1883
Thomas Edison receives a series of patents for his “Dynamo-Electric Machine”, two for a “Regulator for Dynamo-Electric Machines”, (US No. 278,413, -4, -9) three for the “Manufacture of Incandescing Electric Lamps”, one for an “Apparatus for Translating Electric Currents From High to Low Tension”, (US No. 278,415, -6, -7, -8), and one for a “Design for Incandescing Electric Lamp.”
1919
A solar eclipse makes it possible to test Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity by observing the stars during the eclipse. Expeditions of the Royal Astronomical Society travel to Sobral, Ceará, Brazil and Principe on the west coast of Africa to measure the position of stars made visible by the eclipse. The observations will later prove that the light of stars near the sun is bent as it passes through the gravitational field of the sun, thus proving that Einstein’s prediction that gravity energy such as light just the same as it effects matter. The verification is key to proving Einstein’s theory.
1996
The first JavaOne developers’ conference is held by Sun Microsystems to discuss Java technologies, primarily among Java developers. Over six thousand people attend. Visit the official JavaOne website.
Vim 4.0 is released, featuring a new graphical user interface. Vim is an open source, multi-platform text editor popular among programmers and users of Unix operating systems.
1997
Reporters around the country receive an email claiming that the website of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was hacked late the previous night (or, more accurately very early in the morning) by “P.A.R.A.” By the time most reporters have a chance to visit the site, it shows only a blank, gray screen with the words “lapd.org Initial Home Page.” However, archived copies of the site show a highly sophisticated graphical defacement, complete with a political message accusing the LAPD of racism, calling it the “Death Squad Home Page.”
1998
Byte magazine is acquired by CMP Media Inc.. CMP Media publishes more than thirteen computer magazines, including Windows Magazine. Visit the official Byte magazine website.
Version 1.3.2 of the NetBSD operating system is released.
1999
The five millionth internet domain name, believeinkids.com is registered.
The Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.
2000
Microsoft released version 3 (3.0.0080) of the freeware instant messaging client MSN Messenger, featuring file transfers, PC to IPOD and PC to phone audio capabilities with Net2Phone, one of the first VOIP providers.
2001
Intel releases the Itanium 64-bit processor in 733 and 800MHZ speeds.
Red Hat announces the Red Hat Linux 7.1 operating system for the Intel Itanium processor. Visit the official Red Hat website.
SuSE announces SuSE Linux 7.2 operating system for the Intel IA-64 processor. Visit the official SuSE website.
2002
Adobe Systems releases the Dreamweaver MX web development application for personal computers. Visit the official Dreamweaver website.
The IEEE 1394 standard is officially renamed FireWire.
Netflix initiates an initial public offering (IPO), selling 5,500,000 shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. Visit the official Netflix website.
2003
America Online (AOL) and Microsoft settle their private antitrust lawsuit, with Microsoft paying US$750 million and granting a royalty-free seven-year license to use Internet Explorer with AOL client software.
The journal Nature publishes an article entitled, “Action video game modifies visual selective attention” by D. Bavelier and C. Green of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Vis. In the article researchers conclude that video games improve visual skills. Read an archive of the study in its entirety as a .pdf file.
NASA officials release experimental findings proving that the insulation known to have hit the leading edge of Columbia’s left wing could have created a gap in between protective heat panels.
Version 4.3.2 of the PHP programming language is released. Visit the official PHP website.
2004
The first Sega Dreamcast emulator to successfully run commercial games, Chankast, is first released as freeware for Microsoft Windows. Visit the official Chankast website.
2006
Version 1.1 PC-BSD is released. It is the second release of PC-BSD, a Unix-like, desktop-oriented operating system; the first was released on April 29, 2006. Visit the official PC-BSD website.
2007
The CDW Coporation announces that it has agreed to be acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (”MDP”) in a merger valued at roughly US$7.3 billion. Read the original press release. Visit the official CDW website.
A United States federal judge orders the TorrentSpy bittorrent indexing site to begin logging its users’ activities for the Motion Picture Association of America. In response, the TorrentSpy’s attorney, Ira Rothken, announces the site administration’s intent block US access rather than violation its on privacy policy. Read more at Torrent Freak.
2008
Comcasts’ Home Page was hacked and users couldn’t get to their email. Well, the DNS for the location was hacked after they compromised the DNS entries that pointed to Comcasts’ site. A study from Akamai shows that more than 30 percent of all Internet attacks originate from China and the U.S.
2009
A Virginia man was arrested for robbing a bank in South Carolina after posting a confession on MySpace.
Yahoo announces that Yahoo 360 will be closing on July 13th.
Microsoft removes the “3 program” rule in lowest cost versions of Windows 7. It was noticed that the introductory version could only run 3 programs at a time and was criticized heavily for.