Mariner 9 Orbits Mars; First Spacecraft to Orbit Another Planet
November 14, 1971
NASA’s Mariner 9 reaches the planet Mars and becomes the first man-made object to orbit another planet. Mariner 8 was scheduled to be the first, however due to launch problems it failed to make it out of Earth’s atmosphere. The Soviet Mars 2 and Mars 3 space probes reached the planet on November 27 and December 2 respectively.
Mariner 9 completed its mission of photographing the surface of Mars, transmitting 7,329 images covering 100% of the planet’s surface. While out of fuel, Mariner 9 still orbits Mars to this day, expected to stay in orbit until about the year 2022 when it will enter the planet’s surface and either burn up or crash into the surface.
First Underwater Telegraph Cable
November 13, 1851
Laid by British telegraphic engineer John Watkins Brett and his brother Jacob Brett, the world’s first operational underwater telegraph cable opens for business. Connecting the English city of Dover to the French city of Calais, the cable was ran at the narrowest point of the English channel. With this link, communication between London and Paris was made possible.
Microsoft Declares Tablets Are the Future
November 12, 2000
Bill Gates demonstrates a functional prototype of a Tablet PC. Microsoft claims “the Tablet PC will represent the next major evolution in PC design and functionality.” However, the Tablet PC initiative never really takes off and it isn’t until Apple introduced the iPad in 2010 that tablet computing is widely adopted.
In my opinion, Microsoft’s failure with the Tablet PC initiative was threefold. First, they simply tried to adapt Windows, an operating system designed for use with a keyboard and mouse, for use with a touchscreen/pen interface. Users never really warmed up to the awkward hybrid interface. Second, by their own words they were “incorporating the convenient and intuitive aspects of pencil and paper into the PC experience.” Rather than innovating, it appears to me that Microsoft was moving backwards by trying to graft an older paradigm (pencil and paper) onto a computer. It’s one thing to create an app or peripheral that mimics pencil and paper – it’s another to base an entire technology initiative around it. Finally, Microsoft left the design of the hardware to their OEM partners, most of whom are not especially well-known for innovating designs. Most Tablet PCs were considered too big, heavy, and expensive, plus the required pen/stylus was prone to loss. All of these factors left many Tablet PCs collecting dust if they were sold at all.
Likely the lessons that Microsoft learned from this early effort led to Microsoft manufacturing their own hardware for their Surface Tablets starting in the late 2010s, mimicking the model that Apple proved successful.
Conception of the World Wide Web
November 12, 1990
About 2 and a half years after he first submitted a proposal to his employer, CERN, for developing a new way of linking and sharing information at the European research institution, Tim Berners-Lee submits a formal proposal for a hypertext project he calls “WorldWideWeb”. In this proposal he lays out his vision for what will become the modern World Wide Web. By Christmas Day he will have the prototypes of a web server and web browser operational. By the end of February of the next year he will present the project to his colleagues at CERN. By May the first web server will go online internally at CERN. And by August, having realized the potential for his new system on the Internet at large, he will announce the project publicly on the alt.hypertext usenet group along with the first public web server hosted at CERN.
Ethernet is Born
Robert Metcalfe’s Original Ethernet Concept
November 11, 1973
As invented by Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs, an Ethernet network functions for the first time. From it’s humble beginnings as a research project at Xerox PARC, Ethernet has developed into the de facto standard for business and home networking.
The Day the Music Was Reborn
November 10, 2001
Apple ships the first iPod, the device that changed the course of both the music and technology industries. Of course, at the time, most “experts” could only focus on the fact that other devices cost less and may have had more impressive technical specs. Sort of like they do today. I guess when it comes to “experts” and Apple devices, they haven’t learned their lesson yet!
Microsoft Introduces Windows
November 10, 1983
Microsoft formally announces Windows, a graphical user interface for Microsoft DOS-based systems. Bill Gates promises that Windows will ship by April of 1984. However, in true Microsoft fashion, Windows 1.0 doesn’t actually ship until November 1985. While Windows 1 and Windows 2 saw limited usage, it wasn’t until Windows version 3 that Windows began to see widespread acceptance.
A Firefox Rises Out of the Ashes
This was the original Firefox logo from 2004
November 9, 2004
The Mozilla Foundation releases version 1.0 of the Firefox web browser. Firefox is significant in Internet history because it represented the first serious alternative to the dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in several years. By many estimations, Internet Explorer had risen to over 90% of browser marketshare since the downfall of Netscape many years earlier.
It is interesting to note, however, that it was Netscape itself that started the Mozilla project when it released the source code to their Netscape Communicator software in 1998. It was upon this codebase that the foundations of Firefox were laid. Firefox’s original name was Phoenix, seemingly in tribute to the fact that out of the ashes of the fallen Netscape came a new browser.
He Put the “X” in X-Rays
November 8, 1895
German Physics Professor Wilhelm Röntgen stumbles upon what he would later describe as “X-rays” while experimenting with electrical discharge tubes. Curious as to what was causing a faint green glow on a nearby fluorescent screen, Röntgen began systematically studying the unknown rays and published the first paper on the phenomenon less than two months later. He referred to the rays as “X”, indicating that they were an unknown form of radiation at the time. The name has stuck, although in several languages, X-rays are referred to as Röntgen rays, in tribute to his discovery. Incidentally, Röntgen was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for his work on X-rays.
Pets.com Put to Sleep
November 7, 2000
After only 2 years in business, Pets.com shuts down operations. Cited as one of the biggest failures of the dot-com bubble, Pets.com was able to gain significant brand recognition through its extensive marketing campaign and sock puppet mascot, but lost money due to an unsustainable business plan. Ironically, the company’s best selling product was its sock puppet. And yes, I own one.