Day in Tech History

Daily rundown of tech history


By Jeffrey Powers

https://dayintechhistory.com/

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June 17, 1885: Statue of Liberty is Delivered

June 17, 2025

1885 Arriving in over 200 crates, the Statue of Liberty is fully delivered to New York City. French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, along with Gustave Eiffel, created this statue for America to

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June 16, 1997: NetPC Announced

June 16, 2025

1997 Several computer companies banded together to help create the NetPC. A disk-less computer that got all information, including install from a corporate server or the Internet. Basically, these

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June 15, 2014: Facebook Changes Breastfeeding Stance

June 15, 2025

2014 After a major protest from #FreetheNipple, Facebook decided to adjust their stance on photos of breastfeeding mothers. Facebook implemented the initial ban on December 30, 2008. The new rule be

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June 14, 1938: Action Comics Introduced Superman

June 14, 2025

1938 It is one of the geekiest days for people like me. Creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster introduced one of the comic heros in Action Comics. Interesting enough, Superman was suppose to be a bad

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June 13, 1993: Interactive Television from Microsoft

June 13, 2025

1993 Microsoft teamed up with Tele-communications and Time Warner to start the revolution known as Interactive TV. The ability to buy product right through the set during a show. iTV would give us

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June 12, 1997: 3COM, US Robotics Complete Merger

June 12, 2025

1997 Back in February, it was announced thatUS Robotics be acquired by 3Com Corporation in a $6.6 billion stock swap. This would add to 3Coms computer networking company against Cisco as they woul

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June 11, 1980: Steve Ballmer Joins Microsoft

June 11, 2025

1980 Otherwise known as The 24th Man (to join Microsoft, that is), Steve Ballmer came on as Microsofts first Business Manager. He made only $50k and stock options. Of course 30 years later, Steve

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June 10: Seiko Introduces Ruputer

June 10, 2025

1998 Seiko introduces the worlds first wearable PC watch called the Ruputer. It was marketed under the OnHand PC name. The Ruputer had a 3.6 MHz processor and 2 MB of non-volitile storage. The 102

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June 9, 1986: Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Opens

June 09, 2025

1986 The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center opens. It links 5 supercomputer centers together Princeton, San Diego, Illinois, and Cornell University.PSC is a leading partner in theTeraGrid, theNat

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June 8, 2001: NetZero and Juno Merge to United Online

June 08, 2025

2001 To compete with AOL, Internet Service Providers NetZero and Juno Online Services announce they will merge to become United Online. The company would eventually acquire other assets to keep aflo

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June 7, 1975: Sony Betamax is Released

June 07, 2025

1975 Sony releases the first home videocassette recorder inthe US. Japan first saw the Betamax on May 10, 1975, which was not uncommon. The magnetic tape media was the first to be on the market, as

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June 6, 2005: Apple Switches to Intel

June 06, 2025

2005 Steve Jobs spoke in front of the masses at the WWDC announcing that Apple will switch their processors from PowerPC to Intel. He then showed off the Mac OS X running on aPentium 4 CPU. The reas

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June 5, 1983: Coleco Adam Computer

June 05, 2025

1983 Coleco announced at the Consumer Electronics Show the Coleco Adam. It was their first attempt at a computer hybrid system gaming and desktop computing. The $725 price tag didnt hurt, either.

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June 4, 1896: Ford Test Drives First Car

June 04, 2025

1896 Henry Ford gets ready to test drive the first Quadricycle (a.k.a. Car). Only one problem They didnt make the garage door big enough. Out comes the Ax A couple chops and a wider door was cr

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June 3, 2009: Core i7 “Nehalem”

June 03, 2025

2009 Intel introduces the Nehalem Core i7 processor, code-named Lynnfield. The i7-950 and 975 models are 4-core processors with a speed of 3.06 GHz. The processor ran 64-bit instruction set and co

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June 2, 1988: IBM PS/2 Model 70

June 02, 2025

1988 While not the first version of the PS/2, the Model 70 was introduced with the 80386 processor. 16, 20, and 25 MHz clock speeds. The Model 70 also used a 25 MHz Intel 486 processor in a complex

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June 1, 1979: the 8088 Microprocessor

June 01, 2025

1979 Intel released the successorto the 8086 processor in the Intel 8088 chip. With a clock rate of either 4.77 MHz or 8 MHz, this 16-bit chip had an external bus of 8 bits and 29,000 transistors.

