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Turn That Frown … Sideways
September 19, 1982 In a posting made to a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board, Professor Scott Fahlman proposes the first known use of emoticons (also known as smilicons or smileys). While the use of emoticons became widespread during the 80’s and 90’s, their origin remained unknown until September 10, 2002, when the original message was retrieved…
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NeXTSTEP OS Released
September 18, 1989 NeXT Computer releases version 1.0 of NeXTSTEP, an object-oriented, multitasking operating system. Originally designed to run on NeXT’s brand of computers, it was later ported to other architectures such as the Intel x86. Often considered years ahead of its time, NeXTSTEP brought to market many advanced features that were not seen together in…
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NASA Unveils Enterprise
September 17, 1976 NASA rolls out the first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, from its assembly facility to a waiting crowd. Included in the crowd was a delegation of actors from the Star Trek TV series. Originally to be named Constitution, a write-in campaign by Star Trek fans convinced President Gerald Ford and NASA to rename the Space Shuttle.…
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Steve Jobs Named Interim CEO of Apple
September 16, 1997 Twelve years to the day after resigning from Apple, Steve Jobs is named Interim CEO of Apple. Only seven months earlier, Jobs’ company NeXT was purchased by Apple and just two months earlier Gil Amelio resigned as Apple CEO. Much of the technology acquired with the purchase of NeXT was used to build…
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The Last Apple II
September 15, 1986 Apple introduces the Apple IIgs, the last major product release in the Apple II series of personal computers. Blending the older Apple II series computers with aspects from the Macintosh computer, the advanced “graphics and sound” capabilities of the IIgs (hence the name) was ahead of other contemporary computers such as the…
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First Man-Made Object on Moon
September 14, 1959 The Soviet space probe Luna 2 crashes onto the surface of the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach the Moon, as well as the first man-made object to reach any celestial body. First Man-Made Object on Moon is original content of This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech…
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Osborne Declares Bankruptcy
September 13, 1983 The Osborne Computer Corporation declares bankruptcy only two years after producing the first portable computer, the Osborne I. Computer industry lore has it that the “Osborne Effect” killed the company, but it was also due to competitive pressure and mismanagement. Osborne Declares Bankruptcy is original content of This Day in Tech History. This Day in…
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First Test of an Integrated Circuit
September 12, 1958 Researcher Jack Kilby demonstrates the first integrated circuit to other researchers and executives at Texas Instruments. First Test of an Integrated Circuit is original content of This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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The First Internet Search Engine
September 10, 1990 The first Internet search engine, Archie, is launched. It was used to index FTP archives to make finding files easier. However, as the technology for the World Wide Web was not invented until later in the year, it was not the first web search engine. The First Internet Search Engine is original…