In 1838 – Samuel Morse, with his partner, Alfred Vail, gave the first public demonstration of their new electric telegraphic system at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, NJ. They used Morse’s specially designed code to send the message ““A patient waiter is no loser.”

In 1851 – Leon Foucault proved the rotation of the Earth experimentally. He wrote in his journal that he made the discovery at 2:00 AM working with his famous pendulum in the cellar of his house.

In 2004 – Apple debuted the iPod Mini, a diminutive 4GB version of the iPod available in five colors at $249.

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Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

In 1948 – Warner Brothers showed the very first color newsreel, featuring the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football game.

In 1972 – President Richard M. Nixon announced that NASA would develop a space shuttle system, emphasizing its reliability, reusability and low cost.

In 1984 – Richard Stallman began working on the GNU Operating system,a free UNIX-like OS. GNU/Linux is seen as the most successful outgrowth of that project.

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Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

In 1642 – Sir Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe in England and would go on to develop describe universal gravitation and the three laws of motion as well as star in Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle.

In 1958 – Sputnik I the first manmade object to orbit the earth, fell back into the atmosphere and disintegrated, after 92 days in space.

In 2004 – One half of NASA’s Mars Rover team, Spirit, landed on Mars to analyze the planet’s rocks, looking for evidence of water. Its partner rover Opportunity was 21 days behind. Spirit is no longer active, but Opportunity keeps on chugging along.

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Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

In 1957 – Hamilton Electric held a press conference to announce the World’s First Electronic Watch. The Hamilton Electric 500 never needed winding, just batteries.

In 1977 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak incorporated Apple Computer Company. Ron Wayne famously backed out, selling his shares for $800. Ouch.

In 1999 – The US Mars Polar Lander was launched. It would spend most of the year wending its way towards Mars before it lost communication with Earth in December, presumably after crashing.

In 2009 – “Satoshi Nakamoto” created a virtual currency called Bitcoin posting an announcement and 31,000 lines of code on the Internet.

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Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

In 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the Moon, was launched by the USSR.

In 1979 – Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston incorporated Software Arts for the purpose of developing VisiCalc, the world’s first spreadsheet program.

In 2004 – NASA’s Stardust spacecraft successfully flew past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples it brought back to Earth two years later.

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Like Tech History? Purchase Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.