Today in Tech History – April 6

1917 – Following a declaration of War against Germany, President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order closing all radio communication not required by the US Navy.

1965 – Hughes Aircraft’s Early Bird launched into orbit. It was the first communications satellite to be placed in synchronous orbit and successfully demonstrated the concept of synchronous satellites for commercial communication.

1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey

               2001: A Space Odyssey actually premiered in Washington DC on April 2^nd, New York and Los Angles on April 4^th. It was April 6^th that was the major theatrical release date for the US. This Stanley Kubrick classic won an Oscar for best visual effects and was nominated for best director, best art direction and best writing, story and screenplay. For any Sci-Fi geek, this is an important movie in the genre. It was also known as “How the Solar System Was Won” and “Journey Beyond the Stars” (working titles).

1973 – NASA launched the Pioneer 11 spacecraft, the second mission to investigate Jupiter and the outer solar system and the first to explore the planet Saturn and its main rings.

1992 – Microsoft Releases Windows 3.1

             Microsoft Corporation releases Windows 3.1, an operating system that provided IBM and IBM-compatible PCs with a graphical user interface for PCs). Retail price was $149.00. In replacing the previous DOS command line interface with its Windows System, however, Microsoft created a program similar to the Macintosh operating system, and was sued by Apple for copyright infringement (Microsoft later prevailed in this suit).

Windows 3.1 added multimedia extensions allowing support for sound cards, MIDI, and CD Audio, Super VGA (800X600) monitors, and increased the speed of modem it would support to 9600 bps. It also finally abandoned “Real Mode,” a vestigial environment dating back to the 8086 CPU. It provided scalable fonts and trapped the “three finger salute” (CTRL-ALT-DEL), prompting the user to avoid inadvertent re-boots. It also refined its OLE (Object Linking and embedding) concept, allowing users to cut and paste between applications.

2010 – Xiaomi, maker of fashionable affordable Android-based smartphones, was founded in Beijing, China.

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