1856 – Professor Hamilton L. Smith of Gambier, Ohio received the first US patent for the tintype photographic picture process. It described a method for “the obtaining of positive impressions upon a japanned surface previously prepared upon an iron or other metallic or mineral sheet or plate by means of collodion and a solution of a salt of silver.”

http://books.google.com/books?id=_FpDBhD6wRYC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=february+19+1856+Hamilton+L.+Smith&source=bl&ots=g_4P7omIhZ&sig=0zdrIL8cWnnF1ZyrRO7FqsGvanM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=imljUN7MGcbbyQG_zoGoCA&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=february%2019%201856%20Hamilton%20L.%20Smith&f=false

1878 – Thomas Edison received a US patent (No. 200521) for the phonograph. His first recording was of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” spoken into a large horn which transmitted vibrations to a needle that cut the recording on a hand-rotated cylinder.
http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2002/02-13.jsp

1990 – John and Thomas Knoll launched a small software package for manipulating images meant to be bundled with scanners. It was called Photoshop.

http://thenextweb.com/creativity/2015/02/19/photoshop-turns-25-adobe-senior-product-manager-recounts-a-proud-creation-thats-always-on-the-lookout/

2002 – Odyssey, the first of six current operational Mars vehicles began its mission to map the planet.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1209

2014 – Facebook announced it was acquiring messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion. http://newsroom.fb.com/News/805/Facebook-to-Acquire-WhatsApp

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

1838 – In the small town of Chirlitz of the Austrian Empire Ernst Mach was born. His work in aerodynamics and supersonic speeds, led to the unit of measurement that bears his name. He would die one day after his birthday in 1916.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ernst-mach/

1908 -Dr Lee de Forest received a patent for “Space Telegraphy” which described a three-element vacuum tube later called the triode, which could amplify feeble electric currents, and proved especially useful for radio reception. Sorry it was not about Moon telegrams.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=6i1vAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

1977 – The Enterprise space shuttle orbiter prototype made the first of five “captive-inactive” flight tests, testing structural integrity and performance handling, while attached to the top of a 747 jumbo jet.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/multimedia/gallery/enterprise/12-04-20.html

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1965 – The Ranger 8 probe launched on its mission to photograph the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. The photos paved the way to select the area as the site of the first manned Moon landing.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1965-010A

1996 – World chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated Deep Blue in game 6 winning the match 4-2. He would lose the next match a year later.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kasparov-defeats-chess-playing-computer

2000 – Microsoft released Windows 2000, the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and the final Windows release to display the “Windows NT” designation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_4.0
http://news.microsoft.com/2000/02/17/windows-2000-now-broadly-available/

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1880 – 30 engineers from eight states met in the New York editorial offices of the American Machinist to found the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history

1968 – The first-ever 911 call was placed by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite from Haleyville City Hall to US Rep. Tom Bevill at the city’s police station.
http://archives.ubalt.edu/bsr/articles/feb%2016.pdf

1978 – After a particularly harsh January gave them plenty of time for programming, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess completed the Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) in Chicago. It was the first BBS.

http://pcmuseum.tripod.com/bbs.htm

2016 – Magistrate Sheri Pym of the US District Court of Central California ordered Apple to assist the US FBI in cracking the password on an iPhone 5C. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Apple’s intent to resist the order writing, “Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices.” The FBI eventually accessed the data without Apple’s assistance.

http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2714001/SB-Shooter-Order-Compelling-Apple-Asst-iPhone.pdf

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