In 1773, Sir George Cayley was born. Sir George Cayley is considered to be the “father of aerodynamics”. In 1849, he designed and built a gliding machine. With a ten year old boy aboard, it was the first manned glider flight. Cayley died on December […]
In 1982, Time Magazine awarded its annual “Man of the Year” to the personal computer, The first non-human to receive the honor, the magazine described the choice as 1982′s “greatest influence for good or evil.” Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Magazine_Person_of_the_Year.
In 1741, astronomer Anders Celsius introduced the Centigrade temperature scale. Anders Celsius originally used 0 for the boiling point of water and 100 for the freezing point. After his death in 1744, the scale was reversed to its present form. Learn more at http://www.newsfinder.org/site/more/anders_celsius/.
In 1893, Henry Ford completed the construction of his first usable gas motor. At the time, Henry Ford was the chief steam engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company. Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford.
In 2008, Distribution Video Audio, Inc. shipped its final truckload of VHS tapes, marking the end of the VHS format. In the era of the VCR, JVC’s VHS format was much more popular than rival Sony’s Betamax format. Learn more at http://mroche.umwblogs.org/history-of-the-vhs/.
In 1882 , the first string of Christmas tree lights was created by Edward H. Johnson. Edward H. Johnson was an associate of Thomas Edison. By 1900, department stores started to use Christmas tree lights for their Christmas displays. Learn more at http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/Xmas_Lights.htm.
In 1968, Apollo 8 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders were the first people to ever leave the gravitational influence of the Earth and orbit another celestial body, the Moon. Learn more
In 1938, Vladimir Zworykin received a patent for the Iconoscope. The Iconoscope was the first television camera tube to see widespread use. Learn more at http://uv201.com/Tube_Pages/iconoscopes.htm.
In 1974, The Altair 8800 microcomputer kit went on sale in the U.S. as a do-it-yourself computer kit. Sold by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the Altair used switches for input, indicator lights as a display and was powered by a 2MHz Intel 8080A
In 1987, Larry Wall released the first version of Perl. Perl stands for Practical Extraction And Reporting Language. Working at NASA, Larry Wall designed it to serve as a general purpose Unix scripting language. Learn more at http://www.linuxtopia.org/Perl_Programming/pickingUpPerl_85.html.
In 1976 , local independent television station WTCG in Atlanta was broadcast nationally via the Satcom 1 satellite, becoming the first “superstation”. The station was purchased by Ted Turner in 1970. In 1979, its call letters were changed to WTBS. Learn more at http://static.tbs.com/about_us/PR/mile.htm.
In 1915, Albert Einstein published his “General Theory of Relativity.” The General Theory of Relativity would become a keystone of modern quantum mathematics and physics. Learn more at http://www.allaboutscience.org/theory-of-relativity.htm.
In 1965, Gemini 6 was launched and made the first rendezvous in space (with Gemini 7). This also marked the first time that four people were in space at the same time. Learn more at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1965-104A.
In 1962, Mariner 2 made the first flyby of another planet, Venus. Mariner 2 was a backup for the Mariner 1 mission. Mariner 1 failed shortly after launch to Venus. Learn more at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1962-041A.
