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First Transistor Radio Goes on Sale
November 1, 1954 The Industrial Development Engineering Associates company begins selling the Regency TR-1, the world’s first commercial transistor radio. Texas Instruments designed and developed the transistor technology who then partnered with IDEA to design and manufacturer the completed radio. The TR-1 sold over 100,000 units, ushering in the commercial transistor industry. This Day in Tech…
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First Crew to International Space Station
October 31, 2000 Russia launches Soyuz TM-31, carrying the first crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously manned since this first mission. This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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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). Previous post: Pony Express Goes Bye-Bye This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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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. Previous post: Finish Him! This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech History.com
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The First Android Introduced
September 23, 2008 Google and T-Mobile introduce the T-Mobile G1 (also known as the HTC Dream), the world’s first Android-based smartphone. By raw sales numbers, today Android is the world’s most popular smartphone platform. Previous post: Computer Code Protected by Copyright Next post: CompuServe Launches MicroNET This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by…
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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. Previous post: Osborne Declares Bankruptcy This Day in Tech History Tech History provided by This Day in Tech…
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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. Previous post: The First Computer “Bug” This…
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The First Computer “Bug”
September 9, 1945 Operators of the Harvard Mark II find a moth trapped in relay #70 in panel F. The bug is taped to their troubleshooting log where it was written, “First actual case of bug being found”. This was not the first use of the term “bug” for computer problems, but this was the…
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First Building Block of the Internet
August 30, 1969 The first Interface Message Processor (IMP) is delivered to Leonard Kleinrock’s research group at UCLA. The IMP was the device that would interconnect networks between research facilities on the developing ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. As a packet-switching device, the IMP can be considered the first generation of what we now…