Dell Laptops Catch Fire!
August 14, 2006
Dell and Sony admit that flaws in Sony-manufactured batteries used in certain Dell laptops could result in the batteries overheating, catching fire, or exploding. This came after several widely publicized reports in the preceding months where Dell laptops did catch fire. They issue a recall of 4.1 million batteries, the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry, still to this day. Even Samsung’s famous Galaxy Note 7 recall in 2016 only affected 2.5 million units. Dell’s reputation suffered for many years and to some, has never fully recovered from the incident.
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting for SNES
August 13, 1993
Capcom releases Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting for the Super NES in the US. The Street Fighter II arcade game started the fighting game boom of the 1990’s, which spawned off other many other fighting game franchises such as Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter. The Super NES version brought Street Fighter II into the home and … um … college dorms where certain people spent many hours smacking down their dorm mates.
I still have this game so if anyone is feeling saucy, the smack downs can resume at any time.
Apple Passes $500 Billion Valuation
February 29, 2012
The stock value of Apple, Inc. surpasses $500 billion, setting a new record for the company which was already the world’s most valuable company at the time. This day marks a milestone on the historic run for the company from near-bankruptcy in the 1990’s to one of the most, if not the most, dominant technology company in recent history. Apple would later become the first company in history to surpass $700 billion in value in February 2015.
Tokyo Skytree Completed
February 29, 2012
Construction of the Tokyo Skytree broadcast tower, delayed two months due to the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, is completed on leap day – February 29th, 2012. The Tokyo Skytree is the tallest structure in Japan and the world’s tallest tower.