Day in Tech History

2012 Google ran a contest for people to tell them why they should have fiber installed in their city. After millions of entries and a lot of interesting videos trying to convince the judges, Google

The sale of Video Games began to really heat up in 2005 as Illinois GovernerRod Blagojevich signs a bill into law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors. You could be fined up to $1,00

2013:Google put on a Secret Town Hall meeting. Nobody knew what was going on, although some speculated it had to do with the TV. In their major announcement, Google introduced Chromecast the HDMI

Back in 1886, Gottlieb Daimler gets into his new invention. It looks like a horse-drawn buggy, but it has a one cylinder 1.1 HP engine mounted in the back seat. The first car got up to 16 km/hSeventeen years later, in 1903,

The Secret Service made some major breakthroughs in Hacking circles in 1989 as three members of the Legion of Doom were arrested. They were charged with hacking into Bell Souths Telephone Networks in

John Scopes was an activist and a teacher. In what was called the Scopes Monkey Trial, John was charged on May 5th, 1925 of teaching evolution in his Tennessee classroom. On July 21 he was found gui

2012 At the premier of the Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO. James Eagan Holmes opened fire in one of the theaters. Holmes killed 20 people and injured many. He is currently being evaluated for insan

Apple released a series of new items in 2000, including a new button less mouse, iMovie2 and the iMac DV series with the PowerPC G3 processor. But they also introduced the PowerMac G4 Cube a 450 o

Hungarian immigrant Andy Grove, along with Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce foundedIntel in 1968, asIntegratedElectronics Corporation. Intel was actually the trademark of a hotel They ended up buyin

During a one-hour test in 1955, Arco, Idaho became the first town to be fully electrically run on nuclear power. The small community was powered by the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS). NTRS l

Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. That was the first book Amazon sold on July 16th, 1995. The company ran from their garage in Bellevue, Washington.

2006 Biz Stone,Jack Dorsey,Noah Glass andEvan Williamslaunch this 140 character What are you doing social network. The group first started production in March of 2006, but it launched on the 1

2011 The US waited for thisSwedishmusic streaming service, and on this day, we got it. Founded in 2006, Spotify announced after exhaustive negotiation with four major US record labels, they were g

2011 CEO Reed Hastings announced a bombshell that, in turn, brought on Netflixs single worst year ever. He announced that they were splitting Netflix streaming from DVD rentals. With that, the pric

It is the famous drawing tool that became a cult classic. A toy that is as collectable as the LEGO or Star Warsmemorabilia. The Etch A Sketch was first brought out on shelves in 1960. Of course, sinc

2007 Oracle releases what they called the $10 billion / year Database software in Oracle 11g. It was the first update since 2004. Oracles what as refered to as anobject-relational database managem

No, this isnt a case of the office and this is not how Michael Scott (Steve Carell) leaves the show In a case that was refered as Black Wednesday, CEO Michael Scott felt that there was a lot of r

It was a movie that became a cult classic. Tron The story of Kevin Flynn who tries to figure out if ENCOM stole his game ideas. While hacking into the mainframe, the company sets a trap where Flynn

In 2007, developer Dan Kaminsky found a flaw in the addressing of the Domain Name System, or DNS. DNS is found on home to commercial routers around the world. The issue was so severe, that they were not divulging the issue until a patch could be implem...

1994 The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS)released I3enc otherwise known at MP3. This is also known as MPEG-3. The MP3 moniker did not get chosen until July 14, 1995 (it was .bit

In a very bold move, Jack Tramiel laid off the majority of his staff outside of engineering. This comes in 1984, 3 days after Tramiel buys Atari for $240 million in 10 and 12 year notes. The employees note that it wasn’t a Hard layoff.

Not the email version. In 1937, Hormel came out with the first can of SPAM. The Luncheon meat. Spam was derived from the words Spiced Ham. It is pre-cooked meat that contained chopped pork, ham mean, salt, water, potato starch, and sodium nitrate.

Happy Independence Day. In return, we are going to give you a great new way to get email. Its called Hotmail. Be free from your internet service provider! That was the call to action on 1996. Hot

1991 IBMs Jim Cannavino met with John Sculley of Apple. They worked out a deal and signed a sharing agreement. It would allow Mac to integrate with IBM enterprise systems. It would also allow Apple

Napster,the file sharing service (started by John & Shawn Fanning, and Sean Parker) that was up since 1999, had a series of trials and tribulations until 2001.After lengthy legal battles with artist

2011 HP announced the TouchPad, their entry into the tablet market. Using the WebOS software they purchased from Palm back in 2010, the TouchPad introduced some new features, including the ability t

2000 Dr. Alan chow and brother Vincent announced they successfully placed a silicon microchip beneath human retinas. The chip is smaller than the head on a pin and only microns thin. These chips als

2000 IBM unveiled the ASCI White their fastest computer yet. This supercomputer was based on IBMs commercial RS/6000 SP computer. 512 computers were connected to make this supercomputer. over 8 m

2014 Trying to be the first provider of over-the-air channels, Aereo was told to shut down completely after a supreme court decision went against the company. The idea was simple take the over-the

2008 Microsoft CEO Bill Gates officially steps down from office. He hands the reigns over to Steve Ballmer, and stays on as Chairman of the Board. Gillette makes the Erasermate the first erasable

1997 Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet create a partnership to start and build on the Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP) as a non-profit organization. The industry group was formed to k

1981 Microsoft goes through a restructure to incorporate in Washington. Bill Gates would become president, Paul Allen was Executive Vice President. Steve Ballmer would come on full-time with a $50,0

2008 Nokia announced they have purchased Symbian outright. They originally owned 46% of the company, and bought out the remaining 54% for $410 million. But then the company turned around and created

1983 Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel run the first successful test of the distributed Domain Name System (DNS). This automated process was to take over failing Arpanet and CSnet protocols because th

2009 Kodak announced they would ended the production of Kodachrome color film. Once the leftover film is distributed, there will be no more made. That lasted until December, 2010. Kodak created thei

1948 What was first expected to be a practical use computer, the SSEM, or Small-Scale Experimental Machine became the first stored-program computer. Basically, it stores program instructions into it

2014 Microsoft and Google agree to the Kill switch technology. In a California bill SB-967, Smartphones built after July 1, 2015 will consist of a hardware or software option to kill the phone. Fu

1984 Jim Gettys and Bob Scheifler announced collaboration of a new operating system in the X Window System. This gives the basic framework for a GUI. Currently, it is refered to as X11, R7.7. Ive s

2007 Terry Semel was under pressure by the board because of dissatisfaction of his compensation. Terry was brought in to create a partnership with Hollywood, which really didnt happen. He handed t

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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