In 1910 – The first public radio broadcast took place with a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana sung by Enrico Caruso and others was broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The transmitter had 500 watts of power.

In 1928 – Three television sets were installed by GE in homes in Schenectady, New York in order to demonstrate the first home television receiver. The picture was 1.5 inches long by 1 inch wide and 24 lines at 16 frames per second.

In 1976 – Raymond Kurzweil and the leaders of the National Federation of the Blind announced the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first text-to-speech machine. Walter Cronkite used it to deliver his signature sign-off, “And that’s the way it was, January 13, 1976.”

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In 1908 – Lee de Forest, a French engineer and scientist, broadcast a phonograph record show from the Eiffel Tower for an audience of less than 50 people. The show was also heard over 500 miles from the tower, becoming the first long-distance radio message transmission.

In 1964 – Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He would grow up to study computer science at Princeton, and set the standard for online shopping with his company, Amazon.com.

In 2005 – Deep Impact launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta 2 rocket, headed to an impact with a comet 9P/Tempel.

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In 1954 – BBC TV broadcast their first ‘in-vision’ weather forecast. George Cowling of the Meteorological Office presented from the BBC’s Lime Grove studios with two hand-drawn weather charts pinned to an easel.

In 2001 – AOL and Time Warner completed their merger. At the time it was seen as a signal of the victory of the Internet over old media. Time Warner would eventually come out on top and spin AOL back out as separate company.

In 2005 – Apple introduced the first iPod Shuffle, a music player with no screen and flash memory.

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In 1899 – A U.S. patent was issued for an “Electric Device,” invented by David Misell, which used D size batteries laid end to end in a paper tube with a light bulb and a brass reflector at the end. The batteries only lasted long enough for a “flash” of light, hence the name Flashlight.

In 1949 – In response to Columbia’s new 33-RPM long playing record, RCA kicked off a platter war introducing the the 7-inch diameter 45 rpm “single” in the U.S.

In 1962 – NASA announced plans to build the C-5, a three stage rocket launch vehicle. It became better known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.

In 2008 – Sony BMG became the last major label to agree to sell DRM-free MP3s.

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