In 1916 – Claude Elwood Shannon was born. He is considered the father of information theory and is the man who coined the term ‘bit’ for the fundamental unit of both data and computation.

In 1939 – RCA began regularly scheduled television service in New York City, with a telecast of President Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the New York World’s Fair. Programs were transmitted from mobile camera trucks to the main transmitter, which was connected to an aerial atop the Empire State Building. The broadcasting division of RCA was called the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).

In 1993 – CERN released a statement declaring the software protocols developed for the World Wide Web would be available in the public domain.

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

In 1882 – Ernst Werner von Siemens presented his “trackless trolley” called the Elektromote in a Berlin suburb. The system pulled electricity from overhead wires, but used road wheels instead of tracks.

In 1953 – KECA-TV an ABC affiliate in Los Angeles, California broadcast the first U.S. experimental 3D-TV. An episode of Space Patrol required specially polarized glasses to watch.

In 2005 – Apple released Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, introducing spotlight search and dashboard functionality.

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

In 2001 – Dennis Tito became the first “space tourist” in human history paying his own way to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

In 2003 – Apple opened the iTunes Music Store with 200,000 songs at 99 cents a piece. Songs could play back on any iPod and up to 3 authorised Macs. Windows users were out of luck but tracks could be burned to unlimited numbers of CDs.

In 2003 – Apple unveiled the “third-generation” iPod. The new iPods were thinner and featured the still used bottom Dock Connector port rather than the top-mounted FireWire port. The iPod controls also became entirely touch sensitive.

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

In 1981 – The first mouse integrated with a personal computer made its appearance with the Xerox Star workstation.

In 1995 – The Justice Department sued to block Microsoft’s purchase of Intuit, claiming the acquisition would raise prices and squash innovation. Intuit still exists but Microsoft Money is long gone.

In 1998 – Roughly 8,000 AOL subscribers joined the first known live interspecies chat with Koko the gorilla. Koko signed her answers; Penny Patterson interpreted them; and an AOL chat facilitator entered them in the computer.

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

In 1884 – The New York Times reported that “sending mails by electricity” was to be investigated by the Post Office Committee of the U.S. House, by providing for contracts with an existing telegraph company. It could lead to 10 cent telegrams!

In 1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization entered into force.

In 1986 – Design flaws made worse by human error during a safety test, led to the worst nuclear disaster yet, and a partial meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant.

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