1948 – The Small-Scale Experimental Machine, SSEM took 52 minutes to run its first program, written by Professor Tom Kilburn. SSEM was the first computer to store programs electronically. The SSEM was nicknamed the “Manchester Baby”.
http://curation.cs.manchester.ac.uk/computer50/www.computer50.org/mark1/new.baby.html
1981 – IBM retired the last of its “STRETCH” mainframes. These mainframes were part of the 7000 series that made up the company’s first transistorized computers.
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/other/4375893/IBM-retires-7030–STRETCH–computer–June-21–1981
2004 – SpaceShipOne became the first privately developed piloted vehicle to leave Earth’s atmosphere and reach the edge of space.
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/spaceshipone
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.