Special Event
Happy Towel Day – A tribute for fans to Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books.
1925
John Scopes was indicted for teaching the theory of evolution in his Tennesee HS class.
1944
Robert MacPherson was born. He is a mathematician at Princeton. He discovered the Intersection Homology with Mark Goresky.
1945
Arthur C. Clark circulated copies of this paper “The Space-Station: It’s Radio Applications”. This suggested how TV could use the geostationary space stations
1961
President John F. Kennedy declared to Congress that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” The actual speech didn’t happen until September 12, 1962
1977
Twentieth Century Fox releases the science fiction film Star Wars (which will later be retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), directed by George Lucas and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, and Alec Guinness, opens in thirty-two theaters. The film will become an immediate success, breaking house records for the theater in which it was released and effectively becoming the first blockbuster in history, before expanding to become the highest grossing movie to date. Audiences are mesmerized by the extensive use of unparalleled special effects, most notably its pioneering use of motion control cameras. The success spawns a new wave of technology-based special effects houses. Produced on a budget of US$11 million, the film will gross US$6,806,951 in its first weekend of wide release. MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 2 hrs 1 min
1982
The Philips electronics company introduces Laservision as a playback media for laserdiscs.
1983
Twentieth Century Fox releases the science fiction film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, directed by Richard Marquand and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Billy Dee Williams, to 1,764 US theaters. Produced on a budget of US$32.5 million, the film will gross US$23,019,618 domestically in its opening weekend. MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 2 hrs 14 mins
1994
CERN holds the first international World Wide Web (WWW) conference in Geneva, Switzerland through May 27th. Eight hundred people applied to participate in the conference, but only four hundred participants are admitted. At the conference, which is widely dubbed the “Woodstock of the Web,” researchers expand on the work of Tim Berners-Lee. Among other technologies, VRML will be conceived at this conference.
1998
Many librarians and academics raise concern as the internet is a un-monitored reference for advice in medicine. They become concerned that some “Factual” information may not be correct. They are also concerned that sites like Google will become a breeding ground for mis-information simply because these bad sites have an improved SEO score through buying position.
1999
Corel releases Corel WordPerfect Office 2000. The suite includes WordPerfect 9, Quattro Pro 9, Corel Presentations 9, CorelCentral 9, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, and the Trellix 2 web design software. . Price: US$99, Professional version: US$199
2000
eBay removes auctions for to five seats to witness the execution of Michael Toney who had been sentenced to die for the 1985 bombing deaths of three people. Toney had arranged to have the auction posted with bidding starting at US$100 with the proceeds to benefit his two daughters.
2001
Erik Weihenmayer, age 32, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Visit Erik Weihenmayer’s official website.
The official website of the White House, Whitehouse.gov, is hacked, causing a denial of service for the second time in a month. The first, near identical attack occurred May 4th.
2006
Nielsen – NetRatings announces that Google accounted for a full fifty percent of all internet searches conducted in April 2006, gaining three percentage points in market share over the previous month. The achievement marks a major milestone in Google’s growth. Yahoo! and MSN trailed Google, with 22 and 11 percent marketshares, respectively.
Enron Corp. Execs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are convicted of fraud resulting to the companies downfall.
2007
Google Street View is launched in the US.
2008
The International Telecommunications Union released a report revealing that the number of mobile phone users worldwide had exceeded 3.3 billion by the end of the previous year (2007), the equivalent of a 49 percent global penetration rate.
The NASA Phoenix spacecraft landed successfully on the surface of Mars in the “Green Valley” region of Vastitas Borealis.
2009
North Korea announces they conducted an underground detonation of a nuclear device in North Hamgyong.
2012
Yahoo! Discontinued Livestand
A Judge rules that the girlfriend is not responsible for an accident the boyfriend got into when he was texting and driving. The accident involved a husband and wife, who were riding on their motorcycle, when they were hit by the boyfriend. The husband and wife both lost a leg in the accident.
2013
An original Apple I – signed by Steve Wozniak – sells at auction for $671,000