1909 – Mathematics Pioneer Ulam Born
Stan Ulam, a mathematician who did early theoretical work on the use of computers in mathematics, is born in Poland. Ulam teaches at Harvard and the University of Wisconsin before joining the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he meets John von Neumann. There, Ulam and von Neumann discuss using computers to understand questions of pure mathematics. Based on the ENIAC experience, Ulam suggested to von Neumann that neutron diffusion and related chain reactions were natural applications and just as quickly outlined a procedure to implement the notion.
1960 – The United States launched Navy Transit 1-B. it demonstrated the first engine restart in space and more famously the feasibility of using satellites as navigational aids, proving systems like GPS would work.
You may have heard about Moore’s Law. This states that every 18 months, a processor will double in speed. The law’s name is coined after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore. He said
It can’t continue forever. The nature of the exponential is that you push them out and eventually disaster happens.
The law started with the Integrated circuit. It has continued to this day – especially since we switched ideas and, instead of speeding up, we double the amount of processors.
An oxygen tank aboard the Service Module of Apollo 13 explodes. Moments later, astronaut Jack Swigert announces the later-famous phrase, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” The explosion cripples the spacecrafts, resulting in a near-complete loss of electricity and oxygen. The oxygen leak will force the crew to abandon the command module for the lunar module as a makeshift “lifeboat” becoming stranded for four days, more than two hundred thousand miles from Earth, while NASA plans the most spectacular rescue mission in U.S. space history. Against all odds, the three astronauts will return safely back to earth.
The heavy metal group Metallica sues Napster, alleging copyright infringement and racketeering. This lawsuit, later joined by Dr. Dre, as well as other lawsuits from the RIAA, eventually caused the original Napster service to shut down and file bankruptcy. However, the Pandora’s Box that Napster opened could not be closed and digital distribution changed the music industry forever.
As for Metallica, their reputation was tarnished for some time by this move. Ironically, Metallica owed much of their early popularity to the spread of unauthorized copies of their early albums. As the heavy metal genre in general and Metallica in particular did not get much airplay at that time, it was reported that Metallica quietly encouraged the free spread of their music in the early 80’s. Therefore many viewed Metallica’s action against Napster as hypocritical and greedy.
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