Archive for April 2024
Pioneer 11 Launched
April 6, 1973
NASA launches Pioneer 11, the second of two probes along with Pioneer 10 sent out to explore the outer solar system. Pioneer 11 became famous for being the first man-made object to fly by Saturn and also for making the closest flyby of Jupiter. After passing Saturn, Pioneer 11 continued on a trajectory towards the center of the Milky Way and will pass the star Lambda Aquila in 4 million years. The last contact with Pioneer 11 was in November of 1995. Both Pioneer spacecraft carry a plaque with a message from humanity in the chance that it is ever intercepted by intelligent life.
First Commercial Communications Satellite Launched
April 6, 1965
Intelsat I, the world’s first commercial communication satellite was launched into geosynchronous orbit above Earth. Built by the Hughes Aircraft Company, launched by NASA, and run by the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT), Intelsat I was was nicknamed “Early Bird” and would go on to handle the first nearly instantaneous communications between Europe and North America. When activated in June of that year, Early Bird proved the feasibility of using synchronous satellites for commercial communications and handled telephone traffic, TV signals, telegraph, and faxes.
Could it be … SATAN?
April 5, 1995
Dan Farmer and Wietse Venema release to the Internet the Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks, known by its acronym, SATAN. SATAN is a network scanner for investigating the vulnerability of remote systems. Designed for use by network administrators, the program will soon generate controversy over the ethics of freely releasing powerful security tools to the general public. And it didn’t please the Church Lady one bit, either.
Stupid Human Tricks in Surround Sound!
April 5, 1989
Late Night with David Letterman becomes the first network television show to use the Dolby Stereo sound format, which despite its name, was in fact 4-channel surround sound. Guests included Phil Hartman and Donald Trump. This may be one of the Top 10 events in TV Tech History!
Netscape Born
April 4, 1994
Ironically, 19 years to the day after Microsoft was formed, Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark create the Mosaic Communications Corporation, which will later be renamed Netscape Communications Corporation. Andreessen had developed the Mosaic web browser while working at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois.
Microsoft Formed
April 4, 1975
Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates, age 19, and Paul Allen, age 22, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The company was created to develop the BASIC programming environment for the MITS Altair 8800. MITS was headquartered in Albuquerque so Gates and Allen moved there from Boston to launch their company. Eventually they decide to move Microsoft to the Seattle, Washington area, where both men were from originally and met in high school.
The First Cell Phone Call
April 3, 1973
Martin Cooper, considered the “father of the cellular phone”, makes the first cell phone call on a New York City street.
First Spacecraft to Orbit Moon
April 3, 1966
The Soviet space probe Luna 10 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit around the Moon. It was launched by the USSR from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. Luna 10’s battery will operate for 460 lunar orbits before deactivating as planned on May 30, 1966.
Microsoft’s First Hardware Product
April 2, 1980
Microsoft announces its first hardware product, the Z80 SoftCard. The SoftCard is a microprocessor that plugs into the Apple II personal computer allowing it to run programs written for the CP/M operating system. CP/M was a very popular OS for early personal computers along with much of the software written for it. In particular, the word processor WordStar is so popular that people will purchase the SoftCard and a companion “80-column card” just to run it on the Apple II. At one point, the SoftCard product will bring in about half of Microsoft’s total revenue. It will be discontinued in 1986 as CP/M’s popularity declined.
First Computerized Legal Search Service
A LEXIS UBIQ Terminal, possibly from the early 1970’s
April 2, 1973
The first computerized legal search service, LEXIS, launches at a press conference in New York City. The name was coined from the latin word “lex”, meaning law, and the the letters IS for “information service”. Featuring only the full text searches of New York and Ohio state case law at launch, the goal of LEXIS was to allow law firms to access their legal databases directly without the need for an intermediary professional such as a librarian. Legal offices would access Lexis through dedicated terminals, which was an impressive feat since this was well before personal computing had become mainstream. By 1974 Lexis was hosted on an IBM System/370 Model 155 mainframe and had added the entire United States Code. It took until 1980 for LEXIS to complete entering all US federal and state cases. It was not until February of 2020 that the databases were transitioned to Internet cloud hosting and legacy mainframes shut down.