1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company merged with its subsidiary and took the subsidiary’s name, International Business Machines Corporation. Yes it was later shortened to IBM.
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/reference/faq_0000001707.html
1989 – The Department of Defense put the NAVSTAR II-1 into orbit, the first of 24 satellites that would make up the global positioning system.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1989-013A
2005 – The domain name YouTube.com was registered. It would eventually become the dominant place to share videos on the Internet.
http://mashable.com/2010/02/14/youtube-birthday/
2011 – IBM’s Watson, a computer system, competed against Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Watson cleaned up, winning $77,147 to Mr. Jennings’s $24,000 and Mr. Rutter’s $21,600.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/science/17jeopardy-watson.html?pagewanted=all
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.