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May 31, 2006: The Pirate Bay Raided, Swedish Political Party Increased

May 31, 2025

2006 Swedish police raid the host of the Pirate Bay BitTorrent. On the same day, the Pirate Bay political party increased their numbers by 500, with an additional 930 joining the following day. The

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May 30, 1987: Compact Disc Video (CD-V) Format Released

May 30, 2025

1987 North American Phillips Company introduced the compact disc video format. Using the same technology as LaserVision, the CDs with Pictures would be gold in color and the same size as an audio

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May 29, 1999: Five Million Domain Names Registered

May 29, 2025

1999 Believeinkids.com became the five-millionth domain name in the world. At the time, a domain name cost $70 for the first year, $35 a year thereafter. The domain name was abandoned and is still a

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May 28, 2014: Apple Music Acquires Beats

May 28, 2025

2014 Rumors flew high on this one, so when it happened, many people were not surprised. Apple announced they were going to acquire Beats Music and Electronics in a $3 billion deal. As part of the ac

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May 27, 2003: WordPress CMS Released

May 27, 2025

2003 Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created a Fork of B2/cafelog. From there, WordPress was born. Since its release, WordPress has taken over Content Management Systems (CMS) with its ease of use an

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May 26, 1998: AMD K6-2 Processor

May 26, 2025

1998 At the beginnings of the AMD / Intel battle, AMD brought out a processor to dual with Pentium II. The AMD K6-2 processor was a Super Socket 7 pin structure, which also was compatible with olde

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May 25, 1999: Corel WordPerfect Office 2000

May 25, 2025

1999 A program first developed by Brigham young University for Data General minicomputers, WordPerfect was the word processing application for anyone using a computer in the 80s and 90s. I remembe

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May 24, 1985: AOL (as Quantum Computer Services) Founded

May 24, 2025

1985 Quantum Computer Services was founded. Technically, it was a reorganization of Control Video Corporation, a company that started in 1983. The company was selling online service Gameline to Ata

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May 23, 1995: MySQL Released RDBMS

May 23, 2025

1995 MySQL releases their SQL database program for web pages. This is known as a Relational Database Management System(RDBMS). MySQLuses C and C++, the SQL parser used yacc and a hybrid of lexer c

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May 22, 1973: Ethernet is Proposed

May 22, 2025

1973 Robert Metcalfe writes a thirteen-page memo describing a new type of data transmission method. His memo was entitled Ether Acquisition, which would connect Hawaiis ALOHA Network. Alto Ethern

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May 21, 2001: Mac OS X Server Released

May 21, 2025

2001 Apple released the Mac OS X Server, based on Rhapsody, which was a hybrid of NeXT OPENSTEP. The server ran file services, Macintosh Manager, Quicktime Streaming Server, WebObjects, NetBoot and

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May 20, 2013: Tumblr Acquired

May 20, 2025

2013 In a $1.1 billion deal, Yahoo acquired the blogging site Tumblr. This caused many concerns for those using the service especially those who curate blogs with pornographic content. However, Ya

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May 19, 1999: Star Wars Episode I Released

May 19, 2025

1999 Sixteen years after Return of the Jedi, George Lucas finally moves his vision forward with Star Wars: Episode I the Phantom Menace. The story of young Anakin Skywalker and how Obi-Wan Ken

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May 18, 2001: Shrek Hits Theaters

May 18, 2025

2001 The computer animated movie Shrek hits theaters. The 90 minute movie was produced on a $60 million budget and although its first weekend only saw $42 million , the overall theatrical run bro

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May 17, 1902: The Antikythera mechanism

May 17, 2025

1902 The Antikythera mechanism was found off the coast of Greece. They only found a part of it, and wasnt really sure what it did. Eventually, this device was declared to be the oldest known analog

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May 16, 1965: Uh Oh! SpaghettiOs!

