Today in Tech History – August 15

1877 – Thomas Edison Says “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
            How does the kid nursery rhyme play into technology? Well in 1877 these were the first words uttered out by Thomas Edison in making the first audio recording. Sometimes we take for granted audio – we have moved from Album to 8-Tracks, cassettes, CD’s, then finally MP3. But if it wasn’t for Thomas Edison’s work, we might not be at the high and easy levels of audio recording.

1960 – A long-distance phone link was tested using the Echo 1 satellite. William Victor placed a call from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Goldstone, California to William C. Jakes Jr. at the Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey, bouncing off the satellite to make the connection.

1994 – Programmer Suggest Bundling Internet explorer in Windows 95
            Microsoft Corp. decided to work to incorporate an Internet browser into upcoming Windows 95 operating system in an effort to catch up to the Internet bandwagon it had missed. On August 15, Windows 95 programmer Benjamin Slivka sent an e-mail to his coworkers suggesting a World Wide Web browser as a feature for Windows 95. Microsoft has faced legal challenges for the way it bundled the result of the project – Internet Explorer – with Windows software.

1998 – The Original iMac Goes on Sale
            After three months of anticipation, the original iMac G3 goes on sale. The “Bondi Blue” iMac became well-known for its colorful case, which bucked the industry norm beige. However, it is also known for being the first commercially successful computer to eliminate the use of legacy ports and the floppy drive. Widely criticized at the time for not including the older technologies, by only featuring USB ports for peripheral connectivity, the iMac helped popularize the emerging standard, even on Windows PCs. And when was the last time anyone saw a beige PC?
I recall helping my uncle purchase one of the first iMacs at a CompUSA store on that first day. There were only 15 available and we were there early enough to grab one before they quickly sold out. Yes, I was totally jealous but at least I got to help set it up.

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