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Lotus 1-2-3 Goes on Sale
January 26, 1983 The Lotus Development Corporation releases Lotus 1-2-3 for IBM computers. While not the first spreadsheet program, Lotus was able to develop 1-2-3 because the creators of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, did not patent their software. 1-2-3 outsold VisiCalc by the end of the year and 2 years later Lotus bought out the assets…
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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. Wikipedia Goes Online; Bookshelves Clear Up 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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Y2K Comes and Goes
January 1, 2000 After years of hysteria regarding the Y2K bug, the world’s computers begin using the date 2000 with no major catastrophes. There is still debate whether the “Year 2000 Problem” was overblown by the technology industry or if the frantic updating done by armies of software developers leading up to Y2K averted disaster.…
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Microsoft Goes Public
March 13, 1986 Ten years after the company’s founding, Microsoft Corporation stock goes public at $ 21 per share. The stock, which eventually closed at $ 27.75 a share, peaked at $ 29.25 a share shortly after the opening. It is said that the rising value of Microsoft stock has made an estimated 4 billionaires and 12,000…
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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. Wikipedia Goes Online; Bookshelves Clear Up 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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Y2K Comes and Goes
January 1, 2000 After years of hysteria regarding the Y2K bug, the world’s computers begin using the date 2000 with no major catastrophes. There is still debate whether the “Year 2000 Problem” was overblown by the technology industry or if the frantic updating done by armies of software developers leading up to Y2K averted disaster.…
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Y2K Comes and Goes
January 1, 2000 After years of hysteria regarding the Y2K bug, the world’s computers begin using the date 2000 with no major catastrophes. There is still debate whether the “Year 2000 Problem” was overblown by the technology industry or if the frantic updating done by armies of software developers leading up to Y2K averted disaster.…
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Altair 8800 Goes on Sale; Inspires PC Era
December 19, 1974 Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, otherwise known as MITS, begins selling the Altair 8800 microcomputer kit. As the base computer used toggle switches for input and LEDs for output, it was far from a personal computer as we know it today. However, it is one of the most important computers in history,…
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The Internet Goes Hollywood
December 18, 1998 The Warner Brothers motion picture You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, is released to theaters. While mostly known as a romantic comedy, the film was chock-full of technology symbolism. Primarily I find interesting that the movie’s themes of business and technology was foreshadowing larger charges to come. Starting with the…
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Polaroid Instant Camera Goes on Sale
November 28, 1948 Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, 57 units of the first commercial instant camera, the Polaroid Land Camera Model 95, go on sale at the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston. Producing sepia toned photographs in about one minute, the Model 95 became a hit almost as quickly. Polaroid believed that 57 units would be…