May 16, 2025

1965 The Campbell soup company, under their Franco-American brand, introduce SpaghettiOs pasta in a can. The ring-shaped pasta and cheese blend was an easy way (and less messy) to make the kids a m

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May 15, 1940: Speedee McDonalds Opens

May 15, 2025

1940 The first Corporate McDonalds restaurant opened in San Bernardino, CA by Richard and Maurice McDonald. Speedee was the mascot back then a hamburger-chef that was poised upon the McDonalds s

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May 14, 2011: The Return of Sony Playstation Network

May 14, 2025

2011 Hackers took down the Sony Playstation network on April 20th, 2011. Around 77 million accounts were comprimised and gamers couldnt play online for over a month. On May 14, Sony started bringin

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May 13, 1987: Version 1.0 Turbo C Released

May 13, 2025

1987 Version 1.0 of the Turbo C programming language is released. It offers the first integrated edit-compile-run development environment for the C programming language forIBM-compatible personal c

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May 12, 1936: The Dvorak Keyboard Layout Patented

May 12, 2025

1936 When typewriters first came out, many different people worked on keyboard layouts to become the standard. QWERTY was a popular systembut was not efficient. August Dvorak and William Dealey dec

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May 11, 2011: Google Chromebook Introduced

May 11, 2025

2011 Eric Schmidt shows off the new Google Chrome OS but with an added feature as he introduced Google Chromebook a personal computer with the Google Chrome OS built-in. The device loads straight

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May 10, 2001 Trans Atlantic Cable TAT-14 Begins Service

May 10, 2025

2001 TAT-14, the Transatlantic cable begins commercial service. A dual, bi-directional ring configuration using Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplex (DWDM) Sixteen wavelengths of STM-64 per fiber p

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May 9, 2014: Impeaching the Mayors of Foursquare

May 09, 2025

2014 Foursquare tried to re-organize and turn into a review-based app more than a check-in app. They moved the check-in over to a new app called Swarm. Because of this, they froze all mayorship sp

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May 8, 2006: E3 – Playstation 3 Announced

May 08, 2025

2006At a press conference before E3, Sony announced the Playstation 3 gaming console. This would be for a November 17 release and would feature items like Bluetooth wireless controllers, Wi-Fi and H

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May 7, 1967: Fox and Hounds – Ralph Baer Plays First Two-Player Game

May 07, 2025

1967 Video game developer Ralph Baer plays the first two-player video game. Fox and Hounds was a game where the fox (a red dot) was chased by the hounds (white dots). The controller were two knobs

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May 6, 2004: Paint.Net Graphics Editor Released

May 06, 2025

2004 A free raster graphics editor, Paint.NET was created and released by Rick Brewster as a school project at Washington State University. The software was released under the MIT License and was at

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Cinco De Mayo, 1999: Release of Windows 98 SE (Second Edition)

May 05, 2025

1999 In an effort to fix some minor issues, improve USB support and upgrade Internet Explorer, Microsoft launched Windows 98 SE (Second Edition). The upgrade version also improved WDM audio and mode

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May the 4th be With You, 2008: Yahoo Loses Microsoft

May 04, 2025

2008 After months of bid negotiations and Yahoos Jerry Yang saying No, Microsoft decided to take their $50 billion dollar offer off the table. Although Microsoft pulled the offer, it was not the

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2000: The GeoCaching Craze

May 03, 2025

2000 Up until May 1, all GPS signals were scrambled for protection. President Bill Clinton announced they would be turning off the Selective Availability(SA) because it didnt propose a greater thr

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1965 – The First Transatlantic Television Signal from “Early Bird” Intelsat I

May 02, 2025

1965 Intelsat I, a.k.a. Early Bird, went into service. This geosynchronous satellite sent the first signal between nine different countries. A One Hour TV Spectacular was broadcast to Europe from

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April 30, 1993: World Wide Web Transferred to Public Domain

April 30, 2025

1993 You may see www, but its true meaning is World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee wrote WorldWideWeb during the 1990, while working for CERN. He did it on a NeXT Computer and developed it for the NeXTS

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April 29, 2004: Google Filed for IPO

April 29, 2025

2004 Google files the S-1 form with SEC for their IPO. They said they wanted to raise US$2,718,281,828; aMathematicalalgorithmbased on the day they filed. The form can be found at SEC.gov The sto

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April 28, 2003: Apple Launched iTunes Music Store

April 28, 2025

2003-Apple launches the iTunes Store. iTunes has been around since 2001, but without option to get new music. Before the iTunes store, users would have to burn from CD or copy previously made MP3 files. The store sold 1 million songs within a week.

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