Today in Technology History Archives

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2002

• December 19 - Fred Terman, engineer and Stanford administrator, died (1982)

• December 18 - Death of neglected computer pioneer Konrad Zuse (1995)

• December 17 - A.E. Kennelly born; electrician who discovered ionosphere (1861)

• December 16 - Birth of authors Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick (1917 & 1928)

• December 13 - Birth of Edmund Zalinski, inventor of the dynamite gun (1849)

• December 12 - Birth of Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit (1927)

• December 11 - Martin Luther King discusses technology in his Nobel speech (1964)

• December 10 - Birth of Ada Byron Lovelace, the first computer programmer (1815)

• December 9 - Birth of military aviation pioneer Benjamin Foulois (1879)

• December 6 - Death of N.-J. Conté, inventor of the modern pencil (1805)

• December 5 - Opening of the world's first robotic parking garage (1951)

• December 4 - Death of electromagnetism pioneer William Sturgeon (1850)

• December 3 - The true nature of the Segway Human Transporter is revealed (2001)

• December 2 - The world's first patent on a V-8 engine (1902)
   

• November 22 - The first patent for a snowmobile (1927)

• November 21 - Death of inventor and museum founder Vaucanson (1782)

• November 20 - Birth of pioneering vacuum scientist Otto von Guericke (1602)

• November 19 - Birth of NASA astronaut Eileen Collins (1956)

• November 18 - Death of fraudulent inventor John E. W. Keely (1898)

• November 15 - The collapse of a 300-foot radio telescope (1988)

• November 14 - The first time an airplane took off from a ship (1910)

• November 13 - Death of Prince Henry the Navigator (1460)

• Administrative Note - 450th message and a correction

• November 12 - The official opening of the Holland Tunnel (1927)

• November 11 - Death of "Typhoid Mary," notorious carrier of typhoid fever (1938)

• November 8 - The first time one jet fighter plane shot down another (1950)

• November 7 - Death of thermostat inventor Cornelis Drebbel (1633)

• November 6 - Birth of Alois Senefelder, inventor of lithography (1771)

• November 5 - Founding of the American Society of Civil Engineers (1852)

• November 4 - First use of a computer to predict winners on Election Night (1952)

• November 1 - The world's first thermonuclear explosion (1952)
   

• October 31 - Birth of Benoît Fourneyron, father of the water turbine (1802)

• October 30 - Birth of innovative pharmaceuticals chemist Max Tishler (1906)

• October 29 - The first use of cloud-seeding as a firefighting technique (1947)

• October 28 - Birth of Microsoft founder Bill Gates (1955)

• October 25 - Death of inventor and astronomer Benjamin Banneker (1806)

• October 24 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time (1939)

• October 23 - Death of Luther Simjian, prolific American inventor (1997)

• October 22 - Birth of Karl Jansky, accidental father of radio astronomy (1905)

• October 21 - Thomas Edison finds a filament for his incandescent lamp (1879)

• October 18 - Death of Charles Babbage, eccentric grandfather of computing (1871)

• October 17 - The first commercial transatlantic wireless telegraph service (1907)

• October 16 - The first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery (1846)

• October 15 - The first use of a commercially available pager (1950)

• October 14 - Death of Edward Clark, the man behind Singer sewing machines (1882)

• October 11 - Birth of James Gayley, blast furnace technician (1855)

• October 10 - The first patent for a useful form of vinyl (1933)

• October 9 - The first long-distance (two-mile) phone conversation (1876)

• October 8 - Birth of food refrigeration expert Mary Pennington (1872)

• October 7 - Infrared photography first publicly demonstrated (1931)

• October 4 - The U.S. crisis of confidence after the Soviets launched Sputnik (1957)

• October 3 - The United Kingdom explodes its first atomic bomb (1952)

• October 2 - Birth of Wm. Ramsay, discoverer of neon and other useful gases (1852)

• October 1 - Birth of William Boeing, founder of the Boeing Company (1881)
   

• September 30 - Birth of the discoverer of bromine, an important chemical (1802)

• September 27 - Discovering the principle behind military radar (1922)

• September 26 - Death of Levi Strauss, inventor of denim jeans (1902)

• September 25 - Wm. Jenney, the architect who built the first skyscraper (1832)

• September 24 - The first flight of an engine-powered, navigable aircraft (1852)

• September 23 - Birth of influential surgeon William S. Halsted (1852)

• September 20 - Birth of Thermos inventor Sir James Dewar (1842)

