1852
The first airship, a semi-rigid dirigible balloon powered by a steam engine is demonstrated with a seventeen mile flight from Paris to Trappes, France. Henri Giffard built the 147-foot long spindle-shaped coal-gas balloon and fitted it with an engine of his own design. The engine rotates an eleven foot propeller to propel the ship to speeds of up to five miles per hour against the wind. The demonstration is the first powered or controlled flight in history.
1923
The first movie released on celluloid film, Das Leben auf dem Dorfe, premieres.
1947
Majestic 12, a secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officials, is allegedly established by a secret executive order issued by President Harry Truman to investigate UFO activity in the aftermath of the Roswell incident.
1948
The Honda Motor Company is founded.
1960
The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise (CVAN-65), is launched in Newport, Virginia. It is the longest, tallest, and fastest warship in the world and will remain so for years to come. Powered by eight nuclear reactors, it does not need to carry its own fuel oil and so has more room for aviation fuel and weapons. In 1963, Enterprise and two similarly powered cruisers make a non-stop voyage around the world to demonstrate the viability of nuclear power. It is the eighth US ship to bear the name Enterprise. Visit the vessel’s official website.
1970
The robotic space probe Luna 16 makes the first automated return of lunar samples following the first unmanned round-trip mission to the Moon.
1979
Compu-Serve (later CompuServe) launches the first consumer computer information service as MicroNET. The 300-baud service, offered through Radio Shack, offers the first commercial electronic mail (e-mail) service. Originally founded in 1969 to provide dial-up computer timesharing access to businesses, Compu-Serve branched out in order to create a market amid the slowly growing number of users with Radio Shack personal computers. Initially, the service was widely disfavored within the company because it targeted such a minuscule market, but by 1987, the service would be responsible for half of the company’s revenues.
Lucasfilm finishes filming Star War: The Empire Strikes Back.
1980
The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s most widely circulated newspapers, is printed in a wholly automated process that leaves it “untouched by human hands” for the first time.
1981
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announces the production of a ground-breaking memory chip that can store 288,000 bits of data.
1984
Business Week magazine publishes an article entitled, “Atari: The Problem Child That Warner Can’t Get Rid Of.” The article explains that Atari needs further assistance from it’s parent company to compete in the marketplace, largely due to unpaid receivables promised to Atari by Warner. Steps taken by Jack Tramiel, president of Atari, include cutting manufacturing costs, reducing the selling price of computers and games by up to forty percent, and reducing the company’s workforce from 1,100 to less than 200 within months.
1985
James Copland, vice president of marketing for the Atari Corporation, resigns to start SC&T.
1986
Honeywell, a computer manufacturer that entered into the computer market early but passed from prominence by the mid-eighties, announces that it has entered into discussions concerning a merger of its computer operations with the Japanese firm NEC and France’s Groupe Bull. Analysts see the move as part of a trend of consolidation in the industry prompted, in part, by IBM’s control of more than half the market. Honeywell had experienced a thirty-seven percent drop in its earnings in the first half of 1986.
1990
The periodic Great White Spot is first observed on Saturn.
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Best of Both Worlds (Part 2)” first airs. (No. 401) In it, Picard is rescued from the Borg, as the Enterprise races to save Earth. The episode will be one of the most popular and highly rated episodes in the entire franchise’s history. Memory Alpha entry
1992
USA Networks launches the Sci Fi Channel as a collaboration between Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios. The first program shown on the station is Star Wars: A New Hope, preceded by a short introduction. The channel will initially show re-runs of sixties television series such as Dark Shadows and Flash Gordon. Soon after, the channel will expand its programming to include other science fiction series. In 2003, the channel will begin airing original programming. In 2004, the channel begins airing Sci Fi Pictures, original, independently-produced B-movies. On March 16, 2009, Sci Fi announced that it would be changing its name to Syfy. Watch a video of the Channel’s First Sign On. Visit the official SyFy website.
1993
Broderbund releases the first-person graphic adventure game Myst for the Macintosh and Windows 3.1 in the US. The game will go on to become one of the bestselling games of all time, popularizing both the graphic adventure genre and the CD-ROM format. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: KA (Kids to Adults)
The webcomic Doctor Fun by David Farley is launched, becoming the world’s first comic on the World Wide Web. There is only one recorded instance of a comic appearing on the Internet any earlier. The webcomic Where the Buffalo Roam had a Usenet group as early as 1991. Doctor fun is often compared to The Far Side, as it is a one-panel comic with a nerdy flavor. The comic will run for 520 posts, until June 9, 2006. Visit the comic’s official website.
1995
The science fiction television series Space: Above and Beyond premieres on the FOX television network in the US, with the episode “Pilot, Part 1.” (No. 1) In it, an Earth outpost sixteen light-years away is destroyed by an unknown alien force, and a group of young United States Marine Corps Space Aviators find themselves on the front lines of an interstellar battle in an attempt to save their home planet. The series will run for one season, with a total of twenty-four episodes. TV.com entry
1996
Netscape Communications releases the Navigator Personal Edition 3.0 web browser, for US$50, and the Navigator Gold Personal Edition 3.0 for US$80.
