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The First Electric Christmas Tree Lights
December 22, 1882 Edward Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, has walnut-sized bulbs made specifically for him to wire his Christmas Tree with electric light. The 80 red, white, and blue bulbs formed the first set of electric Christmas Tree lights in history. Prior to this, people would traditionally decorate their trees with wax candles.…
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First Underwater Telegraph Cable
November 13, 1851 Laid by British telegraphic engineer John Watkins Brett and his brother Jacob Brett, the world’s first operational underwater telegraph cable opens for business. Connecting the English city of Dover to the French city of Calais, the cable was ran at the narrowest point of the English channel. With this link, communication between London…
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First Major ARPANET Outage
The ARPANET in 1980 October 27, 1980 The ARPANET, the precursor to the modern Internet, stops functioning for about four hours after the network’s routing tables are corrupted by a malfunctioning Interface Message Processor (IMP). The post First Major ARPANET Outage appeared first on This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech…
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NASA’s First Launch
October 11, 1958 NASA launches Pioneer 1, the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed space agency. Originally intended to fly by the Moon, a launch malfunction due to a programming error caused Pioneer 1 to only attain a ballistic trajectory, which caused it to fall back to the Earth after 43 hours of flight.…
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NASA’s First Launch
October 11, 1958 NASA launches Pioneer 1, the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed space agency. Originally intended to fly by the Moon, a launch malfunction due to a programming error caused Pioneer 1 to only attain a ballistic trajectory, which caused it to fall back to the Earth after 43 hours of flight.…
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First Phone Call Over Outdoor Wires
October 9, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson demonstrate the first two-way phone call over outdoor wires. Bell and Watson made their call between the cities of Boston and Cambridge. The post First Phone Call Over Outdoor Wires appeared first on This Day in Tech History. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided…
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The First Transistor Calculator
October 7, 1954 IBM researchers modify an existing model 604 vacuum tube calculator to use transistors. This experiment didn’t shrink the desk-sized machine nor make it any faster, but it did use only 5% of the power the vacuum tube-based design did. Encouraged by this successful experiment, IBM introduced the first commercial transistor calculator 4…
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The First CD Player
October 1, 1982 The first commercial compact disc player, the Sony CDP-101, goes on sale in Japan. The post The First CD Player 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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The First Personal Computer You Never Heard Of
September 25, 1973 Micro Computer Machines of Canada introduces their MCM/70 microcomputer at a programmer’s user conference in Toronto. Possibly the earliest commercially manufactured device that can now be considered a personal computer, the MCM/70 gained customers at companies such as Chevron, Mutual Life Insurance, NASA, and the US Army. The company worked closely with…