Search Results for "september 30"

1930 – An experimental electric engine was put in service by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad between Hoboken and Montclair, NJ. Thomas Edison served as engineer at the throttle.

http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/steamtown/shs4a.htm

1976 – Viking 2 landed on Mars and began taking high resolution pictures, measuring the atmosphere and surface, and looking for evidence of life.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html

1993 – Infogear filed an application for a US trademark on “I PHONE” for its “communications terminals. The company would later register “IPhone” as well. Cisco acquired Infogear in 2000 and later worked out a deal with Apple to share the name.
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=74431935

2013 – Nokia announced it would sell its devices and services unit, the division in charge of making mobile phones, to Microsoft for $7.2 billion.

http://news.microsoft.com/2013/09/03/microsoft-to-acquire-nokias-devices-services-business-license-nokias-patents-and-mapping-services/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1979 – CompuServe began offering a consumer version of its dial-up online information service called MicroNET. The name would later be changed to CompuServe and offer public email among other online services.

1993 – Broderbund Software released the game Myst, for the Macintosh computer. It became a record-setting bestseller and helped popularize CD-ROM drives.

1997 – Ultima Online launched, revolutionizing online gaming by supporting thousands of simultaneous players in a persistent shared world.

2013 – Valve announced their new Steam OS, a free version of Linux built around the Steam video game service.

2014 – The shellshock vulnerability was made public. The way bash handled variables could allow malicious code to be run on computers running Linux and OS X. This meant routers, webcams and other connected devices were also vulnerable.

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1830 – America’s first native locomotive, the “Tom Thumb” lost a race to a draft horse at Ellicotts Mills, Maryland.

1927 – The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System went on the air with 47 radio stations. Within two years it would be sold and become the Columbia Broadcasting System and later simply CBS.

1998 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers aka ICANN was created in order to take over Internet administrative tasks from the US Government. The most famous of those tasks is overseeing the Domain Name System.

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1983 – Osborne Computer declared bankruptcy in Oakland, California federal bankruptcy court, listing assets of $40 million, liabilities of $45 million, and 600 creditors. Two years earlier, Osborne had produced the first portable computer, the 24-pound Osborne I.

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.

2000 – The public beta of Apple’s Mac OS X, code named Kodiak, was released. Users had to pay $29.95 for the beta.

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

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.

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.”

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

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1930 – The first roll of waterproof, transparent, pressure-sensitive tape was sold. Its brand name “Scotch” has become synonymous with cellophane tape.

1966 – The TV show Star Trek made its network television debut with the episode “The Man Trap”. Star Trek would have a profound influence on future technology thought and design.

2004 – NASA’s unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-landed when its parachute failed to open.

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.