1911 – Computer Pioneer Cuthbert Hurd Born
Cuthbert Hurd is born. Hurd was a mathematician hired directly by IBM President Thomas Watson Sr. in early 1949 and was only the second IBM employee hired with a PhD at the time. A figure generally unknown to history, Hurd quietly encouraged IBM upper management to enter into the computer field, convincing them in the early 1950s that a market for scientific computers existed after a cross-country sales trip revealed pent-up demand. At the time, IBM enjoyed large profits from its traditional punch card accounting business so the change was difficult for IBM to make internally. Hurd’s first great success was in selling10 of IBM’s 701 computers, its first commercial scientific machine, which rented for $18,000invented and developed the FORTRAN programming language under John Backus. Hurd died on May 22, 1996 in Portola Valley, California.
1951 – Dean Kamen was born in Rockville Centre, New York. He grew up to found DEKA Research in 1982 which developed a portable dialysis machine, a vascular stent, and the iBOT – a motorized wheelchair that climbs stairs. Oh and the Segway.
1995 – Security Administration Tool (SATAN) Released
The program is called the Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks. But you may call it SATAN. The Perl written program – Written by Dan Famer and Wietse Venema – was released to help network admins find vulnerabilities in their remote systems. There was a lot of controversy over the tool and it’s release, since it was the first user friendly tool. SATAN was never updated since, and has been replaced with Nessus and SAINT.
1998 – Long before texting or cell phones were considered a danger in the car, a driver in Marseilles, France was distracted by her Tamagotchi virtual pet. She ran into a group of cyclists killing one and injuring one other.
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