Today in Tech History – May 27, 2014

In 1931 – Auguste Piccard and Charles Knipfer took the first manned trip into the stratosphere when they rode in a pressurized cabin attached to a balloon to an altitude of 51,800 feet.

In 1959 – After almost a decade, MIT shut down its Whirlwind computer. It ran 35 hours a week at 90 percent utility using an electrostatic tube memory.

In 1986 – Dragon Quest (also known as Dragon Warrior) was released in Japan. It combined the the full-screen map of Ultima with the battle and statistics-oriented screens of Wizardry and paved the way for RPG games.

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