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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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First Super Bowl in HD
January 30, 2000 Super Bowl XXXIV: The St. Louis Rams beat the Tennessee Titans, 23-16 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. This was the first Super Bowl to be broadcast in High Definition. And after living in New Orleans then St. Louis and suffering through the Saints, Cardinals, and Rams, it was the first time…
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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
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iPad Introduced
January 27, 2010 Apple introduces the iPad. While still only a few years old, the introduction of the iPad triggered the close of the PC era and will certainly go down in history as one of the pivotal points in computing history. This Day in Tech History
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Compaq Purchases DEC
January 26, 1998 Compaq Computer purchases Digital Equipment Corporation for $ 9.6 billion. Digital, or DEC, was a pioneering company in the early history of computers from the 1960′s – 1980′s. Unfortunately, as was seen with many companies, they were slow to recognize the rise of the PC which ultimately led to the sell-off of…
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Voyager 2 Flies By Uranus
January 24, 1986 The interplanetary probe Voyager 2 makes the first fly-by of the planet Uranus. During its study of Uranus, it finds 10 previously undiscovered moons. Previous post: Macintosh Launched This Day in Tech History
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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…