1857
The first major chess tournament, the First American Chess Congress, is held in New York. The event was organized by the American Chess Association and won by Paul Morphy.
1876
A group of public and university librarians establish the American Library Association to promote the enjoyment of reading. Visit the organization’s official website.
1889
William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, the inventor of the motion picture camera and an employee of Thomas Edison, makes the first motion picture, in which he films himself saying “Good morning, Mr Edison. How do you like this?” The motion picture is the first “sound film.” The image of the film is only about one inch wide and three-quarters of an inch high.
1908
The Ohio Art company, later manufacturer of the Etch-A-Sketch, is founded by Henry Simon Winzeler. Visit the game’s official website.
1914
Edwin H. Armstrong is granted a patent for a “Wireless Receiving System,” in which he describes his regenerative circuit, otherwise known as a feed-back circuit. (US No. 1,113,149)
1927
Warner Brothers premieres The Jazz Singer, the first motion picture with sound, at the Warner Cinema on Broadway in New York. The film uses Warner’s Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. Its soundtrack consists mainly of songs and the memorable line of dialog from Al Jolson, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothing yet, folks.”
1941
Electric photography, which will later be called xerography, is patented by Chester Carlson.
strong>1966
The Star Trek episode “The Enemy Within” is first airs. (No. 5) In it, a transporter mishap divides Captain Kirk into two versions of himself, one good and one evil, but neither is able to function separately for long. The episode marks the first use of the line, “He’s dead, Jim.” The phrase is coined by the episode’s author, Richard Matheson. Memory Alpha entry
1967
The Star Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror” first airs. (No. 33) In it, a transporter malfunction sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura into a parallel universe where, in lieu of the Federation, a despotic Earth-centered galactic empire exists. Memory Alpha entry
1983
Lotus Development, founded by Mitch Kapor and Jonathan Sachs in 1982, goes public after recording revenues of US$12.8 million over the course of the previous twelve months. The company will become a break-out success when it releases the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet application. Lotus 1-2-3 takes the innovative step of bypassing the IBM PC operating system for improved responsiveness that will give it an edge over its competitors.
1987
Microsoft announces Microsoft Windows 2.0 and Microsoft Windows/386. Price: US$195
Microsoft announces the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet application for Microsoft Windows 2.0, the first major application for Windows.
1995
Didier Queloz and Michael Mayor announce the first discovery of a planet around a star similar to the Sun, 51 Pegasi. The planet is about one hundred sixty times the mass of the Earth.
1996
Intel releases the 200 Mhz version of the Pentium Processor.
1997
American biology professor Stanley B. Prusiner won the Nobel Prize for medicine for discovering “Prions,” which he describes as “an entirely new genre of disease-causing agents.”
Michael Dell suggests that Apple be shut down. Gil Amelio had been ousted and Apple is searching for its next CEO. Steve Jobs was asked to to fill the position, but many felt that Jobs wasn’t an appropriate choice, Dell among them. When he was asked at an industry conference what he thought Apple should do, Dell replied, “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” Whether the response is a sincere educated opinion or competitive bravado isn’t clear. By Friday, January 13, 2006, Dell’s US$71.97 billion market cap is exceeded by Apple’s US$72.13 billion market cap, and Apple’s performance will continue to significantly surpass Dell’s.
The science fiction series Earth: Final Conflict premieres with the episode “Decision” in Canada and the US. The series was created by Gene Roddenberry, however, it wasn’t put into production until after his death. In the episode, William Boone is offered a job working for the Taelons; he refuses at first, but after his wife dies in an automobile crash, he agrees. Boone is contacted by the Resistance. It will run for five season and one hundred ten episodes. TV.com entry
1998
At the Sega New Challenge Conference in Tokyo, Sega debuts the Dreamcast video game system.
Creative Labs lowers the price of the 12MB 3D Blaster Voodoo2, a graphics accelerator card, to US$199.99 minus a US$50 mail-in rebate. The 8MB version is repriced to US$109.99 minus a US$30 rebate.
