1952
Two new Mersenne primes numbers (M521 and M607) are discovered by researchers using the Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC) to run a program written by Raphael Robinson for the first time. These are the first prime numbers ever discovered using computer software. The first of the two numbers, M521, will consist of 157 digits and the second, M607, will consist of 183 digits. Three more primes will be discovered on June 25 and one more will be discovered on both October 7 and October 9 using the same method.
1957
The first external artificial pacemaker with an internal heart electrode is put into use. In order to maintain a patient’s heartbeat rhythm, an electrode was sewn to the wall of the patient’s heart and connected through the chest to an external desktop pulse generator. The bulky equipment was a poor solution. Not only was the equipment bulky, infections frequently occurred along the electrode wires, and the device required uninterrupted in the house electricity.
1974
Atari begins using Innovative leisure as the company slogan. Atari will later apply for to trademark the term in April 1976 and be granted a trademark in February 1977.
1979
The IBM Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces two new processors, the IBM 4331 and IBM 4341, for intermediately sized computers.
1982
Originally a simple practical joke, Richard Skrenta writes 400 lines of code and disguised as an Apple boot program called “Elk Cloner”. The first boot sector virus was born as it attached to DOS 3.3 and infected floppy disks. [1]
1993
Rusty & Edie’s BBS of Boardman, Ohio, is raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for allegedly distributing copyrighted software programs. The FBI seize computers, hard drives, and telecommunications equipment along with financial records. The raid is the result of an on-going collaboration with the Software Publishers Association (SPA), which initiated the investigation after receiving complaints from a number of SPA members that their software was being illegally distributed on the bulletin board system (BBS). Before the raid dismantled it, Rusty & Edie’s was one of the largest private bulletin boards in the US. with one hundred twenty-four nodes and over fourteen thousand subscribers calling it at a rate of over four thousand connections a day. In all the BBS had logged over 3.4 million phone calls from its in 1987 up to the time of the raid. The system includes a staggering nineteen gigabytes of storage holding over a hundred thousand files available to download. Read more about Rusty & Edie’s at Textfiles.com. Visit the official website of the Software Publishers Association.
1997
Samsung Electronics of South Korea announces that it will acquire the remaining fifty-one percent of the personal computer manufacturer AST Research for US$162 million. Visit the official Samsung website.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Singapore.
2000
An unprecedented number of advertisements for Internet companies air during Super Bowl XXXIV. Some of the advertisements cost as much as US$3 million for a thirty-second spot. Among the advertisers are Angeltips.com, AutoTrader.com, Britannica.com, Computer.com, DowJones.com, E-Trade, HotJobs.com, Kforce.com, LastMinuteTravel.com, LifeMinders.com, Monster.com, Netpliance.com, OnMoney.com, OurBeginning.com, Pets.com, Screamingmedia.com, and WebMD.
2001
Amazon announces its intentions to cut up to 1,300 jobs or about fifteen percent of its work in the hope of turning a profit by the end of the year. Visit the official Amazon website.
Intel introduces the ultra low voltage 500MHz mobile Pentium III processor, featuring a 128KB Level-2 cache, a 100MHz front-side bus, and SpeedStep technology, which allows the processor to operate at 300MHz when the computer is running on battery power. Price: US$208
Per Lidén and the CRUX Linux community release version 0.5.1 of the CRUX operating system. CRUX is a lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution for advaced Linux users. Visit the official CRUX website.
Yahoo!releases Yahoo!Groups. Visit the official website of Yahoo!Groups.
2002
AMD releases the 1.1GHz and 1.2GHz Duron processors, featuring a 64KB Level-2 Cache, a 200MHz front-side bus, and PowerNow technology. Prices: US$130 and US$160, respectively
Sega officially announces that the Dreamcast video game system will be discontinued.
The top-level domain (TLD) .coop opens for registration. Visit the official website of the .coop registrar.
2004
Gateway Computers acquires eMachines, a manufacturer of low-cost personal computers. Visit the official website of eMachines.
2006
Microsoft releases a mandatory update for Xbox Live on the Xbox 360. The company claims the update contains bugfixes and improvements, however, Larry Major Nelson Hryb, Xbox Live director of programming, admits that the true purpose of this update was to halt the progress of the modding community.
The SeaMonkey Council releases version 1.0 of the SeaMonkey cross-platform internet suite. The suite includes a browser based on Netscape, an HTML editor, a mail client, and a newsgroup client. Visit the official website of the SeaMonkey Project.
2007
Apple releases the iPod shuffle in a variety of colors.
Microsoft releases Office 2007 to the general public. Visit the official Microsoft Office website.
Microsoft releases Microsoft Windows Vista to the general public. The system is available is several editions, including: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate, Home Basic N, and Business N. The release comes more than five years after the release of the Windows XP operating system. Visit the official Windows Vista website. Code-name: Longhorn
2008
Dell restructures by closing it’s 140 kiosk stores in Malls across America.
Rep. Mary Bono Mack says Congress shouldn’t get in the way of Internet service providers that want to detect illegal sharing of copyrighted material. Verizon steps in and says Hey, we’re not Cops. The RIAA President Cary Sherman rebuts with the comment that government should not get involved in copyright policing.
2009
Yahoo closes the online storage service called Briefcast
Citrix announces it will lay off 10% – 500 people.
in a test of security awareness, the Department of Justice sends out an e-mail to federal employees trying to get sensitive financial information out of them. This is a plan to boost security awareness and training for those who, basically, send the e-mail back.
2012
Yahoo! closes mobile sites Yahoo! Meme, Mim and Deals
2013
Research in Motion (RIM) announced they would be officially changing their name to Blackberry to try and revitalize the company.
Blackberry unveiled OS 10 – which would be available in March.
Blackberry announced the Z10 touchscreen device and Q10 “QWERTY” keyboard models. Both would be available in April for $199 with contract
2014
Hackers hit Yahoo mail. Yahoo’s defense system kicked in and reset passwords