Tech History Today – Apr. 12

In 1961 – Yuri Gagarin of the USSR made a 108-minute orbital flight in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, becoming the first human in space.

In 1981 – Commander John Young and Pilot Robert Crippen crewed the first launch of a Space Shuttle, The Columbia on the STS-1 mission. During the mission they used an HP-41 calculator to calculate the exact angle at which they needed to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.

In 1994 – Immigration Lawyers Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel intentionally posted to more than 6,000 Usenet discussion groups about their green card services. It is considered the first occurrence of commercial spam.

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