1997
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announces that it is investigating Intel for allegedly illegal practices of withholding CPU sales to PC makers who buy competitor’s products.
The Windows NT server that hosts Lince.com is anonymously hacked.
1998
eBay, Inc. makes its Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares with over nine million shares trading on Nasdaq. The stock had an initial offering price of US$18 a share, but gains US$29.375, closing at US$47.375. eBay is an Internet-based auction facility catering to more than one million registered users.
Netscape Communications Corporation signs an agreement with Snap.Com, a new search engine service, for the distribution of a custom version of the Netscape Internet browser.
1999
Space Imaging launches the first commercial “spy” satellite, capable of collecting high-resolution imagery at one and four meter resolutions, as well as multispectral (MS) and panchromatic (PAN) imagery. The New York Times call the launch “one of the most significant developments in the history of the space age.”
Sega of America, Inc. announces that it has sold 514,000 Dreamcast units within the first two weeks of its launch Thursday, September 9.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! China.
2000
Microsoft releases Metal Gear Solid for Windows in North America. ESRB: M (Mature)
2001
Personal computer manufacturers begin shipping new computers with Windows XP preloaded.
2002
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the 1600MHz Athlon XP 1900+ and the 1667MHz 2000+ mobile processors. Price: US$239 and US$345 each in 1000-unit quantities
Monte Cristo releases the strategy game Micro Commandos for Windows in North America.
2003
The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) releases a report asserting that Microsoft’s industry dominance poses a security risk that threatens the nation’s infrastructure. The report claims that reliance on a single technology, such as the Windows operating system, is a flaw in economic security and infrastructure. “The impact on security of this lock-in is real and endangers society,” the paper states, adding that “there can be no more critical duty of…governments than to ensure that a spread of trusted computers does not blithely create yet more opportunities for lock-in.” The CCIA also warns that many security improvements planned by Microsoft are most likely designed to deter customers from switching to another operating system.
Intel releases the 2700MHz Celeron 2.7 128KB Level-2 Cache and a 400MHz Front Side Bus.
Nintendo reduces the price of the GameCube video game console to US$99 and includes the Nintendo GameCube Preview Disc in the bundle.
One thousand car shoppers’ car loan applications are exposed in bulk on Dealerskins, a Tennessee firm that hosts websites for car dealerships. The website containing the information The Dealerskins was completely unsecured. The breach will later make CNN’s “Dumbest Moments in Business” year-end list.
The Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Extinction” first airs. (No. 303) In it, Archer, Malcolm and Hoshi are exposed to an alien virus which mutates them into members of a long-dead race called the Loque’eque. Memory Alpha entry
US District Judge Lee R. West rules that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had exceeded its authority in creating the National Do Not Call Registry, which was scheduled to go into effect October 1st. The judge ruled that the registry violated the First and Fifth Amendment rights of Direct Marketing Association and other telemarketers, who estimate that the do-not-call list could cut its business in half, costing up to US$50 billion in sales annually.
2004
Columbia Pictures releases the science fiction film The Forgotten, directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julianne Moore, Anthony Edwards, Lee Tergesen, Alfre Woodard, and Gary Sinise, to 3,104 US theaters. In it, a woman whose son died fourteen months earlier in a plane crash is told he never existed. Desperate to prove she isn’t crazy, the woman seeks evidence of her son’s death, only to uncover a vast, inexplicable conspiracy of impossible forces. Produced on a budget of US$42 million, it will gross US$21,022,111 domestically in its opening weekend. IMDB listing (MPAA Rating: PG-13) Running Time: 1 hr 29 mins
2007
The comedy series The Big Bang Theory premieres with the episode “Pilot.” (No. 1) The series centers around two socially awkward physicists who share an apartment together and the blonde waitress who moves in across the fall from them. Visit the official CBS website for Big Bang Theory.
The New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenas Facebook over allegations that the social networking site failed to protect the safety of its young users following multiple complaints regarding sexual predators. In a letter that accompanied a subpoena for documents, Cuomo states that his office conducted a preliminary review of the site that “revealed significant defects in the site’s safety controls and the company’s response to complaints — deficiencies that stand in contrast to the reassuring statements made on the Web site and by company officials.” The subpoena orders Facebook to turn over all the complaints it has received about inappropriate solicitation of underage users and inappropriate content on the site and the company’s responses to those complaints.
Version 1.4 of the PC-BSD operating system is released. PC-BSD is a Unix-like system specifically designed to be immediately useful upon installation with a simple and graphical installation process. Visit the official PC-BSD website.
Version 3.71 of the WinRAR data compression utility is released. Visit the official WinRAR website.
2008
At the Oracle Open World conference in San Francisco, Larry Ellison announces that the Oracle Corporation will begin selling computer hardware for the first time in the company’s history. Specifically, Oracle will offer a “database machine” and a smaller storage product, both manufactured by Hewlett-Packard and designed to work with Oracle database software.
Yahoo! releases version 9.0 of the Yahoo! Messenger. Visit the official Yahoo! Messenger website.
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