1, takes place at Emu Field, South Australia.

1956
The first FORTRAN reference manual, written by by John W. Backus, is published six months before the first compiler’s release by International Business Machines (IBM). It’s only sixty pages long, with large print and wide margins. The language itself is relatively brief.

1969
Following a failed attempt on October 1st, the interface message processor (IMP) installed at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) connects with the IMP at UCLA, creating the first two node computer network. The first message exchanged over the network is the word “LOG-IN,” which had caused the SRI system to crash in the earlier test.

1973
Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson present their first paper on Unix at the fourth ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) held October 15 – 17 at Purdue University. The paper will later be published in the July 1974 issue of Communications of the ACM.

1981
New Line Cinema releases the comedy film The Evil Dead, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker, to 128 US theaters. In it, five friends go up to a cabin in the woods where they find unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find the Necronomicon and the taped translation of the text. Once the tape is played, the evil is released. One by one, the teens become deadly zombies. With only one remaining, it is up to him to survive the night and battle the evil dead. The film was produced on a budget of US$375,000. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 25 min

Professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson leads what is thought to be the first audience wave in Oakland, California.

1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Darren Olson, scores a record-setting 15,207,353 points playing the Atari game Centipede at Reflection Fun Center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1985
International Business Machines (IBM) announces its Token Ring network and PC Network software. The Token Ring system was co-developed with Texas Instruments (TI). Network transmission speed is 4Mbps. The system uses ordinary telephone wiring, and it costs approximately US$800 per computer to install.

1990
Apple Computer discontinues the Macintosh Plus, which featured the 8MHz Motorola 68000.

Apple Computer unveils the Macintosh Classic, a redesigned version of the Macintosh SE featuring an 8MHz Motorola 68000 microprocessor, an integrated 9-inch B/W monitor, and a 1.4MB floppy drive. The system’s affordability will make it popular among educational institutions, however, most users will primarily see the Classic as a wordprocessor. Price: US$1,000 – US$1,500

Apple Computer unveils the Macintosh LC, featuring a 16MHz Motorola 68020 microprocessor, 2MB RAM, a 40MB hard drive, and 1.4MB SuperDrive. Price: US$2,400

Apple Computer unveils the Macintosh IIsi, featuring a 20MHz Motorola 68030 microprocessor, 2MB RAM, a 40MB hard drive, a video port, and a 1.4MB SuperDrive. Price: US$3,769 or US$4569 with 5MB RAM and 80MB hard drive

Hackers crack into British Clearing Bank computers.

Intel introduces the 80386SL processor with a clock speed of 20MHz.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Suddenly Human” first airs. (No. 404) In it, Picard must help a human boy, raised by aliens, decide his future. Memory Alpha entry

1992
Digital Pictures releases Night Trap for personal computers and Sega game consoles in the US. Although the game is a pioneer in the field of full motion video, it will also become highly controversial due to a full-motion scene in which of a young girl in a nightgown is murdered, though the scene is intended to be comedic. It is one of the first games to ever feature a real-life media star, television actress Dana Plato of the popular television sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. Here again, the move is controversial in that Plato had recently had (as was widely publicized in the media) breast implants and appeared in Playboy magazine. Parents widely feared that Plato’s involvement in the game would lend the otherwise innocent game sexual overtones. On December 16, 1993, both F.A.O. Schwarz and Toys “R” Us will remove the Sega CD version of Night Trap from store shelves in response to a December 9, 1993 joint Senate Judiciary and Government Affairs Committee hearing on video game violence that prominently and infamously examine both Mortal Kombat and Night Trap. The two games will later be cited as deciding factors leading to the development of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) game industry ratings system. During the hearings, the game will be described as “disgusting,” “shameful,” “sick,” and “ultra-violent,” but most gamers believe that these declamations are only the result of Senators playing to the media. ESRB: M

International Business Machines (IBM) reveals a loss of US$2.8 billion during the previous business quarter.

Sega releases the Sega Mega-CD video game console in the US. The system features a 12.5-MHz 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor, the same as the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, but with a higher clock rate.

1993
Apple discontinues the Apple IIGS, ending the era of Apple II computers. The IIGS was originally released on September 15, 1986 to compete with the then-popular Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. It was briefly popular in US schools, but it was quickly outshone by the Macintosh, which Apple chose to focus its marketing efforts on, to the detriment of the IIGS .

Nintendo releases a redesigned Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the US with an improved top-loading cartridge slot.

John Sculley resigns from Apple Computer a day after the company reports a 97 percent reduction in its fourth quarter earnings. Sculley leaves the company with a severence package worth just over ten million dollars, including a million dollars in severance pay, US$750,000 in consulting fees, and US2.4 million in unearned stock options. He’ll sign a contract to join Spectrum Information Technologies, a wireless communications company the very next day. The move is highly controversial as Spectrum is entangled in both a class-action lawsuit brought by its shareholders and a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation.

1995
ZDNet publishes an article entitled “A Brief History of Cyberspace” in which author Mark Pesce writes, “There are two ages of the Internet – before Mosaic, and after. The combination of Tim Berners-Lee’s Web protocols, which provided connectivity, and Marc Andreesen’s browser, which provided a great interface, proved explosive. In twenty-four months, the Web has gone from being unknown to absolutely ubiquitous.”

