1901 – The first application for a patent for Meccano was submitted. Known at first as “Mechanics Made Easy,” this invention of Frank Hornby became a worldwide success and is sold in the US under the name “Erector Set”

1992 – Apple CEO John Sculley coined the term Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, and indicated Apple would get into the business of making them later that year.

2001 – Apple introduced iTunes for the Macintosh, featuring CD ripping, digital music organizing, and Internet radio.

2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced an iPod, an Internet device and a phone all in one. It was called the iPhone and would go on sale later that summer. It was pretty popular at the time.

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1889 – Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electronic tabulating machine. His Tabulating Machine Company would go on to merge with three others and be called International Business Machines, known today as IBM.

1973 – Less than a month after the last manned Moon mission, Apollo 17, the USSR launched space mission Luna 21 carrying lunar rover Lunakhod 2.

1982 – The United States vs. AT&T settlement was finalized with AT&T agreeing to divest itself of local exchanges in exchange for being allowed to start AT&T Computer Systems. Like Voltron, the behemoth would eventually reassemble.

1986 – “The Mentor” wrote “The Conscience of a Hacker” writing “This is our world now.” It was published on Phrack and is often referred to as the Hacker Manifesto.

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1714 – Henry Mill patented a machine for transcribing letters “one after another, as in writing.” Sadly, he died before he perfected the first typewriter.

1839 – Louis Daguerre made the first announcement of his photographic system at the Académie des Sciences in Paris, though details were not presented until August of that year.

1954 – In New York at IBM headquarters, IBM and Georgetown University showed off their joint project on machine translation. More than 60 sentences were translated from Russian to English using eight grammar rules.

2003 – Apple released the public beta of its new browser, called Safari.

2016 – the 49th Mersenne prime was discovered by Dr. Curtis Cooper at the University of Central Missouri as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. It was written as 2^74,207,281-1.

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

1838 – Samuel Morse, with his partner, Alfred Vail, gave the first public demonstration of their new electric telegraphic system at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, NJ. They used Morse’s specially designed code to send the message “A patient waiter is no loser.”

1851 – Leon Foucault proved the rotation of the Earth experimentally. He wrote in his journal that he made the discovery at 2:00 AM working with his famous pendulum in the cellar of his house.

2004 – Apple debuted the iPod Mini, a diminutive 4GB version of the iPod available in five colors at $249.

2016 – Oculus began taking orders for the Oculus Rift VR headset. It cost $599 and came with a remote, Xbox One controller and external sensor on a stand for $599. It was also bundled with the game Lucky’s Tale and access to Eve: Valkyrie.

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