Archive for February 14, 2024
First Modern GPS Satellite Launches
February 14, 1989
The first of 24 Block-II GPS satellites was launched. Block-II were the first modern GPS satellites that form the modern GPS system we know today.
The First Electronic Computer Unveiled
February 14, 1946
The much-anticipated ENIAC is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania. Considered the first fully electronic computer (as compared to electro-mechanical designs) ENIAC calculated 5,000 operations per second — 1,000 times faster than its contemporaries. ENIAC occupied over 1,500 square feet of space, weighed 30 tons, and used 18,000 vacuum tubes. However, it couldn’t get YouTube.
The Birth of IBM
February 14, 1924
The Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation is renamed International Business Machines, aka IBM. Either way, it certainly makes for a boring sounding company.
Telephone Patented By Two Men
February 14, 1876
The telephone was patented on this date separately by two men – Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray. This set the stage for controversy over who actually invented the telephone and a drawn out legal battle.