In 1947 – The Association for Computing Machinery was founded as the Eastern Association for Computing Machinery at a meeting at Columbia University in New York. It developed into the world’s largest organization of computer professionals.

In 1947 – RCA released the 12AX7 vacuum tube for public sale. The miniature dual triode vacuum tube with high voltage gain became popular with tube amplifier enthusiasts and has been in continuous production since. The tube is also known as the ECC83 in the European Union.

In 2008 – Electronics retailer Best Buy acquired the Napster music service for $121 million, preventing the once dominating music-sharing service from going out of business.

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In 1959 – After 33.5 hours of flight, Luna 2 became the first human-made object to strike the moon.

In 2000 – Microsoft released Windows ME. The ME stood for MIllenium Edition but deserving or not, would eventually become code for a bad or unnecessary OS update.

In 2001 – The Nintendo GameCube went on sale in Japan. It was the first Nintendo game console that did not use cartridges.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

1983 – Osborne Computer declared bankruptcy in Oakland, CA, federal bankruptcy court, listing assets of $40 million, liabilities of $45 million, and 600 creditors. Two years earlier, Osborne produced the first portable computer, the 24-pound Osborne I.

In 1985 – Nintendo released Super Mario Brothers in Japan. It became the best selling video game for 20 years until it was surpassed by Wii Sports.

In 2000 – The public beta of Apple’s Mac OS X, code named Kodiak was released. Users had to pay $29.95 for the beta.

Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.