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Last Flight of the Concorde
October 24, 2003 The Concorde supersonic jet makes its last commercial flight. While being able to cross the Atlantic in about 3.5 hours, low passenger numbers and rising maintenance costs made operating the Concorde unprofitable for British Airways and Air France. This Day in Tech History
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1000 Songs in Your Pocket
October 23, 2001 Using the slogan, “1000 Songs in Your Pocket,” Steve Jobs introduces the original iPod, featuring a 5 GB hard drive, Firewire connectivity, and synchronization to iTunes. By using a 1.8″ drive, the iPod was significantly smaller than competing MP3 players of the time. The Firewire port allowed simultaneous charging and high-speed music…
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Apple Introduces PowerBook
October 21, 1991 At the COMDEX computer expo in Las Vegas, Apple introduces the first line of PowerBook notebook computers, the PowerBook 100, PowerBook 140, and PowerBook 170. The first truly portable Macintosh, the PowerBook line redefined portable computing and set the bar for future laptop designs. For example, the PowerBooks were the first laptop…
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Triode Announced
October 20, 1906 Dr. Lee DeForest announces his three-element electrical vacuum tube, later known as a triode. The triode was able to produce a large voltage-amplifying effect, which when used to amplify weak signals, will make long-distance communication possible for the first time. Previous post: VisiCalc Officially Released This Day in Tech History
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VisiCalc Officially Released
October 19, 1979 According to Dan Bricklin, the first “real” release of VisiCalc was completed and packaged for shipment. VisiCalc was the first commercially available spreadsheet software and quickly became the first “killer app” of the personal computer market. Previous post: NES Hits North America This Day in Tech History
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NES Hits North America
October 18, 1985 Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in New York and limited other North American markets. An immediate hit, Nintendo released the game nationwide in February 1986. Along with the NES, Nintendo released eighteen games that day, including: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite,…
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IMDb Launched
October 17, 1990 Colin Needham, an English movie fan, launches the “rec.arts.movies movie database”, which would later be known as the Internet Movie Database, or IMDb. An engineer working for HP at the time, by 1996 Needham quit his job to work on IMDb full-time. The IMDb is one of the most visited sites on…
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CDC 1604 Released
October 16, 1959 Control Data Corporation (CDC) releases their CDC 1604 computer, the world’s fastest computer at the time and the first commercially successful fully-transistorized computer. The 1604 was CDC’s first computer, primarily designed by engineer Seymour Cray, who would later go on to found Cray Research and be called the “father of the supercomputer”.…
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Edison Electric Light Company Formed
October 15, 1878 Thomas Edison and a group of investors form the Edison Electric Light Company. The goal of the company was to provide financial support for Edison’s electric light experiments and work on developing an electrical lighting system for an entire city. The long-lasting carbonized filament light bulb was developed by Edison while working…