Geek Facts

In 1853, French astronomer and physicist François Jean Dominique Arago died. Arago originally supported the particle theory of light. In 1811, he conducted research along with Augustin-Jean Fresnel that changed his mind. They discovered that two beams of light polarized in perpendicular directions do not […]

In 1882, the world’s first hydroelectric power plant began operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin. Thomas Edison’s New York plant would use steam power to drive its generators whereas the Appleton plant used the natural energy of the Fox River. Learn more at

In 1925, Seymour Cray, “the Father of Supercomputing”, was born. Seymour Cray designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for decades. He also founded the company, Cray Research. Seymour Cray died on October 5, 1996. Learn more at http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/seymourbio.

In 1930, Alan Shugart, an important developer of disk drive technology, was born. The floppy disk drive was invented by IBM engineers led by Alan Shugart. In addition, in 1979, he cofounded Seagate Technology, the first company to make 5.25-inch hard disks.  Alan Shugart died

In 1983, Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov were saved from an exploding Soyuz T-10 launch. Fuel spilled around the base of the rocket and caught fire at T-90 seconds. The control cables for the escape system had already burned and the Soyuz crew could

In 1956, TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, was inaugurated. Before TAT-1, voice was carried across the Atlantic on unreliable and expensive radio channels. TAT-1 operated until 1978. Learn more at http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:The_First_Submarine_Transatlantic_Telephone_Cable_System_(TAT-1),_1956.

In 1970, the Soviet robotic space probe, Luna 16, made the first automated return of lunar samples. This was the first unmanned round-trip mission to the Moon.  It represented the first lunar sample return mission by the Soviet Union and the third overall, following NASA’s

In 1997, 
Compaq introduced the Compaq Deskpro 4000N, the first Net PC. Net PCs relied more on server computers than typical PCs. Up to hundreds of Net PCs were tethered to a single server. Learn more at http://news.cnet.com/Compaq-debuts-first-Net-PC/2100-1001_3-203456.html.

In 1972, Texas Instruments (TI) entered the electronic calculator market with the introduction of three models. TI-2500 Also known as the Datamath, it offered four-function, full-floating decimal point with an eight-digit LED display. Also rechargeable it was originally priced at $149.95 when announced in April

In 1954
, the first program written in the FORTRAN programming language was executed. FORTRAN, which is an acronym for “FORmula TRANslator,” was invented at IBM for technical and scientific applications by a team lead by John Backus. Learn more at http://objectmix.com/cobol/205902-ot-happy-birthday-fortran.html.

In 1982, the emoticon was born. Research Professor Scott E. Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh  proposed the use of an emoticon to express humor for the first time anywhere. Here is his original post to the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science department’s general