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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. The post Voyager 2 Flies By Uranus appeared first on This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech…
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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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1984 Commercial Introduces the Macintosh
January 22, 1984 Apple Computer broadcasts their now-famous “1984” commercial introducing the Macintosh, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. It was the first and last time the ad was truly broadcast. However, it is a little-known piece of trivia that the ad was aired one other time at 1 AM on December 15, 1983…
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Twitter.com is Born
January 21, 2000 The domain name twitter.com was registered. However, it wasn’t until 2006 that the domain was purchased by Twitter, Inc. and took the form we know today. The post Twitter.com is Born appeared first on This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech…
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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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BlackBerry Introduced
January 19, 1999 RIM introduces the BlackBerry. The original BlackBerry devices were not phones, but instead were the first mobile devices that could do real-time e-mail. They looked like big pagers. I should know. I had one on my hip for two years while working at Anheuser-Busch in the early 2000’s. In 2001, I visited…
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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. The post The Superjumbo is Unveiled appeared first on This Day in Tech History. 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. The post Drudge Report Legitimizes Internet Reporting…
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Space Shuttle Columbia Launches for Final Time
January 16, 2003 Famous for being the first Space Shuttle ever to be launched (mission STS-1), the Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107. This mission would prove to be its final one as Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry. The post Space Shuttle Columbia Launches for Final Time appeared first on This Day in…
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Wikipedia Goes Online; Bookshelves Clear Up
January 15, 2001 Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online. Door-to-door encyclopedia salespeople mourn while bookshelves everywhere suddenly have more room for other books. The post Wikipedia Goes Online; Bookshelves Clear Up appeared first on This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com