In 1975 – The Homebrew Computer Club, held its first meeting in the garage of Gordon French in Menlo Park, California. 32 people showed up for the first meeting. John Draper, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were some of the more famous members of the club.

In 1981 – The ZX81 was launched by Sinclair Research in Britain for £69.95 and would go on to sell over 1.5 million units around the world. It was much more successful than it’s predecessor the ZX80.

In 1982 – Four days after it’s twin, the second of two Soviet probes to Venus, the Venera 14 landed on the planet. Venera 13 and 14 would continue to send data until 1983.

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In 1976 – The first Freon-cooled Cray-1 supercomputer was shipped to Los Alamos Laboratories, in New Mexico at a cost of $19,000,000.

In 2000 – The Sony PlayStation 2 went on sale in Japan.

In 2007 – Election Day was held in Estonia, and for the first time in the world, voters were allowed to vote on the Internet. Approximately 30,000 voters took advantage of electronic voting. Ballots had to be completed three days before election day.

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In 1847 – In Edinburgh, Scotland, an expert vocal physiology and elocution welcomed his newborn son into the world. He was named after his father. Alexander Graham Bell would go on to become synonymous with the telephone.

In 1885 – The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was incorporated in New York State as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone.

In 1966- The BBC announces plans to begin broadcasting television programmes in colour the following year, becoming the first European broadcaster to provide regular colour broadcasts.

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In 1908 – Gabriel Lippman proposed using a series of lenses at a picture’s surface instead of opaque barrier lines, allowing three dimensional pictures. He titled his presentation to the French Academy of Sciences “La Photographie Integral”.

In 1983 – CBS Records launched the first major compact disc music marketing campaign, launching 16 titles. CDs had gone on sale to the public the previous October in Japan.

In 2010 – The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rejected legislation requiring electronic communications traffic data retention for a period of 6 months as a violation of the guarantee of the secrecy of correspondence.

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