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.

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.

In 1962 – US President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at the stadium of Rice University, declaring “We choose to go to the moon.” Many consider the speech the beginning of the space race.

In 1985 – Steve Jobs announced to the Apple board that he would resign. Jobs said, “I’ve been thinking a lot, and it’s time for me to get on with my life. It’s obvious that I’ve got to do something. I’m 30 years old.”

In 1994 – Mosaic Communications introduced its first software, the Mosaic NetScape network navigator and the Mosaic Netsite server line.

In 1928 – Radio station WGY of General Electric made the first TV-radio simulcast in Schenectady, New York. A play called “The Queen’s Messenger” had audio broadcast over radio with the picture in sync over television at same time,.

In 1985 – ISEE-3, renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) flew through the gas tail of comet P/Giacobini-Zinner.

In 1998 – The US Congress released the contents of the Starr report on the internet. The report led to the impeachment but not the removal of President Clinton. The websites that hosted the report were slammed with traffic.

1990 – Peter Deutsch posted to comp.archives about the Internet Archive Server called “Archie” that he, Alan Emtage, and Bill Heelan had put together. It is often considered the Internet’s first search engine.

In 1991 – Paul Lindner posted to comp.unix.misc introducing “The Internet Gopher” a distributed information service. Before the World Wide Web, Gopher was the prime way to find and share documents online.

In 2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN powered up in Geneva, Switzerland, on its quest to discover the secrets of particle physics, especially evidence for the Higgs Boson.