1997
NASA launches the Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on a mission to Saturn.

Levi Dedi, also known by the handle “The Night Daemon,” of the ANSI artscene groups Fuel and iCE, commits suicide by jumping from his ninth story apartment window in Israel. After helping to organize the competition for a demo party called “Ritual,” he finally achieved his dream of being accepted into the ANSI group iCE (Insane Creators Enterprises) in August. However, by early October, his family life was being badly neglected, and his mother disabled their phone line’s outgoing calls, cutting him off from the Internet, his friends, and the artscene world as punishment. Spiraling into depression, Dedi jumped from his family’s apartment window to his death, sending shockwaves through his families, both online and off. The next artpack released by iCE (one of the most prominent and critically successful groups on the underground artscene) will be dedicated to his memory, including artwork by and for him. An iCE tribute page created in his honor will remain online for years to come.

1998
Hackers deface a website about Kashmir posted by the India’s military.

LSI Logic Corporation, a maker of high-performance chips and devices, announces plans to lay off 1,200 employees, which is about 17% of its work force.

1999
Handspring begins shipping the Handspring Visor Deluxe handheld computer.

International Business Machines (IBM) announces the Ultrastar 72ZX, which, with 73GB storage capacity, is the world’s highest capacity drive. At about the size of a paperback novel, it can hold the equivalent of a floor of books at the New York Public Library with room to spare. The Ultrastar 72ZX and the 36LZX 10,000 RPM drives also boast the most bits per square inch, approximately 7.04 billion, of any server-class hard drive in the world. This higher density contributes to the device’s high storage capacity.

Sega announces that it has set a new sales record, having sold one hundred thousand Dreamcast game consoles within the first twenty-four hours of its launch in Europe.

2001
Handspring announces the Handspring Treo 180 handheld computer, featuring a 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor, 16MB RAM, a tiny keyboard, a monochrome screen, and rechargeable batteries. The system will be released in early 2002. Price: US$400

Handspring announces the Handspring Treo 180g handheld computer, featuring a 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor, Graffiti handwriting recognition, a monochrome screen, 16MB RAM, and rechargeable batteries. The system will be released in early 2002. Price: US$400

Handspring announces the Handspring Treo 270 handheld computer, featuring a 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor, a color screen, 16MB of RAM, and rechargeable batteries. The system is will be released in mid-2002. Price: US$600

The NASA space probe Galileo passes within 112 miles of Io, a moon of Jupiter. Visit the official Galileo website.

Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Mail Business Edition.

2002
Apple Computer announces the twenty-five millionth download of QuickTime 6. Visit the official Quicktime website.

Microsoft begins bundling two video games with the Xbox in the US, until the end of the year. The games are Sega GT 2002 and Jet Set Radio Future. The Xbox will also now come standard with the same smaller controller used in the Japanese market.

Toshiba launches the Pocket PC e335 handheld computer, featuring a 300 MHz Intel PXA250 XScale processor, a 3.5 inch color screen, and 64MB RAM. Price: US$399

2003
China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission at 9am local time, becoming the third nation to send a man into space after the Soviet Union and the United States. The spacecraft is carried by a Long March CZ-2F rocket and crewed by Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei, age 38. It will complete fourteen Earth orbits during the course of a twenty-one hour flight, which will end with a parachute-assisted landing on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China. The design of the spacecraft is based on the three-seat Russian Soyuz capsule. It’s name, Shenzhou, translates to “divine vessel.”

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Exile” first airs. (No. 306) In it, a Hoshi encounters a telepathic exile on a deserted world who offers to give her information that aid the crew’s search for the Xindi. Memory Alpha entry

Version 9.0 of the SUSE Linux distribution is released under a General Public License (GPL). Visit the system’s official website.

2004
Microsoft announces an Xbox bundle that will be released October 31 in the US. The standard US$150 Xbox package will include NCAA Football 2005 and Top Spin video games, and a two-month subscription to Xbox Live.

The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Storm Front, Part II” first airs. (No. 402) In it, Archer joins Silik to stop the alien Nazis, restore the timeline, and end the Temporal Cold War. Memory Alpha entry

A University of Texas student hacks into the school’s computers and steals information on thirty-seven thousand students and employees.

2005
The number of files shared on the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing network reaches an estimated 54 petabtyes (PB) or 54,000,000 gigabytes (GB). Visit official Kazaa website.

2007
On the Official Google Blog, YouTube product manager David King announces the release of YouTube Video Identification, a tool to help copyright holders identify works being shared on YouTube and choose what they want done with them that would go “above and beyond our legal responsibilities.” While the tool goes a long way towards easing Google’s legal issues in regard to the site, the automated tool will come under heavy criticism in January 2009 after Warner Music Group uses it to remove massive numbers of videos whose use should have fallen under Fair Use. Read the original post.

Microsoft releases the final version of Windows Live Home web portal. Visit the official Home website.

Netscape Communications releases the final version of Netscape Navigator, version 9.0. Support for the browser will be discontinued on March 1, 2008. Visit the official Netscape.com home page.