Geek Facts

In 1966
, NASA’s first lunar orbiter, Lunar Orbiter I, was launched. Its mission was to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Apollo and Surveyor missions. Learn more at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1966-073A.

In 1999, 
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) introduced the Athlon line of processors. According to AMD, the processors, featuring Enhanced 3DNow! technology, were ‘the fastest, most powerful engines for x86 computing’. Sold in 1,000-unit quantities, the processors ranged in price from $249 for the 500MHz processor

In 1876, Thomas Edison received a patent for his mimeograph. Albert Blake Dick coined the term ‘mimeograph’ when he licensed Edison’s patents in 1887. The term eventually became generic. Learn more at http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/technology_1/inventions/2583628/mimeograph/.

In 1955, 
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the forerunner of Sony, launched its first line of transistor radios. The radio used transistor technology developed by Bell Laboratories. The transistor radio was a game changer for what would become Sony. Learn more at http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=918&catid=24&subcatid=157#05. In 2000, 
Palm introduced

In 1935, 
American physicist William Coolidge was granted a patent for the cathode ray tube. The development of electronic television systems was based on the development of the cathode ray tube (CRT), more commonly known as the picture tube. Learn more about CRTs at http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/CathodeRayTube.htm

In 1802, Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel was born. Niels Abel proved the impossibility of solving algebraically the general equation of the fifth degree. Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Henrik_Abel

In 1922, all thirteen million telephones in the United States and Canada went silent for one minute. This was to honor Alexander Graham Bell as his funeral began. The inventor of the telephone, telegraph and nearly thirty other inventions passed away on August 2, 1922.

In 1977, Tandy Corporation announced the TRS-80 Model I microcomputer. The TRS-80 was the first mass-produced desktop computer. It was based on the Z-80 8-bit microprocessor and featured 4KB RAM. a 12-inch video display, and a cassette-based data recorder. The computer uses the TRSDOS and

In 1932, the positron was discovered by Carl D. Anderson. The positron has the same mass as an electron but the opposite charge. This differs from a proton that has an opposite charge from an electron, the same as a positron, but not the same

In 1818, Maria Mitchell, America’s first woman astronomer, was born. In 1847, she discovered a comet now known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet”. She later became the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1980, 
Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 Pocket Computer. Manufactured by Sharp, the PC-1 featured a twenty-four character display, a QWERTY keyboard and 1.9 KB of programmable memory, all for $230. Learn more at http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc1.html. In 1964, NASA’s space probe Ranger 7 transmitted the first

In 2005, astronomers announced their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris. Eris was discovered by the team of Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz on January 5, 2005, from images taken on October 21, 2003. A dwarf planet is a celestial body in direct

In 1981, IBM announced its first desktop computer, the System/23 Datamaster, just one month before the IBM PC. A full-function data processing installation, with a single computer workstation and an 80 character-per-second printer, cost $9,830. At the time, that was IBM’s lowest-priced small business system.