In 1947 – The aircraft-carrier Midway became the first U.S. vessel from which a long-range rocket was launched. The rocket had a mishap though, and exploded at 5,000 feet.

In 1954 – US President Eisenhower waved a ceremonial “neutron wand” over a neutron counter in Denver, Colorado, to signal a bulldozer in Shippingport, Pennsylvania to begin construction on the first commercial nuclear power plant. It was part of the “Atoms for Peace” program.

In 1997 – The USS Grace Murray Hopper, guided missile destroyer, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy in San Francisco, named after the computer pioneer.

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In 1977 – NASA launched Voyager 1 after a brief delay. Although it was launched 16 days after Voyager 2, it’s faster flight path would take it past Jupiter first.

In 1980 – The last IBM 7030, AKA STRETCH, mainframe computer was decommissioned at Brigham Young University.

In 2007 – Apple introduced the iPod Touch, bringing the multitouch first introduced on the iPhone, to its popular iPod line.

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In 1888 – George Eastman was issued U.S. patent No. 388,850 for his roll-film box camera.

In 1956 – IBM introduced the IBM 350 Disk storage unit for the RAMAC 305, the first commercial computer to use magnetic disk storage.

In 1998 – Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed for incorporation of Google, allowing them to cash a $100,000 check Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun, had written to Google Inc.

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In 1930 – An experimental electric engine was put in service by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad between Hoboken and Montclair, NJ. Thomas Edison served as engineer at the throttle.

In 1976 – Viking 2 landed on Mars and began taking high resolution pictures, measuring the atmosphere and surface, and look for evidence of life.

In 1993 – Infogear filed an application for a U.S. trademark on “I PHONE” for its “communications terminals. The company would later register “IPhone” as well. Cisco acquired Infogear in 2000 and later worked out a deal with Apple to share the name.

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