In 1858 – The west end of the first transatlantic cable was completed when the ship Niagra anchored at the Newfoundland coast having laid 1,016 miles of telegraph cable.

In 1914 – The American Traffic Signal Co. installed their first electric traffic light at East 105th street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1921 – The first radio broadcast of a baseball game happened on KDKA from Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. Harold W. Arlin announced the game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies.

In 2012 – The Mars Science Laboratory, known as the Curiosity Rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars in one of the most complicated automated landings ever, involving a sky crane.

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

In 1921 – The first facsimile was transmitted by radio across the Atlantic Ocean using the Belinograph invented by Edouard Belin. A message written by C. V. Van Anda, managing editor of The New York Times and addressed to the Matin in Paris, was sent in seven minutes.

In 1988 – A computer halted an engine test in preparation for the launch of the space shuttle Discovery. The flight would be the first since the Challenger explosion in 1986.

In 2007 – NASA’s Phoenix spaceship launched on its mission to survey the Martian Arctic in search of water, geological discoveries, and evidence of conditions for biological life.

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

In 1811 – Elisha
Otis was born. He invented a safety brake that prevented
elevators from falling if the hoisting cable broke. Thank him every
time you get in an elevator. In 1958 – The nuclear submarine USS
Nautilus became the first watercraft to reach the
geographic North Pole. Commanding Officer, Commander William R.
Anderson, announced to his crew, “For the world, our country, and
the Navy – the North Pole.” In 1977 – Tandy Corp of Texas held a
New York press conference to announce that it will manufacture the
TRS-80.

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

In 1870 – The world’s first underground tube railway, (the Met had been the first underground non-tube railway) Tower Subway, opened in London, running from Lower Thames street to Vine Street. It closed after 4 months of operation.

In, 1880 – Parliament officially adopted Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the official time of Great Britain.

In 1902 – Mina Spiegel Rees was born in Ohio and became one of the earliest female computer pioneers. She ran the Office of Naval Research, where she organized work on early computers like the Harvard Mark I.

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