In 1936 – University of Washington education professor August Dvorak received a patent for his new more efficient keyboard layout. While widely recognised as superior to the QWERTY layout, the Dvorak keyboard is not widely used.

In 1939 – The first appropriation was made to begin construction of the Harvard Mark I. When completed in 1944 the Mark I became the first successful fully automatic computing machine.

In 1941 – German engineer Konrad Zuse unveiled the Z3, the first program-controlled electromechanical digital computer. It succeeded the Z1 which was the first binary digital computer.

In 1951 – Jay Forrester filed a patent application for matrix core memory. Professor Forrester led a team at MIT that developed a three-dimensional magnetic structure code-named Project Whirlwind. It was the first random access memory that was practical, reliable and relatively high-speed.

In 1979 – Daniel Bricklin and Robert Frankston gave the first demonstration of VisiCalc, the program that made the Apple II popular with businesses.

In 1997 – Deep Blue won its final match against Chess master Garry Kasparov, becoming the first computer to defeat a chess champion in match play.

In 1946 – The US launched its second V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground, which became the first successful launch of a large rocket on US soil. The rocket climbed straight up then pitched to the north reaching an altitude of 71 miles and impacted about 35 miles uprange.

In 1960 – The nuclear-powered USS Triton submarine, arrived in Groton, Connecticut, after completing the first completely submerged circumnavigation of Earth.

In 2011 – Google announced its Open Hardware Platform and the Google Music service which would eventually become Google Play Music.