Today in Technology History Archives

Our history e-mail -- which you can join here -- is archived below. It is published on weekdays.

2003

• July 2 - Launch of the first U.S. television station (1928)

• July 1 - Birth of the first Indian in space, Columbia astronaut Kalpana Chawla (1961)
   

• June 25 - The sad final days of steamboating pioneer John Fitch (1798)

• June 24 - The first live online musical performance (1993)

• June 23 - William Kelly patents his iron air-blasting process -- but not in time (1857)

• June 20 - Birth of Columbia astronaut Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut (1954)

• June 19 - Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space (1963)

• June 18 - Sally K. Ride became the first American woman in space (1983)

• June 17 - Amelia Earhart, as a passenger, became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (1928)

• June 16 - Ford was founded, and the first nonstop transatlantic flight (1903 & 1919)

• June 13 - Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, died (1993)

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

• June 11 - The first time a rocket was ever used to power an aircraft (1928)

• June 10 - Birth of a clockmaker who went from rags to riches to rags (1793)

• June 9 - The first airplane trip across the Pacific Ocean (1928)

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

• June 5 - The invention of the hot-air balloon (1783)

• June 4 - The first attempt to clone an extinct animal (1984)

• June 3 - Death of Nicolas Appert, inventor of canning (1841)

• June 2 - Birth of Robert Morris Page, inventor of pulse radar (1903)
   

• May 30 - Birth of Peter the Great, a technological reformer (1672)

• May 29 - Conquering Mount Everest -- thanks to technology (1953)

• May 28 - A teenager flew a tiny plane past Soviet air defenses (1987)

• May 27 - Before Lindbergh: The true first airplane trip across the Atlantic (1919)

• May 23 - A huge experimental airship crashed, injuring all 16 aboard (1908)

• May 22 - The first movie on the Internet (1993)

• May 21 - Lindbergh completes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight (1927)
   

• April 1 - Establishment of Britain's Royal Air Force (1918)
   

• March 31 - Death of Henry Kasperowicz, one of the fathers of RGB (2002)

• March 28 - The first time an airplane ever took off from water (1910)

• March 27 - The deadliest airplane accident in history (1977)

• March 26 - Birth of Count Rumford, the inventor, spy and administrator (1753)

• March 25 - Birth of astronaut Jim Lovell, of "Apollo 13" fame (1928)

• March 24 - Birth of two men linked to birth control: Butenandt and Rock (1890 & 1903)

• March 20 - Tokyo suffers the world's worst terrorist chemical weapon attack (1995)

• March 19 - Birth and death of Walter Haworth, vitamin synthesizer (1883 & 1950)

• March 18 - Death of consultant and early computer engineer J. Wesley Leas (2001)

• March 17 - Birth of writer William Gibson, who coined the word "cyberspace" (1948)

• March 14 - The biggest non-nuclear bomb in history (1945)

• March 13 - Birth of chemist Joseph Priestley, inventor of carbonation (1733)

• March 12 - The first Canadian to pilot an airplane (1908)

• March 11 - Death of penicillin discoverer Alexander Fleming (1955)

• March 10 - Birth of Columbia astronaut Laurel Clark (1961)

• March 7 - Death of adhesives and aviation pioneer Norman de Bruyne (1997)

• March 6 - Auto pioneers Daimler and Buick died (1900 & 1929)

• March 4-5 - Birth and death of fax and TV pioneer Édouard Belin (1876 & 1963)

• March 3 - Death of Robert Hooke, brilliant experimentalist and inventor (1703)
   

• February 28 - Watson and Crick beat Linus Pauling to discover DNA's shape (1953)

• February 27 - Birth of Kelly Johnson, legendary airplane designer (1910)

• February 26 - Birth of aviation official and lifelong pilot Crocker Snow (1905)

• February 25 - Samuel Colt patents his revolver (1836)

• February 24 - Newspapers first told of the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep (1997)

• February 21 - First flight of the Arrowbile, the world's first flying car (1937)

• February 20 - Death of sports car maker Ferruccio Lamborghini (1993)

• February 19 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for the phonograph (1878)

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

• February 13 - Birth of legendary pilot Chuck Yeager (1923)

• February 12 - Start of a historic car race around the world (1908)

• February 11 - Death of Alexander Lippisch, influential aviation engineer (1976)

• Administrative Note - 500th message

• February 10 - Garry Kasparov plays his first game against Deep Blue (1996)

• February 7 - The first time radio signals were sent from a moving train (1915)

• February 6 - Astronaut Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the Moon (1971)

• February 5 - The shared birthday of inventors John Dunlop and Hiram Maxim (1840)

• February 4 - Birth of the most famous pioneer aviator, Charles Lindbergh (1902)

• February 3 - The start of the investigation into the Challenger accident (1986)
   

• January 31 - The technology behind the Social Security program (1940)

• January 30 - Birth of Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse (1925)

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

• January 28 - A day of record-setting (but deadly) car racing (1938)

• January 27 - Death of Sir Thomas Sopwith, creator of WWI's Sopwith Camel (1989)

• January 24 - The suicide of anesthesia pioneer Horace Wells (1848)

• January 23 - Nobel-winning drug researcher Gertrude Elion was born (1918)

• Administrative Note - Centennial of flight, and two-year anniversary

• January 22 - Auto maker Preston Tucker was cleared of fraud charges (1950)

• January 21 - Birth of Horace Wells, who pioneered anesthesia in dentistry (1815)

• January 20 - Birth of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step on the Moon (1930)

• January 17 - Robert Hare born; he invented an ancestor of today's blowtorch (1781)

• January 16 - Christian Hülsmeyer gets a U.S. patent for his primitive radar (1906)

• January 15 - Birth of Edward Teller, "father of the hydrogen bomb" (1908)

• January 14 - Birth of record-setting NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid (1943)

• January 13 - Signing the Chemical Weapons Convention and bombing Iraq (1993)

• January 10 - Treating your horses right in the age of the "automobile fad" (1903)

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

• January 8 - Computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum, inventor of ELIZA, born (1923)

• January 7 - Harry Truman hints at the H-bomb and warns against atomic war (1953)

• January 6 - Birth of technology critic Jacques Ellul (1912)

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

• January 2 - Birth of Charles Thurber, typing innovator (1802)

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)
   

Previous years:

2002

2001

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