Today in Tech History – January 20

1885 – the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway Patent

             Sounding like anything but a roller coaster, the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway was the first American designed amusement coaster designed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson. Only 5 cents to ride, the Switchback was a simple coaster that took you about 600 feet to the next tower at six miles per hour. It had a height of 50 feet and a drop of 43 feet.

It opened on June 16, 1884 and eventually was replaced. But on this day, the roller coaster saw one of its first patents from the ride.

1929 – The movie In Old Arizona was released. It was the first full-length talking motion picture in the US to be filmed outdoors.

1934 – Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd., the photographic and electronics company known today as Fujifilm, was founded in Tokyo, Japan.

1970 – The Super Fight

              “The Super Fight”, a computerized, fictional boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano “took place” today. The fictional fight was created by filming Ali and Marciano acting out every possible scenario in a fight and the result was then determined using probability formulas entered into a computer. The final fight was only shown once in 1500 cinemas around the world and later released as a DVD.

1981 – The inauguration of US President Ronald Reagan became the world’s first broadcast to feature live teletext subtitles for the hearing impaired.

1985 – Don’t Call a Lemming a Lemming

             Apple airs their infamous Lemming commercial during Super Bowl XIX to launch their ill-fated “Macintosh Office” software. The ad was widely considered a failure because the commercial seemingly insulted its intended audience. Perhaps Microsoft should study their tech history before airing any more Windows Phone commercials?

1988 – IBM’s PS/2 Technology to be Cloned

             A group of small computer companies announces that they have succeeded in making microprocessors and software that would eventually allow clones of IBM’s PS/2 line of personal computers, which had recently been released. In response, IBM threatened legal action to protect its technology.

1999 – The Happy99 Worm Appears

              The Happy99 worm first appeared. It invisibly attached itself to emails, displayed fireworks to hide the changes being made, and wished the user a happy New Year. It was the first of a wave of malware that struck Microsoft Windows computers over the next several years, costing business and individuals’ untold amounts of money to resolve.

2017 – The inauguration of US President Donald Trump became the most widely-streamed news event to that time, According to Akamai. Live video streaming of the inauguration peaked at 8.7 Tbsp at 12:04 ET during the opening of President Trump’s speech. At its peak, 4.6 million concurrent viewers watched the inauguration.

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