1492
Lead pencils are first used.
1861
The Pony Express, which has been the fast method of communicating between San Francisco, California and St. Joseph, Missouri officially ceases operations just two days after Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States on October 24.
1901
A “getaway car” is used for the first time in history following the hold-up of a shop in Paris, France.
1928
The novel “Peter Pan” by J. M. Barrie is copyrighted.
1936
The first electric generator at the Hoover Dam goes into full operation.
1960
Saga, a silent shoot-em-up Western play written by the TX-0 computer, the first general purpose transistorized computer, airs on the CBS television network to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The program that wrote Saga is comprised 4,096 words of magnetic core storage. The thirteen thousand lines of code choreographed the movements of each object. A line of direction was written for each action, even if it went wrong. This led to the high point of the show where the sheriff put his gun in the holster of the robber resulting in a never ending loop.
1961
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces Hypertape for the IBM 7340, a system faster than any commercially-available magnetic tape system.
1971
JVC announces its first U-format video recorders.
1976
The Ekran-1 direct broadcasting satellite is launched by the Soviet Union.
1984
Sig Hartmann formally resigns as President of Software from Commodore. He is among the last remaining executives who had worked under Jack Tramiel. Within weeks, Hartmann, who has earned a reputation as a business negotiator, will go to work for Atari to once again serve under Tramiel.
1987
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Where No One Has Gone Before” first airs. (No. 106) In it, Warp efficiency tests result in the Enterprise traveling far beyond known space, where the crew’s imagination takes on real form. Memory Alpha entry
1992
Monday, October 26 and Tuesday, October 27, an ambulance call routing computer system in London fails and is blamed for twenty deaths.
1994
The NetBSD Foundation releases version 1.0 of the NetBSD operating system. NetBSD is a free, open source version of the Unix-derivative Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Visit the official NetBSD website.
1998
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) holds its first meeting in secrecy.
Reuters News Service reports that a paralyzed Georgia man has become the first human to control a computer using only his thoughts with the help of a tiny brain implant. The man, age 53, identified only by the initials J.R., sends a signal to a receiving unit in his scalp, which is then relayed to the computer screen. The technology was developed by Dr. Phillip Kennedy and Dr. Roy Bakay.
Symantec, producer of Norton utilities, acquires Quarterdeck Office Systems for US$65 million. Its software products will be discontinued or integrated into Symantec products. Visit Symantec’s official website.
Version 1.0.1 of phpMyAdmin, an open source tool written in PHP to administer MySQL over the Internet, is released. Visit the application’s official website.
VM Labs, which employs approximately fifty people, relocates to new office facilities in Mountain View, California.
2000
Microsoft releases UltimateTV, a DirecTV receiver with integrated DVR and Internet access capabilities.
Sony Computer Entertainment introduces the PlayStation 2 in the U.S. The system features a 294.912MHz processor, a single analog DualShock2 controller, two memory card slots, two USB ports, one i-Link (IEEE 1394) port, and a 128-bit Emotion Engine graphics processor. The system is backwards compatible with PlayStation games and supports CD-ROM, Dolby Digital, DTS, DVD-ROM, and DVD-Video media. Price: US$299 Weight: 5lbs
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