• September 19 - Birth of soap magnate William Lever (1851)

• September 18 - Death of pioneering hydraulic engineer James B. Francis (1892)

• September 17 - Alaska's first successful oil well (1902)

• September 16 - Birth of record-setting railroad builder Charles Crocker (1822)

• September 13 - The days after the terror attacks: contrails and clean-up (2001)

• September 12 - Mobile phones and the terrorist attacks (2001)

• September 11 - Terrorism and technology (2001)

• September 10 - The first time all American civil aviation was suspended (1960)

• September 9 - Launch of the first privately-funded commercial rocket (1982)

• September 6 - Birth of engineer Ernst Weber, who helped develop radar (1901)

• September 5 - Launch of Voyager 1, now the farthest man-made object (1977)

• September 4 - Death of I.W. Colburn, inventor of the sheet glass machine (1917)

• Administrative Note - 400th message

• September 3 - The day that never happened (1752)
   

• August 30 - Literary Week, Day 5: Mary Shelley and Frankenstein (1797)

• August 29 - Literary Week, Day 4: John Locke and mechanism (1632)

• August 28 - Literary Week, Day 3: Goethe, science and technology (1749)

• August 27 - Literary Week, Day 2: Hegel and technology (1770)

• August 26 - Literary Week, Day 1: William James and anesthesia (1910)

• August 23 - One NASA lunar failure, and one success (1961, 1966)

• August 22 - Birth of film pioneer and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl (1902)

• August 21 - The first patent for William Burroughs, calculator inventor (1888)

• August 20 - Launch of Voyager 2, historic space probe (1977)

• August 19 - Death of Pascal, philosopher and calculator inventor (1662)

• August 16 - Elvis Presley, whose fame depended on technology, died (1977)

• August 15 - Thomas Edison and the word "hello"  (1877)

• August 14 - A patent for the modern internal-combustion engine (1877)

• August 13 - Birth of Felix Wankel, inventor of the rotary engine (19o2)

• August 12 - The first solo flight of a space shuttle, Enterprise (1977)

• August 9 - Death of John Gates, who brought barbed wire out west (1911)

• August 8 - Birth of Paul Dirac, antimatter theorist (1902)

• August 7 - Birth of important hydraulic engineer Philipp Forchheimer (1852)

• August 6 - Birth of William H. Wollaston, platinum purifier (1766)

• August 5 - Birth of Joseph Carey Merrick, the "Elephant Man" (1862)

• August 2 - Which man really invented the telephone? (1835 & 1922)

• August 1 - A test drive for the world's first cable car (1873)
   

• July 31 - The U.S. government grants its first patent (1790)

• July 30 - Death of Jacob Perkins, inventor and engraving innovator (1849)

• July 29 - A secretly sent e-mail warns of corporate espionage (1995)

• July 26 - Launch of Syncom 2, the first geosynchronous satellite (1963)

• July 25 - Death of D.-J. Larrey, French military surgeon and inventor (1842)

• July 24 - Death of Albert Barnes, medicine inventor and art collector (1951)

• July 23 - Birth of the father of ubiquitous computing (1952)

• July 22 - A missing hyphen ruins the Mariner 1 mission to Venus (1962)

• July 19 - The DuPont company was founded in Delaware (1802)

• July 18 - Did Nero burn Rome just to rebuild it with new technology? (A.D. 64)

• July 17 - Death of John Roebuck, the first investor in Watt's steam engine (1794)

• July 16 - An eyewitness account of the first atomic bomb test (1945)

• July 15 - The U.S. agrees to pay nuclear workers sickened by beryllium (1999)

• July 12 - Outboard motor inventor Ole Evinrude died (1934)

• July 11 - Birth of Theodore H. Maiman, builder of the first laser (1927)

• July 10 - Birth of A.G. Clark, builder of the largest refracting telescope (1832)

• July 9 - Birth of Thomas Davenport, inventor of the electric motor (1802)

• July 8 - Theodore Timby patents the revolving gun turret (1862)

• July 2 - Death of Nostradamus, who supposedly predicted technologies (1566)

• July 1 - Birth of G.C. Lichtenberg, a "German Leonardo" (1742)
   

• June 28 - The first time a baboon liver was transplanted into a human (1992)

• June 27 - Death of Smithsonian Institution founder James Smithson (1829)

• June 26 - The Julian Day 2452452.45245 (2002)

• June 25 - Custer's last stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

