1950
The invention of the phototransistor is announced by Bell Telephone Laboratories of Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was invented by Dr. John Northrup Shive.
1951
The first commercial computer, the UNIVersal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC I), is unveiled by John William Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, formally of the University of Pennsylvania. The computer was manufactured under the company name of Sperry Rand Corporation for the United States Census Bureau. Although the Census Bureau will begin using the computer at the end of March, it won’t actually be moved to the Census Bureau for months. The system is capable of performing 1,905 operations per second and storing data on magnetic tapes. The event raises concerns at IBM because the new computer will replace many of the punch card machines previously supplied by IBM. The UNIVAC will remain in operation through 1963, and it will also be sold to companies such as General Electric and Sylvania.
1961
The IBM Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces the IBM 1203 unit for preparing checks for automated demand deposit accounting. Visit the official IBM website.
1976
The IBM Data Processing Division (DPD) announces new teller terminals and powerful, advanced controllers for the IBM 3600 finance communication system. Visit the official IBM website.
1978
The IBM Data Processing Division (DPD) introduces a powerful, dual-processor version of the IBM 3033. Visit the official IBM website.
1993
AT&T Graphics Software Labs closes. It has been responsible for the development of software such as Comet CG, Panorama, Rio, StudioMaster, and Topas.
1998
Two sixteen year old teenagers hack into the ISP of Germany’s national telephone company, T-Online, stealing hundreds of bank account numbers and playing online games for free. They will later brag about their exploits to the German magazine c’t, calling the company’s security for its online service absolutely primitive. Later, the teens will also claim to have destroyed all of the financial data they stole without using it.
1999
Settlement talks between Microsoft and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) break down.
2000
DailyRadar.com reveals that Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) is expected to recall and replace as many as 1.25 million PlayStation 2 startup software disks for copies that do not enable consumers to play DVD movies from any region on the PlayStation 2 game system which was initially distributed in Japan.
Yahoo!reveals that the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into Yahoo’s consumer information practices. A Yahoo!Spokesperson will state that the company believes that the investigation was triggered by a January report by the California Healthcare Foundation criticizing Yahoo!for its privacy practices. Visit the official FTC website.
2001
Quantum sells its hard drive business to Maxtor, but continues selling other storage products and services. Visit the official Quantum website.
2005
Version 2.4.1 of the Python programming language is released. Visit the official Python website.
2009
Intel launches Nehalem-based Xeon chips for servers which will offer hyper-threading for 16 cores
Microsoft announces they will be ending production on Encarta, the online encyclopedia.
4 months after the MoColo takedown, Spam is back to where it was
2011
Google settles with FCC over Google Buzz privacy issues
Google launches the +1 button