1806 – Englishman Ralph Wedgwood received the first patent on carbon paper, which led to the initials cc to indicate a carbon copy which led to the email option to “cc” somebody.
http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/southey_letters/Part_Three/HTML/letterEEd.26.1228.html
1954 – IBM sounded the death knell of vacuum tubes, building the first calculating machine to use solid-state transistors. It was an experimental version of the IBM 604 Electronic Calculating Punch, that was desktop-sized and slow just like it’s vacuum-tube powered brother, but it used 5% of the power!
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1007ibm-transistor-calculator/
1959 – The Soviet Space Probe Luna 3 took the first photographs of the dark side of the moon. You’re welcome Pink Floyd.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/luna/
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.