Today in Tech History – June 28

1928 – Austrian Friedrich Schmiedl launched his first experimental rocket from a balloon 50,000 feet over Graz, Austria. The rocket was not recovered, but later tests were successful leading to rocket delivered mail.

1955 – Laying of First Transatlantic Telephone Cable

             The HMTS Monarch, the largest cable laying ship in the world at the time, launches from Clarenville, Newfoundland to begin laying TAT-1, the first Transatlantic telephone cable. TAT-1 would be inaugurated 15 months later on September 25, 1965. TAT-1 may be best known for carrying the famous “hot line” between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

1965 – First Commercial Communication Satellite Activates

             Intelsat I, the first commercial communication satellite, is activated for service. It was nicknamed “Early Bird” after the famous proverb, and became famous for carrying the first commercial telephone call between America and Europe, as well as helping provide TV coverage of the Gemini 6 splashdown.

1974 – Vannevar Bush Dies

             Mathematician, scientist and computer pioneer Vannevar Bush died. Bush was born in Everett, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1890. Also deeply involved with wartime computer projects, Bush invented an electromechanical differential analyzer before the war.

1982 – Microsoft unveiled a new corporate logo with the famous “blibbet” of horizontal lines in the first O. New packaging, and a comprehensive set of retail dealer support materials came along with the blibbet.

1999 – HydraBBS software was released.

2011 – Google announced their latest social network attempt. Google+ let you put friends in circles and share different things with different circles.

2014 - Aereo Shuts Down

             Trying to be the first provider of over-the-air channels, Aereo was told to shut down completely after a supreme court decision went against the company.

The idea was simple – take the over-the-air network channels and offer them on the internet. Based in New York, the company opened services in 24 different cities. You could only watch the programming of your area on your PC, Mac or Linux. There were around 28 channels you could choose from and pricing was simply $1 a day.

Aereo was faced with many legal issues, including the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition act. The rebroadcast through the service undermined cable retransmission fees. It was also a wake-up call as after the fact, many cable providers started offering live streaming options.

 

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