1776
The first US submarine built for wartime use, the American Turtle, is used in New York harbor to attach a time bomb to the hull of the flagship of British Admiral Richard Howe, the HMS Eagle. Known as a “torpedo” the weapon is a cask with 150lbs of black powder and a clockwork time fuse. Because it separated from the ship before it exploded, little damage was accomplished, but nonetheless, the event marks the world’s first submarine attack.
1927
The first fully electronic television system is first successfully tested by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, age 21. The first electronic image he produces is of a straight line painted onto a pane of glass. Farnsworth, who was born in a log cabin without electricity in Utah, will later explain that the idea of television first came to him while he was plowing a field when he was fourteen. The plowed rows made him realize that an image could be broken into rows like the field. Read more about at The Farnsworth Chronicles.
1948
Louis Parker for a television receiver he describes as an “intercarrier sound system.” (US No. 2,448,908)
1967
Biosatellite II, the second US biological research satellite, is launched. When it is safely recovered after re-entry, it will become the first successful biological research satellite. It carries thirteen experiments designed to test the effects of cosmic radiation and a stay in space on simple life forms, including: millions of orange head mold spores, thousands of vinegar gnats, hundreds of wasp and amoeba, one hundred twenty frog eggs, dozens of wheat seedlings, dozens of blue wild flowers, flour beetles, and bacteria cells. The satellite’s predecessor, Biosatellite I, failed fire its retrorockets, causing it to burn up in the atmosphere.
1969
The first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus is recorded.
1970
Vietnam’s first experimental television broadcasts begin in Hanoi.
1974
The Star Trek: The Animated Series episode The Pirates of Orion first airs. (No. 017) In it, the U.S.S. Enterprise is on its way to Deneb 5 when Mr. Spock contracts choriocytosis and has only days to live. The S.S. Huron is to rendezvous with the Enterprise and deliver the cure, when it’s attacked by Orion pirates. Captain Kirk chases the Orion ship in a desperate attempt to save Spock’s life. The episode is the first in the second season. Memory Alpha entry
1981
ILLIAC IV, which was the first large parallel processing computer, is shut down after nearly a decade of use at the University of Illinois. In 1966, the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contracted the University of Illinois to build the ILLIAC IV, which did not operate until 1972 at the NASA Ames Research Center. ILLIAC IV achieved a computation speed of two hundred million instructions per second, about 300 million operations per second, and one billion bits per second of I/O transfer via a unique combination of parallel architecture and the pipe-lining structure of its 64 processing elements.
1982
Victory Computer Systems, which will manufacture several series of computers, is incorporated.
1983
AT&T announces a joint venture with Coleco Industries to develop a home video game service to deliver games over phone lines to the Colecovision game system.
1985
The animated sci-fi series Star Wars: Droids premieres with the episode “The White Witch” and the animated sci-fi series Star Wars: Ewoks debuts “The Cries of the Trees.” The two series are aired together on the ABC television network as The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour. The two series will run for two seasons of thirteen episodes each, spawning a comic book series and numerous lines of merchandise.
1987
The world’s first conference on artificial life is held September 7 – September 21 at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1988
Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after nine days aboard the Mir space station. The re-entry of the craft was riddled with repeated errors, as the computer attempted to run a re-entry sequence written stored from a June Soviet-Bulgarian mission. First, the computer failed to start the deorbit burn on time because the horizon sensor couldn’t confirm the craft’s altitude. Seven minutes later, the main engine fired but had to be shut down. When the crew attempted to manually deorbit the craft, the computer shut engines down. In an attempt to continue on manual, pilot Vladimir Lyakhov instructed the computer to ignore the first burn shutdown, inadvertantly triggering the next stage in the re-entry checklist, a scheduled jettison of the Equipment Module, including the primary propulsion system. Lyakhov disabled the program less than a minute from what would have been a fatal step, and the pair were forced to remain in orbit for a full day longer than expect, waiting for another re-entry window in a Descent Module with little water and no sanitary facilities.
1990
NEC releases the platform game Legendary Axe II as Ankoko Densetsu (“Dark Legend”) for the TurboGrafx 16 in Japan.
Nippon Telenet releases the platform game Valis III for the PC Engine in Japan.
1992
The Classic FM radio station is launched in the United Kingdom. It’s the first commercial station launched in the UK that isn’t devoted to pop music, but its classical music soon find an audience.
1994
Apple Computer announces its intention to license the Macintosh operating system in 1995. A new Mac OS logo is announced, which will be used to identify Mac application programs and Mac-compatible systems.
1996
Larry Page and Sergey Brin begin collaboration on a search engine called BackRub, named for its unique ability to analyze the “back links” pointing to a given website, which will later become Google.
