1928 – The Polish Cipher Bureau picked up enciphered radio signals from the German Reicswehr for the first time. The messages were encoded with Germany’s ENIGMA machine. Cracking the EMIGMA during World War II brought together some of the finest minds in computer science at Bletchley Park in England.

http://books.google.com/books?id=hfWTDr_bvMwC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=july+15+1928+enigma&source=bl&ots=9M41qBR6P2&sig=uvtGXuu4q3DeZol6pbJs3rfzq28&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GYjMUYSBIOWciQKOv4GoDg&ved=0CFwQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=july%2015%201928%20enigma&f=false

1983 – Nintendo released the Family Computer or Famicom, along with Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye cartridges. It would later be released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1437208/Nintendo-console

2003 – AOL Time Warner disbanded the Netscape browser development team. In conjunction, Mozilla created the Mozilla Foundation giving the project its first independent legal existence.

http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3434

2006 – After a few months being used internally at Odeo, the Twttr service launched for public use. They later added some vowels and spun Twitter out as its own company.

http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/

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1867 – Alfred Nobel demonstrated dynamite for the first time at Merstham Quarry, Surrey.

http://www.information-britain.co.uk/famdates.php?id=572

1918 – Computer pioneer and MIT professor Jay Forrester was born on a cattle ranch in Climax, Nebraska. With Robert Everett, Forrester led one of the most important early computer projects, the Whirlwind, and developed and founded the field of system dynamics.

http://jsterman.scripts.mit.edu/docs/Lane-2011%20Profiles%20in%20Operations%20Research.pdf

1965 – Mariner 4 flew by Mars, taking 21 full pictures, the first close-up photos of another planet returned from space.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1964-077A

2015 – The New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto after traveling for nine and a half years and three billion miles. It was the last of the nine planets to be approached by a probe, though Pluto had been reclassified as a dwarf planet after New Horizons had launched.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/science/space/nasa-new-horizons-spacecraft-reaches-pluto.html?_r=0

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1919 – The British airship R34 finished the first airship roundtrip journey across the Atlantic from Scotland to Mineola, Long Island and back to Norfolk, England after 182 hours of flight.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1919/1919%20-%200948.html

1973 – Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the Nixon tapes to the US Senate committee investigating the Watergate break-in. Always make back-ups, unless you want to remain President.

http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/guides/findingaid/butterfieldapapers.asp

1977 – Lightning struck a Consolidated Edison substation on the Hudson River, tripping two circuit breakers and setting off a chain of events that resulted in a massive power failure. The entire city of New York was blacked out.

http://www.bronx.com/news/local/429.html

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1854 – George Eastman was born to Maria Kilbourn and George Washington Eastman in Waterville, New York. He went on to found the Eastman Kodak Company and invented the roll of film.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Eastman

1949 – At an IBM sales meeting, Thomas J. Watson Jr. predicted that within 10 years, electronics would replace moving parts in machines. His vision launched IBM into dominating the computer industry.

http://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/July/12/

2004 – Apple announced the iTunes Music Store sold its 100,000,000th downloaded song. “Somersault (Dangermouse remix)” by Zero 7 was purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/07/12iTunes-Music-Store-Downloads-Top-100-Million-Songs.html

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1976 – K&E produced its last slide rule, which it presented to the Smithsonian Institution. While slide rules continue to be made, especially for marine and aviation uses, K&E had been the dominant manufacturer, and this signaled the end of an era, and the rise of the electronic calculator.

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4390151/Last-slide-rule-manufactured–July-11–1976

1979 – The US space station Skylab returned to Earth scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/skylab/

2008 – Apple’s second phone, the iPhone 3G went on sale, featuring 3G data connectivity.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/07/10iPhone-3G-on-Sale-Tomorrow.html

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