• June 24 - The first commercially successful locomotive (1812)

• June 21 - Alexander Winton, auto pioneer, died in Ohio (1932)

• June 20 - Alexander Winton, auto pioneer, was born in Scotland (1860)

• June 19 - Birth of F.W.A.F. Sertürner, discoverer of morphine (1783)

• June 18 - The first genetically engineered vaccine (1981)

• June 17 - Two New Yorkers patent a "combined plow and gun" (1862)

• June 14 - The debut of Babbage's first mechanical calculator (1822)

• June 13 - Birth of Rear Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske, inventor (1854)

• June 12 - Death of Fleeming Jenkin, inventor of "telpherage" (1885)

• June 11 - Death of the first U.S. "right-to-die" patient (1985)

• June 10 - The window envelope was first patented, by A. F. Callahan (1902)

• June 7 - Death of William Williams Keen, an influential surgeon (1932)

• June 6 - Birth of Steele MacKaye, inventor of the folding seat (1842)

• June 5 - Birth of the father of holography, Dennis Gabor (1900)

• June 4 - The debut of the world's first shopping cart, in Oklahoma City (1937)

• June 3 - Birth of Henry Shrapnel, inventor of shrapnel (1761)
   

• May 31 - Birth of Richard Edgeworth, quirky inventor of the "tellograph" (1744)

• May 30 - The kidnapping of tech exec Charles Geschke  (1992)

• May 29 - The first long-distance digital broadcast of HDTV (1992)

• May 28 - A young German pilot flies into Moscow, past Soviet defenses (1987)

• May 24 - Xerox joins the battle over user-friendly computer interfaces (1989)

• May 23 - The birth of transistor co-inventor and Nobelist John Bardeen (1908)

• May 22 - Abraham Lincoln patents a boat-floating invention (1849)

• May 21 - The world's first nuclear-powered lighthouse (1964)

• May 20 - David Edward Hughes patents the "printing telegraph" (1856)

• May 16 - Birth of David Edward Hughes, musician-turned-inventor (1831)

• May 15 - An odd runaway train incident in Ohio (2001)

• May 14 - George Lucas, pioneer of cinema technology, was born (1944)

• May 13 - The end of the century-old Dollond optician and invention shop (1852)

• May 10 - Preceding Ben Franklin's kite, D'Alibard pulled down lightning (1752)

• May 9 - Anton Flettner's strange rotor-ship crosses the Atlantic (1926)

• May 8 - The first U.S. patent related to photography (1840)

• May 7 - The funny first mission of the space shuttle Endeavour (1992)

• May 6 - Death of William Grey Walter, neurologist and robotics pioneer (1977)

• May 3 - The third pilot to break the sound barrier died in a plane crash (1948)

• May 2 - Premiere of the first science film, A Trip to the Moon (1902)

• May 1 - The first programs in the BASIC computer language are run (1964)
   

• April 30 - The last ride of Casey Jones, American railroad engineer (1900)

• April 29 - Suicide of W. H. Carothers, discoverer of nylon and neoprene (1937)

• April 26 - The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl (1986)

• April 25 - The first time a guillotine is used to execute a person (1792)

• April 24 - The era of satellite television begins (1962)

• April 23 - The first and second steamships to cross the Atlantic (1838)

• April 22 - The first use of modern chemical weapons in warfare (1915)

• April 19 - Birth of Glenn Seaborg, who first isolated plutonium (1912)

• April 18 - Boxing champ J. A. Johnson patents the adjustable wrench (1922)

• April 17 - Rolodex inventor Arnold Neustadter died (1996)

• April 16 - The first woman to pilot a plane across the English Channel (1912)

• April 15 - The sinking of RMS Titanic (1912)

• April 12 - Birth of Grenville Dodge, who built the Union Pacific railroad (1831)

• April 11 - Pentothal, the anesthetic and truth serum, was patented (1939)

• April 10 - A treaty banning biological weapons (1972)

• April 9 - AC electricity pioneers Ferranti and Steinmetz born (1864 & 1865)

• Administrative Note - 300th message and recent corrections

• April 5 - The birth of Joseph Lister, father of antiseptic surgery (1827)

• April 4 - "Mrs. Potts' Sad Iron" with detachable handle was patented (1871)

• April 3 - Death of Gino Santi, pilot ejection engineer (1997)

• April 2 - Technology for studying the Sun (1845 & 1930)

• April 1 - Samuel Morey patents the first internal combustion engine (1826)
   

