Learn an interesting fact to share with friends and increase your Geek Cred!
In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed over Texas when returning to Earth, killing all seven crew members. The crew consisted of Shuttle Commander Rick D. Husband; Shuttle Pilot William C. McCool; Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson ; Mission Specialists David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla […]
In 1961, Ham was the first primate in space. Ham’s name was an acronym for H olloman A ero M ed. His sub-orbital flight aboard the Redstone Mercury rocket was very similar to the flight that Alan Shepard would take later that year. Read more
In 2007, Microsoft released Windows Vista. For the most part, early Vista reviews were mostly favorable. However, consumers were slow to adopt Windows Vista due to some heavy-duty hardware requirements and effort involved in upgrading from XP to Windows. The corporate world did not rush
In 1810, Earnest Kummer, a German mathematician, was born. Earnest Kummer made major contributions to function theory. In addition, his work on number theory led to a major breakthrough on Fermat’s Last Theorem. Learn more at http://fermatslasttheorem.blogspot.com/2006/01/ernst-eduard-kummer.html
In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members. The crew of Space Shuttle Challenger consisted of Mission Commander Francis R. Scobee; Pilot Michael J. Smith; Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe; Mission Specialists Judith A.
In 1967, the Apollo 1 fire killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. In one of the worst tragedies in the history of spaceflight, the crew members were killed in a fire in the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test at Cape
In 1998, Intel launched the 333 MHz Pentium II chip. It was codenamed Deschutes. It didn’t offer much of a performance boost over its predecessor, a 300 MHZ chip. However, using a new fabrication process allowed for a smaller die size and less power consumption.
In 1627, chemist Robert Boyle was born in Ireland. He is best known for Boyle’s Law aka the Ideal Gas Law. We all remember it from our high school chemistry class. The law states for a gas of constant temperature, changes in pressure are inversely
In 1984, following up the ‘1984’ commercial that aired two days earlier, Apple Computer unveiled its Macintosh personal computer. Apple was so adamant that you use the mouse that the original Macintosh keyboard had no arrow keys. Learn more at http://lowendmac.com/history/1984dk.shtml In 1986, Voyager
In 1959, Robert Noyce conceived of the idea of an integrated circuit, aka microchip. It was at Fairchild Semiconductor, where he was the General Manager, that Robert Noyce invented the microchip for which he received patent #2,981,877. In 1968, Noyce founded Intel with Gordon Moore
In 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII, Apple’s iconic ‘1984’ commercial aired. Apple became a household name in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII when it aired the enormously popular 1984 ad promoting the upcoming release of the Macintosh. Arguably the most famous Super
In 1979, Neptune became the outermost planet as Pluto moved closer to the Sun. Back in the days when Pluto was still a planet, Neptune began a 20-year run as the outermost planet in the solar system as Pluto’s elliptical orbit carried it closer in
In 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp crossed Mars’ orbit . The comet is named for its discoverers. On July 23, 1995, an unusually bright comet outside of Jupiter’s orbit was discovered independently by Alan Hale, New Mexico and Thomas Bopp, Arizona. Learn more at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/halebopp.html
In 1736, James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, was born. The discovery that steam could be harnessed and made to work is not credited to James Watt. In fact, the ancient Greeks had crude steam engines. James Watt, however, is credited with inventing
