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Tetris Sneaks Into the US
January 29, 1988 The computer game Tetris makes its first appearance in the United States as a PC game. The company that released the game was Spectrum Holobyte, which had dubious licensing rights to the game. When companies became interested in licensing Tetris for other platforms besides the PC, a series of events kicked off a…
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Radio Shack Chooses Compaq
January 28, 1998 Radio Shack partners exclusively with Compaq rather than IBM to sell PCs throughout their 7,000 stores. Six years later, IBM sold its PC division to the Chinese company Lenovo. Compaq is still the exclusive PC sold in Radio Shack to this day. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This…
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Last Contact with Pioneer 10
January 23, 2003 The last successful contact was made with the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects in the universe. Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus at roughly 2.6 AU per year. If Aldebaran had zero relative velocity, it would take Pioneer 10 about 2 million years…
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Last Contact with Pioneer 10
January 23, 2003 The last successful contact was made with the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects in the universe. Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus at roughly 2.6 AU per year. If Aldebaran had zero relative velocity, it would take Pioneer 10 about 2 million years…
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The Happy99 Worm Appears
January 20, 1999 The Happy99 worm first appeared. It invisibly attached itself to emails, displayed fireworks to hide the changes being made, and wished the user a happy New Year. It was the first of a wave of malware that struck Microsoft Windows computers over the next several years, costing businesses and individuals untold amounts…
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Yahoo.com Registered
January 18, 1995 The domain name yahoo.com is registered. Previously, the web site was called “David and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. I think they chose wisely. Previous post: First Plane Landing on a Ship Next post: The Superjumbo is Unveiled This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in…
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The Superjumbo is Unveiled
January 18, 2005 The Airbus A380, the world’s largest commercial jet and nicknamed the “Superjumbo”, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France. Previous post: Yahoo.com Registered This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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Drudge Report Legitimizes Internet Reporting
January 17, 1998 Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his website The Drudge Report. This incident brought to the limelight the emerging Internet news industry. Almost overnight it seems, traditional news media, especially newspapers, begin to lose ground to Internet news sources. This Day in Tech History Tech History…
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Steve Jobs Goes on Hiatus
January 14, 2009 An internal Apple memo from Steve Jobs announced that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence, until the end of June 2009, to allow him to better focus on his health and to allow the company to better focus on its products without having the rampant media speculating about his…
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Bill Gates Steps Aside
January 13, 2000 Microsoft chairman Bill Gates steps aside as chief executive and promotes company president Steve Ballmer to the position. Gates would stay on as “chief software architect” until June of 2008 before finally giving up day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft. Gates is still Microsoft’s chairman of the board. Previous post: Friday the 13th Virus…