Del Rey publishes Stars and Stripes Forever by Harry Harrison as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0345409337) It is the first book in the Stars and Stripes trilogy. In this book, Harry Harrison poses a provocative what if scenario that would have changed the outcome of the U.S. Civil War - and the course of history. On November 8, 1861, in the Bahama Channel close to Cuba, a U.S. navy warship stopped a British packet, boarded her, and seized two Confederate emissaries on their way to England to seek backing for their cause. England responded with rage…and with calls for a war of vengeance. The looming crisis was defused by the peace-minded Prince Albert. But what if fate had intervened? Imagine how his absence during this critical moment might have changed everything. For lacking Albert’s calm voice of reason, Britain now seizes the opportunity to attack and conquer a crippled, war-torn America. Ulysses S. Grant is poised for an attack that could smash open the South’s defenses. In Washington, Abraham Lincoln sees a first glimmer of hope that this bloody war might soon end. But then disaster strikes: English troops have invaded from Canada. Stars and Stripes Forever asks - and then fascinatingly answers - a central question: Could a divided, bloodied America have defeated England, or would the United States have ceased to exist for all time? Length: 338 pages
Intel announced the 450MHz version of its Pentium II Xeon processor, designed for use in dual-processor workstations and servers.
Jeff Goldblum appears in two new thirty-second television commercials to promote Apple’s new iMac computers. The first of the spots airs during Home Improvement on ABC.
Microsoft releases Visual J++ 6.0 Java development software. Price: US$109 (Standard Edition) US$549 (Professional Edition)
The science fiction television series Seven Days premieres on the
United Paramount Network (UPN) in the US with the episode “Pilot, Part I”. It will run for three seasons and a total of sixty-six episodes. The series follows a secret branch of the United States’ National Security Agency who have developed a time traveling device based upon alien technology found after the legendary crash at Roswell. The Chronosphere, or Backstep Sphere, sends one human being back in time seven days to avert disasters. TV.com entry
1999
Barnes & Noble, Inc. reveals plans to acquire Texas-based Babbage’s Etc. for US$215 million. Babbage’s operates 495 stores under the names of Babbage’s, GameStop, and Software, Etc.
Michael Vatis of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tells the United States Congress that a series of raids launched against Defense Department computers have allegedly originated from Russia. Vatis is the director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and leading an ongoing investigation code-named Moonlight Maze that involves pertinent US agencies and international counterparts.
The United States Justice Department reveals that it has spent US$12.6 million in total litigation expenses in the antitrust case against the Microsoft Corporation since 1989.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Mexico.
2000
Sony releases the Vaio PictureBook laptop computer in Japan, the first with a Transmeta Crusoe processor.
2003
Andrew Garcia, age 38, a former employee of Viewsonic, guilty to one count of accessing a protected computer and recklessly causing damage. Garcia accessed Viewsonic’s computer system on April 14, 2002 and deleted critical files on one of the servers that he had maintained while he was employed by the company. The loss of these files rendered the server inoperative, and Viewsonic’s Taiwan office was unable to access important data for several days. He is sentenced to one year in prison.
Charter Communications becomes the first cable internet provider to challenge the RIAA use of provision 512(h) of the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA), which deals with identify infringers, when it files for a motion to quash the subpoenas filed by the RIAA to identify one hundred fifty of its customers. Although Charter Communications will initially lose this motion and turn over the identities of the requested customers, a later appeal will rule that the motion to quash should have been upheld.
2004
At the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco, California, the World Cyber Games 2004 Grand Final championship games are held, over five days. Thirty thousand spectators watch about seven hundred gamers in teams from fifty-nine countries compete. The Netherlands team wins the most points. The Korean team wins the most medals.
Microsoft releases version 7 of the Virtual PC suite for Macintosh computers. The virtualization application emulates a Pentium processor environment to allow Windows applications and operating systems to run on Macs. Visit the official Virtual PC website. Price: US$249 bundled with Windows XP Professional
2005
The High Court of Australia rules that it is legal to install modification chips in a PlayStation 2 that allows the console to play imported and copied games. Sony Computer Entertainment originally filed a lawsuit against Sydney retailer Eddy Stevens in 2001 for selling unauthorized copies of games, and selling and installing modification chips for the PlayStation 2.
Symantec releases a security notice on the first virus to target Sony’s PlayStation Portable, the “Trojan.PSPBrick”. The virus is disguised as a PSP-hacking tool, but in actuality, it delete key system files on the device, rendering it in operable.
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