In 1880 – 30 engineers from eight states met in the New York editorial offices of the American Machinist to found the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

In 1968 – The first-ever 911 call was placed by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite from Haleyville City Hall to U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill at the city’s police station.

In 1978 – After a particularly harsh January gave them plenty of time for programming, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess completed the Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) in Chicago. It was the first BBS.

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

In 1897 – Ferdinand Braun published a paper in the journal Annalen der Physik und Chemie describing his “Braun tube”, the first cathode-ray oscilloscope, which paved the way for the modern CRT.

In 1946 A few days after its first public demonstration, the first practical all-digital computer, ENIAC was formally dedicated.

In 1995 – The FBI arrested Kevin Mitnick on charges of wire fraud and breaking into the computer systems of several major corporations.

In 2005 – Chad Hurley and Steve Chen debuted their new website, YouTube. It would quickly become the place to share videos, and quickly become hated by the movie and TV industry.

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

In 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company merged with its subsidiary and took its name, International Business Machines Corporation AKA IBM.

In 1989 – The Department of Defense put the NAVSTAR II-1 into orbit, the first of 24 satellites that will make up the global positioning system.

In 2011 IBM’s Watson, an AI computer system competed against Jeapardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Watson cleaned up winning $77,147 to Mr. Jennings’s $24,000 and Mr. Rutter’s $21,600.

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

In 1895 – French patent No. 245,032 was issued for ‘appareil servant à l’obtention et à la vision des épreuves chrono-photographiques, AKA the Cinématographe,’ a combined motion-picture camera and projector.

In 1946 – ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) the first practical, all-electronic computer was unveiled at the Univ. of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of
Electronics. The New York Times carried the report the next day.

In 2001 – Microsoft gave the first public look at their new version of Windows, called Windows XP, formerly codenamed Whistler.

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