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Google Maps is Unleashed
February 8, 2005 Google Maps is launched to the public. I never had to ask for directions again. Not that I did before. Previous post: 24 Hours in Cyberspace This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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Kasparov Redeems Himself … Sort Of
February 7, 2003 After losing a chess match to the computer Deep Blue in 1997, world chess champion Gary Kasparov and the computer Deep Junior battle to a draw. Previous post: First Untethered Space Walk This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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V.90 Announced
February 6, 1998 The V.90 modem standard is announced and agreed upon. This ended a couple of years of customer confusion, as two competing 56k modem protocols (K56Flex and X2) were in common use at the time. The V.90 standard unified the protocols and was crafted specifically to allow both types of modems to be…
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First Victoria’s Secret Webcast
February 5, 1999 Victoria’s Secret holds their first annual online fashion show. The event attracts 1.5 million visitors. While the technology was no where near as advanced as it was today, it was considered the first major successful webcast. Previous post: Apollo 14 Lands on Moon This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by…
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Facebook is Born
February 4, 2004 Mark Zuckerberg launches Thefacebook, which later becomes Facebook. The world changes forever. And we like it. Previous post: The Sims Released This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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First Woman to Pilot the Space Shuttle
February 3, 1995 Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Previous post: Genesis of “Vaporware” This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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Amelio Becomes Apple CEO
February 2, 1996 Gil Amelio is named CEO of Apple Computer, replacing Michael Spindler. He orchestrated the purchase of NeXT, the company which Steve Jobs founded after leaving Apple in 1985. Steve Jobs was brought on as a consultant to Apple and after a series of events, Gil Amelio was fired after 499 days on…
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Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
February 1, 2003 The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The cause of the disaster was a piece of foam insulation the size of a small briefcase that broke off the external tank during launch and struck the leading edge of the left wing. This damaged the Shuttle’s thermal protection…
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SBC Buys AT&T; The Learner Becomes the Master
January 31, 2005 SBC announced that it would purchase AT&T Corp. for more than $ 16 billion. This completed (maybe) the long and sordid tale of the old AT&T company after their breakup in 1984. SBC, one of the original “baby bells”, renamed itself AT&T after the merger, confusing nearly everyone in the world as to…
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Windows Vista Released; Users Exodus
January 30, 2007 Six years after the launch of Windows XP, the infamous operating system, Windows Vista, was released to an unsuspecting public. For various reasons, the launch of Vista was marred by numerous incompatibility, stability, and otherwise onerous problems. While Microsoft actually made Vista much more palatable after 2 Service Pack upgrades, the damage…