Geek Facts

1993, Intel’s Pentium processor was announced. “Pentium” comes from the Greek root word “pentas” meaning “five.” The Pentium was the Intel 80586 chip. The Pentium chip was estimated to be two times faster than the 486DX2 (66MHz) chip. Learn more at http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Chip-Pentium-1993.htm

In 1718, Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born. Maria Agnesi is known for the ‘Witch of Agnesi’. It was supposed to be called the ‘Curve of Agnesi’ but something was lost in the translation. Learn more at http://math.about.com/library/blbioagnesi.htm

In 1963, Faith 7, the last Mercury mission, was launched. Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper successfully completed the mission. He orbited Earth 22-1/2 times and was weightless for over 34 hours. Learn more at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mercury/missions/faith7.html

In 1973, Skylab, the first U.S. Space Station was launched. Crews visited Skylab and returned to Earth in Apollo spacecraft. Three 3-man crews occupied the Skylab workshop for a total of 171 days and 13 hours. Learn more at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/skylab/.

In 1991, Apple released Macintosh System 7.0. System 7 was too large to work comfortably from a floppy disk so it was the first version of the Macintosh operating system to require a hard drive. It was also the first Apple operating system to be

In 1941, German Konrad Zuse’s Z3 was introduced in Berlin. It was a fully program-operational calculating machine. Konrad Zuse also developed the Z4, the first programmable modern computer, making him the father of the computer. He also wrote the first algorithmic programming language called ‘Plankalkül’.

In 1951, Jay Forrester applied for a patent for magnetic core memory. Until then, large glass electrostatic tubes were used. They were very unreliable, failing every twenty to sixty minutes. Forrester began a search for reliable memory capability. This would lead him to make one

In 2011, Microsoft announced its plans to purchase Skype for $8.5 billion. The acquisition was completed in October of last year. It was considered by many to be Microsoft’s boldest move yet. There are 170 million active Skype users worldwide, and, in 2010, users made

In 1927, German physicist/chemist Manfred Eigen was born. In 1954, Eigen began using a technique to study extremely fast chemical reactions. These reactions lasted only one-thousandth to one-billionth of a second. This technique was called the relaxation technique in reference to the time it takes

In 1979, Radio Shack released TRSDOS 2.3. TRSDOS 2.3 was the final release of Model I TRSDOS, and probably the most widely used version. Despite the prevalence of third-party Model I double-density upgrades, TRSDOS 2.3 was never upgraded to support double-density. Learn more at http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos-model1-versions/

In 1982, IBM released PC-DOS version 1.1. One of the main features of PC-DOS v1.1 was its ability to support 320 KB 5.25” floppy disks. PC-DOS v1.0 only supported a capacity of 160 KB. Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_DOS_Comparison

In 1949, the EDSAC performed its first calculation The EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) was an early British computer that is considered to be the first stored program electronic computer. It contained 3,000 vacuum tubes and used mercury delay lines for memory. Learn more

In 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, aboard Freedom 7. Freedom 7’s suborbital mission lasted 15 minutes, 22 seconds and reached an altitude of 186 kilometers (116 miles). Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin was the first human in space, having orbited the

In 1989, NASA launched Magellan to Venus. The Magellan spacecraft was named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer whose expedition first circumnavigated the Earth. It arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. Learn more at http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/fact.html