• March 29 - Electricity pioneer Elihu Thomson was born (1853)

• March 28 - The crisis at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (1979)

• March 27 - The mysterious death of Yuri Gagarin, first man in space (1968)

• March 26 - The "Phantoscope," the first movie projector, was patented (1895)

• March 25 - Death of Ishi, the Yahi -- "the last Stone Age man" (1916)

• March 22 - Death of William Symington, oft-neglected steamboat pioneer (1831)

• March 21 - Death of Frederick Taylor, industrial efficiency expert (1915)

• March 20 - Stubblefield demonstrates ship-to-shore wireless telephony (1902)

• March 19 - The Sewing Machine Wars and the U.S. Civil War (1861)

• March 18 - Superconductors and "The Woodstock of Physics" (1987)

• March 15 - Three engineers and bridge technology (1888, 1891 & 1898)

• March 14 - The first use of history's heaviest bomb (1945)

• March 13 - John Frederic Daniell, electrical innovator, died (1845)

• March 12 - John Frederic Daniell, scientist and inventor, was born (1790)

• March 11 - C.W. Oatley, father of the scanning electron microscope, died (1996)

• March 8 - J. Fothergill, early advocate of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (1712)

• March 7 - Death of Stanley Kubrick, movie director (1999)

• March 6 - The Michelangelo computer virus panic (1992)

• March 5 - Birth of E.-J. Marey, pioneer of "chronophotography" (1830)

• March 4 - The American Automobile Association was founded (1902)

• March 1 - The politician, the gunmaker and the typewriter (1873)
   

• February 28 - Thomas Newcomen, steam engine pioneer, was baptized (1663)

• February 27 - Death of Bryan Donkin, talented inventor (1855)

• February 26 - Death of Eli Terry, who built America's first clock factory (1852)

• February 25 - T. Davenport gets the first patent for an electric motor (1737)

• February 22 - Two men who improved the medical thermometer (1636 & 1925)

• February 21 - A key date for two inventors named Edwin (1858 & 1947)

• February 20 - John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth (1962)

• February 19 - Birth of Sir William Fairbairn, industrial pioneer (1789)

• February 15 - Birth of Herman Kahn, author of On Thermonuclear War (1922)

• February 14 - Prolific inventor Margaret Knight born (1838)

• February 13 - France's first nuclear test (1960)

• February 12 - A man-made substance about as tough as diamond (1957)

• February 11 - The first hospital in the United States of America (1752)

• February 8 - Simon Willard patented the banjo clock (1802)

• February 7 - A series of "denial of service" attacks on major Web sites (2000)

• February 6 - Death of Theodor Billroth, father of abdominal surgery (1894)

• February 5 - The first mechanical calculator with keys (1850)

• February 4 - The birth of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh (1902)

• February 1 - The screw propeller was patented (1838)
   

• January 31 - Three important events in U.S. space history (1958, 1961, 1971)

• January 30 - The U.S. decides to build the world's biggest scientific tool (1987)

• January 29 - Birth of Allen DuMont, television pioneer (1901)

• January 28 - The Piccard family of explorers and inventors (1884, 1963, 1998)

• January 25 - The first transcontinental phone call (1915)

• Administrative Note - 250th message and one-year anniversary

• January 24 - Birth of Roman emperor Hadrian, builder of Hadrian's Wall (AD 76)

• January 23 - Birth of Nobel-winning drug researcher Gertrude Elion (1918)

• January 22 - The first human to be hit by falling space debris (1997)

• January 18 - Birth of sound engineer Ray Dolby (1933)

• January 17 - Birth of Robert Hare, inventor of the blowpipe (1781)

• January 16 - The start of Operation Desert Storm (1991)

• January 15 - Elisha Graves Otis patents the first modern elevator (1861)

• January 14 - Birth of Rolla Harger, inventor of the Drunkometer (1890)

• January 11 - The first use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human (1922)

• January 10 - Frederick Cottrell born; inventor of air-cleaning technique (1877)

• January 9 - Death of locomotion pioneer William Hedley (1843)

• January 8 - Physicist Stephen Hawking born; he uses an artificial voice (1942)

• January 7 - The first transatlantic phone calls (1927)

• January 4 - Alphabetizers Louis Braille and Isaac Pitman born (1809 & 1813)

• January 3 - Marvin C. Stone patents the wax drinking straw (1888)

• January 2 - The beginning of the end of the VCR standards war (1984)

 

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