In 1954, the first solar battery was announced. Funded by Bell Laboratories, three American researchers, Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin, designed a silicon solar cell capable of a six percent energy conversion efficiency with direct sunlight. Learn more at http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/solar_cell.htm

In 1981, the IBM PC was introduced. The home computer market was emerging in the early ’80s. IBM had intended this model to be a stop-gap computer that would allow them to quickly tap into this market while taking the time to develop a “real”

In 1971, Soyuz 10 launched and became the first spacecraft to dock with a space station (Salyut 1). A soft docking was accomplished. However, the crew could not achieve a secure enough docking to allow entry into the station. Learn more at http://historicspacecraft.com/soyuz.html

In 1991, Intel released its 486SX chip. At $400, the 486SX chip was designed to stimulate demand in the whole spectrum of computers, from palmtop PCs to supercomputers. Read more about the history of microprocessors at http://oz.plymouth.edu/~harding/historymicro.html Photo: Steven White

In 1828, Noah Webster published the first edition of his An American Dictionary of the English Language. In an attempt to make them more phonetic, Webster changed the spelling of many words. Many of the differences that exist today between American English and other English

In 1940, the first electron microscope was demonstrated. Vladimir Zworykin demonstrated the electron microscope at RCA in Philadelphia, PA. Zworykin is better known as a co-inventor of television. He came to the US in 1919 and worked for Westinghouse before moving to RCA. Learn more

In 1931, Fred Brooks, computer engineer, was born. Fred Brooks worked at IBM during the early supercomputer era. He coined the term “computer architecture”, and later oversaw development of the IBM System/360 and managed the software team that designed the OS/360 operating system. He is