1962: When The New York Times copy desk lets a typo slip through, it’s embarrassing but no one gets hurt. When NASA programmers screw up, the consequences are a tad more dramatic, not to mention expensive. In this case, a “missing hyphen” in code forces mission control to abort the launch of the unmanned Mariner [...]
Posts Tagged ‘20th century’
July 20, 1969: One Small Step … One Giant Leap …
July 20th, 2009 |
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1969: The Soviet Union was first to land a spacecraft on the moon, in 1959, but NASA’s Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to set foot on the lunar surface, realizing humanity’s age-old dream. And effectively winning the space race for the United States.
Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin left the Apollo 11 command module [...]
July 17, 1902: An Invention to Beat the Heat, Humidity
July 17th, 2009 |
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1902: With human comfort the last thing on his mind, a young mechanical engineer completes the schematic drawings for what will be the first successful air-conditioning system.
Willis Haviland Carrier, recently graduated from Cornell University and pulling down 10 bucks a week (about $260 in cold cash today) working for the Buffalo Forge heating company in [...]
July 13, 1937: Gibson Plugs In the Electric Guitar
July 13th, 2009 |
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1937: Guy Hart, general manager of the Gibson guitar company, is awarded the first patent for an electric guitar pickup. The instrument that defines popular music in the second half of the 20th century is born.
Gibson’s electric guitar wasn’t the first to market, but its pickup design was superior to competing models — especially after [...]
July 10, 1999: Reddi-wip Inventor Sputters Out
July 10th, 2009 |
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1999: Aaron S. “Bunny” Lapin, the inventor of pressure-can whipped cream, dies at age 85. His invention lives on.
Lapin started out as a clothing salesman, but saw some opportunity during World War II food rationing, when heavy cream for whipping was hard to get. He mixed light cream and vegetable oil to concoct Sta-Whip as [...]
July 9, 1958: Surf’s Up, as 1,700-Foot Wave Scours Alaskan Bay
July 9th, 2009 |
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1958: The tallest wave ever recorded — splashing nearly 500 feet taller than the Empire State Building — explodes down Lituya Bay in the Gulf of Alaska.
Lituya Bay is a T-shaped fjord on the coast of the Alaskan Panhandle, west of Glacier Bay and about 120 miles west-northwest of Juneau. It measures 7 miles long [...]
July 8, 1967: Buck Rogers Stops Here
July 8th, 2009 |
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1967: After almost 40 years in various published forms, the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century comic strip runs for the final time.
Calvin Coolidge was president when Rogers first blasted off. By the time the comic strip sailed into the great beyond, Twilight Zone had already been off the air for three years, and the [...]
July 6, 1947: The AK-47, an All-Purpose Killer
July 6th, 2009 |
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1947: The AK-47, one of the world’s first operational assault rifles and probably the most durable and enduring small-arms weapons ever made, goes into production in the Soviet Union. More than 60 years later, it remains the standard infantry weapon in numerous armies, and a mainstay in the arsenals of rebels, drug traffickers and terrorists [...]
July 2, 1982: Up, Up and Away With 42 Balloons
July 2nd, 2009 |
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1982: Frustrated in his dream of becoming an Air Force pilot, a southern California truck driver gets himself airborne anyway with the help of a lawn chair and 42 helium-filled weather balloons. Airborne, as in 16,000 feet worth of airborne.
Poor eyesight put the kibosh on Larry Walters‘ top-gun dreams, but the man was determined to [...]
July 1: A Television Trifecta
July 1st, 2009 |
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July 1: It’s a triple anniversary, a signal day in television history. The Federal Communications Commission was established this day in 1934. At the FCC’s behest, the NTSC television standard went into effect exactly seven years later. And that same day, a New York City station telecast the first legal TV commercial.
1934: The Federal Communications [...]
June 30, 1953: Corvette Adds Some Fiber, Flair to American Road
June 30th, 2009 |
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1953: Chevrolet introduces the Corvette. It’s a time when “new” and “Space Age” are the big buzzwords, and the Corvette fits the bill.
The Corvette featured a gorgeous body made entirely of a new wonder material called fiberglass, and it was the first production car made of the stuff.
There is only one truly American sports car, [...]
June 24, 1993: Concert Goes Live on NetJune 24, 2000: President Goes Live on Net
June 24th, 2009 |
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June 24: It’s the anniversary of two internet milestones: The geek band Severe Tire Damage performs the first live net concert on this date in 1993, and exactly seven years later Bill Clinton delivers the president’s weekend “radio address” by web for the first time.
1993: The internet was moving from military to mainstream, and [...]
June 19, 1964: Twilight Zone Fades Into Twilight Zone
June 19th, 2009 |
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1964: The final episode of the iconic thriller anthology, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, airs on CBS after a five-season run.
Though recognized to this day as a giant of science fiction, horror and suspense, Serling and his creative output could easily have been snuffed out by the Japanese army during World War II. The New [...]
June 18, 1981: Vaccine Puts Best Foot-and-Mouth Forward
June 18th, 2009 |
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1981: The U.S. government announces a new vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease. It’s welcomed by farmers, but would likely have become a historical footnote were it not for a technological caveat: The vaccine is genetically engineered.
Previous vaccines contained weakened or inactive strains of disease-causing viruses or bacteria. These provoked recipients’ immune systems into producing the antibodies [...]
June 17, 1947: Pan Am Launches ’Round-the-World Service
June 17th, 2009 |
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1947: Pan American World Airways begins the first regularly scheduled around-the-world passenger service.
Pan Am, already an innovator in passenger aviation, was the undisputed doyenne of American carriers when it began this unique worldwide service. Flight 001, originating in San Francisco, winged westward over the Pacific Ocean. A passenger boarding 001 at San Francisco Municipal Airport [...]
June 16, 1959: George Reeves, Superman, Felled by Speeding Bullet
June 16th, 2009 |
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1959: Los Angeles police arrive at the home of 45-year-old actor George Reeves, famous for his role as TV’s Superman, and find him naked and dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled as a suicide, Reeves’ death inspires a series of conspiracy theories and the interpretive biopic Hollywoodland, as well as [...]