1741- In Uppsala, Sweden, Anders Celsius first used a Delisle thermometer he had marked up with 100 gradations between boiling and freezing. It was the first use of the centigrade scale of temperature.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IJ91od-UYygC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=centigrade+scale+1741&source=bl&ots=kPQL5iw7ec&sig=Wh0yZTFng0stpDzZ-yPrbGcTMtc&hl=en&ei=6mzYToWcNMGMiAL0n5WqCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&sqi=2&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=centigrade%20scale%201741&f=false

1959 – Sony announced its first television set, the transistor-based TV-301. It would go on sale in Japan the following May.
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/capsule/21/index.html

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee with help from CERN computer scientist Robert Cailliau and others— set up the first successful communication between a Web browser and server via the Internet.

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/TimBook-old/History.html

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1952 – William Ross Ashby wrote in his journal, “Following a suggestion from Dad I have decided to write an Introducton to Cybernetics.” The book was said to provide one of the most accessible ways to understand the work of researchers like Alan Turing. Ashby used the term “amplifying intelligence” in the book.

http://www.rossashby.info/journal/page/4298.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=an+introduction+to+cybernetics&oq=an+introduction+to+cybernetics&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.21854j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8

1955 – As NORAD tells the story, a misprinted phone number caused Continental Air Defense Command, CONAD to start getting calls from children for Santa Claus, so Director of Operations Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for signs of St. Nick. NORAD was created in 1958 and they’ve kept up the tracking tradition ever since.

http://www.norad.mil/AboutNORAD/NORADTracksSanta.aspx

1955 – The Associated Press syndicated a story that Santa Claus was being guaranteed safe passage into the United States. The story reported that, “CONAD, Army, Navy and Marine Air Forces will continue to track and guard Santa and his sleigh on his trip to and from the US.”
http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/how-the-u-s-military-turned-santa-claus-into-a-cold-wa-1664149776

1968 – The crew of Apollo 8 delivered a live, televised Christmas Eve broadcast after becoming the first humans to orbit another space body.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo8_xmas.html

1999 – The very seasonal HTML 4.01 was published by the World Wide Web Consortium. HTML 4.01 remained the HTML standard for well over a decade.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/

2014 – Sony released its film “The Interview” online through Google and Microsoft as well as in limited theaters. The film’s release had been canceled after threats were issued and major theater chains declined to show it.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/24/media/interview-digital-release/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1947 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain demonstrated their new discovery, the transistor, at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. William Shockley, who contributed to the invention, missed the presentation.

http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/miraclemo.html

1968 – Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders made the lunar-orbit-insertion maneuver on their way to becoming the first humans to orbit the Moon.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4205/ch11-6.html

1986 – Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in the experimental airplane Voyager, completing the first non-stop, round- the- world flight without refueling.

http://centennialofflight.net/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/rutan/EX32.htm

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1666 – Seven mathematicians and seven physicists gathered by Jean-Baptiste Colbert met in the king’s library to found the French Academy of Sciences.
http://www.interacademies.net/Academies/ByRegion/EuropeCentralAsia/France.aspx
http://www.academie-sciences.fr/

1882 – Edward H. Johnson of the Edison Illumination Company strung a single power cord with red white and blue lights on his Christmas tree becoming the first person to use Christmas tree lights.
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/12/1222johnson-creates-christmas-lights/

1885 – A patent for a gravity switchback railway was issued to La Marcus Thompson of Coney Island, New York. You and I might call it a “roller coaster.”

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT332762

1968 – At 3:01 PM Eastern time, Apollo 8 transmitted the first US. live telecast from a manned spacecraft in outer space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR0VI7dSksk

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.