1752 – Joseph Marie Jacquard was born in Lyon, France. The weaver and inventor created the first programmable power loom and the cards he used to program it would be adapted by Herman Hollerith and others for programming the first computers.

http://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/July/7/

1936 – Henry F. Phillips received patents for a new kind of screw and the screwdriver used with it. Endless numbers of computer cases have been held together by it since.

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

1981 – The first solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger, flew 163 miles from Corneille-en-Verin Airport north of Paris across the English Channel to Manston Royal Air Force Base south of London, staying aloft 5 hours and 23 minutes.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-054-DFRC.html

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

1920 – A US Navy F5L seaplane took off from Hampton Roads, Virginia, using a radio compass for the first time. The pilots located and flew to the Battleship Ohio about 94 miles offshore.
http://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-history/july-6.html

1947 – The AK-47 went into production in the Soviet Union– the name stands for Automatic rifle Kalashnikov model of 1947.
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/07/dayintech_0706/

1996 – AOL settled lawsuits in California that accused the company of misleading subscribers about monthly service charges.

http://news.cnet.com/AOL-to-settle-class-action-suits/2100-1023_3-216681.html

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

1833 – Nicéphore Niépce died. He created the first permanent photograph in 1826– an image of the outside of his house.

http://www.photo-museum.org/life-nicephore-niepce/

1954 – The BBC broadcast its first daily television news bulletin. Richard Baker read the 20-minute bulletin billed as an “Illustrated summary of the news.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/5/newsid_3856000/3856397.stm

1963 – Radio station WWVB began broadcasting standard frequencies in Fort Collins, Colorado for use by satellite and missile programs. Its time code was later used for synchronizing power plants and coordinating telephone networks and eventually for setting alarm clocks.

http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/wwvb-062513.cfm

1994 – Jeff Bezos founded online book seller Amazon in Bellevue, Washington. It would eventually sell more than just books.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/amazon

2001 – Rob Flickenger and friends posted details of their now legendary 12db Pringles-can antenna to boost WiFi signal distance.

http://kentropolis.com/wp-content/uploads/vb/f62.pdf

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

1951 – Bell Labs held a press conference announcing the invention of the junction transistor. Dr. William Shockley was featured at the conference.
http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1951-First.html

1956 – The five-year-old MIT computer Whirlwind added the ability to input data directly with a keyboard. Programmers began to enjoy independence from punch cards.

http://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/July/4/

1996 – Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith launched a free web email service called HoTMaiL, a play on HTML. Microsoft bought it a year later, and called it Hotmail for years, but it’s now Outlook.com.

http://news.microsoft.com/1999/02/08/msn-hotmail-from-zero-to-30-million-members-in-30-months/

2016 – The Juno space probe survived the high radiation of Jupiter to make a successful orbital insertion and begin a 20-month mission to examine the interior of Jupiter.

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-juno-spacecraft-in-orbit-around-mighty-jupiter

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