In 1961 – First NASA astronaut Alan Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule on its 15-minute 28-second suborbital flight.

In 1992 – Id Software released Wolfenstein 3-D. It wasn’t the original first person shooter, but it launched the form into widespread popularity.

In 1999 – Microsoft shipped Windows 98 SE to manufacturers. The new version included Internet Connection Sharing, Internet Explorer 5, Windows NetMeeting 3.

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

In 1995 – German electronics company Escom AG bought the rights to the name, patents and intellectual property of Commodore Electronics Ltd. for $10 million. Commodore had gone bankrupt the year before.

In 2000 – The “I Love You” virus spread to 55 million computers around the world, hijacking hard drives and deleting, renaming, or damaging files. The damage reached billions of dollars.

In 2004 – Apple announced that Steve Jobs would kick off that year’s Worldwide Developers Conference by talking about Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

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

In 1978 – Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) sent the first unsolicited mass commercial email to 600 west coast ARPANET users. The message informed users of DEC’s new computer and operating system with ARPANET support, the DECSYSTEM-2020 and TOPS-20.

In 1997 – In New York City, Gary Kasparov began his re-match match against IBM’s Deep Blue computer. He had won the previous match in February 1996 4-2.

In 2000 – A “geocache” was hidden outside Beaver Creek, Oregon, kicking off the first “Great American GPS Stash Hunt” and the hobby now called geocaching.

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

In 1887 – 65-year-old Rev. Hannibal Goodwin applied for a patent on his nitrocellulose flexible film. He beat the Eastman Kodak company by two years, but his vaguely-worded patent led to a 27-year legal battle.

In 1983 – Microsoft announced the two-button Microsoft Mouse built for IBM computers and meant to be used with the new Microsoft Word processor. Only 5,000 sold of the 10,000 made.

In 2000 – The United States government shut off Selective Access of the GPS system. That meant accurate positioning was no longer restricted to the US military. Positioning accuracy on the first day without Selective Access went from a 45-meter radius to a 6-meter radius.

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