Today in Tech History – July 9

1941 – British cryptologists including Alan Turing broke the code used by the German army to direct ground-to-air operation on the eastern front.

1971 – Marc Andreessen was born in Cedar Falls, lowa. He would grow up to develop the Netscape browser, which powered the explosion of the Web in the late 1990s.

1979 – Voyager 2 made its closet approach to Jupiter, coming within 570,000 kilometers of the planet.

1981 – Donkey Kong and Mario’s Birthday

             The game that launched two of the famous characters in video game history is released for sale. Donkey Kong was created by Nintendo, a Japanese playing card and Toy Company turned fledgling video game developer, who was trying to create a hit game for the North American market. Unable at the time to acquire a license to create a video game based on the Popeye character, Nintendo decides to create a game mirroring the characteristics and rivalry of Popeye and Bluto. Donkey Kong is named after the game’s villain, a pet gorilla gone rogue. The game’s hero is originally called Jumpman, but is retroactively renamed Mario once the game becomes popular and Nintendo decides to use the character in future games.

Due to the similarity between Donkey Kong and King Kong, Universal Studios sued Nintendo claiming Donkey Kong violated their trademark. Kong, however, is common Japanese slang for gorilla. The lawsuit was ruled in favor of Nintendo. The success of Donkey Kong helped Nintendo become one of the dominant companies in the video game market.

1982 – Tron Movie and Video Game Released

             Disney released Tron, the first mainstream film to use extensive computer-generated graphics and special effect. Starring Jeff Bridges, the film also had a computer-related plot in which a programmer is transported into a computer to flight a program called Master Control and replace it with the more reliable Tron system.

1997 – Gil Amelio Ousted from Apple

             Apple Computer announces the resignation of Gil Amelio as CEO. Having been ousted by the board of directors, Amelio’s departure paved the way for Steve Jobs to re-take the helm of Apple. Ironically, it was Amelio who brought jobs back into the fold of Apple by purchasing jobs’ company NeXT to use as the basis for the next Mac operating system.

2008 – Secret Diary of Steve Jobs shuts down.

2009 – Microsoft releases Silverlight 3.

 

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