1985
Tom Jennings announces in the weekly FidoNews newsletter that FidoNet, a worldwide network used for communication between bulletin board system (BBS), has become too large to be run from a centralized location and will subsequently be broken up into smaller networks to allow for better communication and administration.
1986
The first virus produced through genetic engineering is approved for use in a vaccine by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The virus is designed for use in veterinary medicine to fight a form of swine herpes. Visit the official USDA website.
1989
Intel introduces the Intel 486SX microprocessor, operating at 33 MHz, having a 32 bit bus, with 1.185 million transistors, able to address 4 GB of memory.
1991
The Intel i486, otherwise known as the 80486 SX is released as a less expensive alternative to the 80486 DX. The fundamental difference between the two is that the SX does not include an on-chip floating-point unit (FPU). Visit the official Intel website.
1993
Version 1.0 of the web browser Mosaic is released by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It’s the first software to provide a multimedia graphical user interface (GUI) for internet content. It’s also easy for the average computer user to install and highly reliable, which is why it will become known as the “killer app of the nineties.” The lead Mosaic developers are Marc Andreesen, one of the future founders of Netscape, and Jim Clark, one of the future founders of Silicon Graphics. In the coming year, Mosaic will take the Internet by storm, proliferating at an annual growth rate of 341,634% that of service traffic. Mosaic would go stagnant in 1998 as Netscape and Internet Explorer would take the lead of web browsing.
1996
Juno Online Services launches the Juno free e-mail service. The service generates revenues through advertising that is visible to both the sender and the e-mail recipient.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Japan.
1998
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Italy. Read the official press release.
1999
An auction for an 1860’s Sir John A. MacDonald bedroom suite (item #91465878) is closed on EBay. Days later, it’s discovered that the winning bid of US$400,000 was actually submitted by a New Jersey teenager who reportedly stole his parents password to the auction site and proceeded to place over three million dollars in total bids. The teenager also placed bids on a 1955 Ford convertible and a Vincent Van Gogh painting.
Connectix ceases shipping its Virtual Game Station software for the Apple Macintosh computer, in compliance with a federal court order. Sony filed a trademark and patent infringement lawsuit against the company in January. The Virtual Game Station allows PlayStation games to be played on Apple computers.
Dr. Carver Mead, a professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, is awarded the US$500,000 Lemelson-MIT Program award for his work on computer chips implementing parallel processing, similar to the workings of the human brain.
2000
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has quietly shut down Interval Research, a Palo Alto research laboratory focused on broadband applications and services, citing that it had failed to meet “initial high expectations”. Visit the official Interval website.
The UK officially changed their phone numbering system because they were running out of numbers. London went to a full 12-digit calling system (from 11-digit). The area code was reduced to 3-digits (from 4).
2002
Compaq announces that two million iPaq computers have been sold in the two years since the line was released. Visit the official iPaq website.
Version 4.2.0 of the PHP programming language is released. Visit the official PHP website.
Version 8.0 of the SUSE Linux operating system is released.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the Athlon XP 2500+ processor. Price: US$124 in 1000-unit quantities
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) releases the Opteron processor. Visit the official Opteron website.
Apple Computer releases an updated version of the iBook, featuring a 800 or 900MHz G3 processor, a 12.1 or 14.1 inch LCD screen, and a 30 or 40GB hard drive. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.
2004
Version 6.2 of MSN Messenger is released, featuring a larger range of features for mobile users. Visit the official MSN Messenger website.
2008
eBay sues Craigslist over a “Diluting of share”
Twitter – Japan Launches
Apple acquires PA Semi for 278 million. PA Semi produced low power chips.
2012
Microsoft Released Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone
2013
Facebook announced they will be building a data center in Altoona, Iowa. This project will bring 1.4 million square feet of server space and cost $1 billion dollars.
Google adds public alerts to Google Now.
Google was fined $189,000 in Germany for collecting unprotected WiFi data.
2014
Google launched a new version of Hangouts which also takes over the SMS conversations