1642
Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the oldest college in the United States, holds its first commencement exercises.
1837
Morse enters into an agreement with Alfred Vail, whose father owns Speedwell Iron Works. Morse develops his caveat showing the invention and alphabet code. It is sent to his old classmate and Commissioner of Patents, Henry L. Ellsworth, in Washington.
1846
German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle verifies the position of the eighth planet, Neptune, as predicted through astronomical calculations made by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams. Galle discovers Neptune after only an hour of searching, within one degree of the position that had been computed by Le Verrier. Independently of the English astronomer John C. Adams, Le Verrier had calculated the size and position of a previously unknown planet, which he assumed influenced the irregular orbit of Uranus, and he asked Galle to look for it.
1848
John Curtis produces the first commercial chewing gum on a stove in his home in Bangor, Maine in the United States. He will market the product as “The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.”
1879
Richard S. Rhodes invents the Audiophone, the first hearing aid.
1884
Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical tabulating machine.
1889
Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.
1930
In Germany, Johannes Ostermeier patents first commercially available photoflash bulb, which will be named the Vacublitz.
1951
The first transcontinental television relay is made by CBS from New York to the US west coast.
1962
The animated television series The Jetsons premieres on the ABC network. TV.com entry
1974
On the opening day of the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in London, the government sanctions and the BBC inaugurates a two-year experiment in Ceefax teletext of regular news and information bulletins, updated five times a day. The system has a capacity of only thirty pages initially.
Philips acquires American consumer electronics company Magnavox.
Philips and Music Corporation of America (MCA) agree on a merger of their respective video disc systems, Philips to produce and sell VLP hardware, MCA to develop and market Disco-Vision software.
1980
Rod Black confirms a non-exclusive licensing arrangement with Microsoft for 86-DOS. Microsoft will pay a US$10,000 fee for the right to distribute 86-DOS to an unlimited number of end users, and to sublicense 86-DOS to equipment manufacturers for US$10,000 (US$15,000 with source code).
1985
Apple Computer files a lawsuit against Steve Jobs, claiming that he secretly planned to form a company using several key Apple employees and technologies.
1987
Release 51 of the Infocom interactive fiction game Beyond Zork is published for personal computers. It is one of the last games in the Zork series published by Infocom. Later titles would be published by Activision after Infocom’s acquisition. It signifies a notable departure from the standard format of Infocom’s earlier games which relied purely on text and puzzle-solving. Beyond Zork is the first game in the Zork franchise and one of the first Infocom games to incorporate a crude on-screen map, the use of character statistics, levels, and RPG combat elements. It is Infocom’s twenty-ninth game.
1988
Universal Pictures releases the dramatic non-fiction film Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, directed by Michael Apted and starring Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, and John Omirah Miluwi, to fifteen US theaters. It tells the true-life story of naturalist Dian Fossey, her work with gorillas, and her efforts to stop the decimation of the endangered species. The film will gross US$366,925 domestically in its opening weekend. On October 7, the film will be released to 1,085 theaters, and it will be gross US$4,042,940 in that opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 2 hrs 10 min
1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Redemption (Part 2)” first airs. (No. 501) In it, a fleet of twenty Federation ships cut off Romulan support to the Duras family, resulting in Gowron’s installation as Chancellor. Memory Alpha entry
1997
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announces the IBM WorkPad handheld computer, featuring 1MB RAM. Price: US$399 Weight: 6oz
Microsoft releases the first beta test of Windows NT 5.0 at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference.
1999
Intel tells PC vendors to delay shipments of computers with Pentium III processors using a 820 chipsets and Rambus DRAM, due to unresolved application and system crashes.
NASA announces that it has lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter, as it apparently burns up as it enters into orbit around the Red Planet.
2002
The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (“Phoenix 0.1″) is released. Visit the official Mozilla Firefox website.
2003
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 2000MHz Athlon 64 3200+ processor, featuring a 1024KB Level-2 Cache and an 800MHz Hyper Transport. AMD also releases the 2200MHz Athlon 64 FX-51 processor, featuring a 1024KB Level-2 Cache and an 800MHz Hyper Transport. The Athlon 64 is AMD’s eighth-generation microprocessor architecture and the third series of processors to bear the name Athlon.
2004
Wizards Of The Coast publishes the roleplaying game supplement Monster Manual III as a hardcover. (ISBN-10: 0786934301) Length: 224 pages
2005
The BattleStar Galactica episode “Pegasus” first airs. (No. 210) In it, the fleet is exuberant with the arrival of the Battlestar Pegasus. However, Adama soon worries about Admiral Cain, Pegasus’s commanding officer and Adama’s superior, in command of the fleet.
2006
Japan’s Solar-B mission is launched from the Uchinoura Space Center. With its successful launch, it is rechristened “Hinode”.
2008
Google and T-Mobile USA unveils the first cellphone to feature the Android mobile operating system, the T-Mobile G1. The system allows developers to write managed code in the Java language and runs on the Linux kernel. Visit the official T-Mobile G1 website. Code-name: HTC Dream
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