November 2012

In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays. A week after his discovery, Rontgen took an X-ray photograph of his wife’s hand which clearly revealed her wedding ring and her bones. Learn more at http://inventors.about.com/od/xyzstartinventions/a/x-ray.htm. Photo credit: NASA

In 1994, radio station WXYC launched the world’s first internet radio broadcast. WXYC 89.3 FM is the non-commercial student-run radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXYC.

In 1928, the first Motogram machine was installed on the New York Times Building in Times Square. Invented by Frank C. Reilly, the Motogram was one of the earliest outdoor incandescent message reader boards that provided the passing public with breaking news as it happened.

In 1967
, NASA launched the ATS-3 communications satellite. The ATS-3 satellite provided emergency communications links during the 1987 Mexican earthquake and the Mt. St. Helens volcano eruption and supported the Apollo moon landings with real-time TV transmissions for broadcasting by Radio Caracas in Venezuela.` Learn

In 1982, Compaq announced the Compaq Portable. Weighing 28 lbs. and nicknamed “the sewing machine”, the Compaq Portable was the first successful IBM PC clone. Featuring a 4.77MHz Intel 8088 processor, 128 to 640KB RAM, a nine-inch monochrome monitor and a 320KB 5.25-inch disk drive,

In 1973
, NASA launched Mariner 10, the first space probe to reach Mercury. Mariner 10 was also the first spacecraft to use the gravitational pull of one planet (Venus) to reach another (Mercury) as well as the first spacecraft mission to visit two planets. Learn