1997
The European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) is held September 7 – 9 at the Olympia in London, England. Intel makes its first appearance at this year’s show. Visit the event’s official website.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America releases the roleplaying game Final Fantasy VII for the Sony PlayStation in North America. It is the first Final Fantasy game to use 3D computer graphics and to feature fully rendered characters on pre-rendered backgrounds. The game’s story centers on a group of adventurers as they battle a powerful mega corporation called “Shinra,” which is draining the life of the planet to use as an energy source. The will become a break-out success, and many people will credit the game with elevating console roleplaying games into the mainstream outside of Japan. Visit the game’s official website. ESRB: T (Teen)
1998
The Google search engine is co-founded by two former Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The company, which is based in a Silicon Valley garage, is centered around the two programmer’s search engine technology, which they pioneered in an earlier search engine named BackRub that they had run out of their dorm room. The name of the company and its search engine, Google, is a play on the word “googol,” coined by Milton Sirotta to refer to the number represented with a one followed by one hundred zeros, and is intended to reflect the company’s mission to organize the seemingly infinite information available on the internet.
Fox Interactive, Infogrames, Konami, Official PlayStation Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), and other industry names host an extravagant party for select European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) attendees. Entertainment is provided by Pulp, a very popular UK band.
1999
Capcom releases the fighting game Power Stone for the Sega Dreamcast. ESRB: T (Teen)
Ebay Magazine hits newsstands in the United States. The monthly magazine is published by Krause Publications. According to the publishers, the target market is e-commerce enthusiasts and it will include articles that features buying tips, selling tips, and ideas of benefit to collectors and investors. The premiere issue features a brief article on collecting classic Atari 2600 items entitled “Just try comparing ‘Frogger’ to ‘Quake II’” on page 27. It includes quotes from Alexander Bilstein, webmaster of Atari 2600 Nexus.
Sega of America predicts that the Dreamcast game console will generate US$45 million in sales within the first twenty-four hours of its launch on Thursday, September 9.
Version 1.0.0 of GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG), a free software replacement for the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) suite of cryptographic software, is released under the GNU General Public License for Linux after nine months of beta testing. GnuPG is completely compliant with RFC 2440, the IETF standard for OpenPGP, and the system will rapidly increase in popularity after the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology funds the documentation and Windows port for the application in 2000. Visit the application’s official website.
2000
Sega releases the football game NFL 2K1 for the Dreamcast in the US. It is the first game to include online game play through SegaNet.
Sega launches the SegaNet online gaming network. SegaNet allows Dreamcast players to play against other players via the dial-up network. Current Dreamcast owners can receive a US$150 rebate for signing an eighteen month contract. New purchasers can receive a free Dreamcast for the same eighteen month contract. Price: US$21.95 per month
2001
Artisan Entertainment releases the documentary Startup.com, directed by Jehane Noujaim and Chris Hegedus in the UK. The film examines the dot-com start-up phenomenon, following govWorks.com and its founders Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman in 1999 and 2000 as the Internet bubble burst. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 36 mins
Cryo Interactive releases the first person shooter From Dusk Till Dawn for Windows. Visit the game’s official website. ELSPA: 15+
2004
The Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files, is launched. Visit the Wikimedia Commons website.
2005
2K Sports releases the hockey game NHL 2K6 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Xbox 360.
Apple Computer discontinues the iPod mini line of MP3 players, which was introduced on February 20, 2004, and announces the iPod nano line to replace it. The nano combines combines the flash memory of the iPod shuffle with the controls and interface of the iPod. It is sixty-two percent smaller than its predecessor by volume, only 0.27 inches thick, and it features a 65,536 color display capable of displaying photographs. The Nano will sell one million units inside the first seventeen days.
The Brightstar Corporation, a privately held US corporation that provides logistical services and supply chain management to the wireless telecommunications industry, announces in a press release that it has joined the One Laptop Per Child US$100 laptop initiative to assist in logistic and supply chain demands. Visit the company’s official website.
Samsung confirmed their next-generation of optical drives will support both Blu-ray Discs and HD DVD discs.
A trial version of Age of Empires III is released.
Version 2.12 of Gnoppix, a Linux distribution intended to offer the GNOME desktop environment on a Live CD. Visit the system’s official website.
Yahoo! Inc. supplies personal information on a user to the government of the People’s Republic of China, which subsequently jails reporter Shi Tao, age 37, on a ten year sentence. The move sparks debate in the US media. In an attempt to defend their brand image, Yahoo! releases a statement explaining that the company was just following Chinese law.
2006
Amazon.com launches Amazon Unbox, an Internet video on demand service that offers television programs and films for rental and purchase from eight major television and film studios to US customers. Rental pricing for feature length films range from US$0.99 to US$3.99, while television shows can be purchased for US$1.99. Additional discounts are given for full season purchases. Downloaded films includes two versions of videos requested, a full resolution video file and a lower resolution copy for portable devices. Read the original press release. Visit the official Amazon Unbox website.
Namco releases the roleplaying game (RPG) Tales of Phantasia for the Sony PlayStation in Japan.
Orbit Books publishes the fantasy novel Armageddon’s Children by Terry Brooks as a hardcover in the UK. (ISBN-10: 184149478X) It is the first book in The Genesis of Shannara series. Length: 384 pages Visit the author’s official website.
2007
The social networking website Facebook surpasses two hundred million accounts.
2008
The fantasy television series True Blood premieres on HBO with the episode “Strange Love“. The series is based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris. In the episode, telepath Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna Paquin, first encounter the vampire Bill Compton, played by Stephen Moyer, at the bar where she waitresses. TV.com entry
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