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Author Archives: GilPress
“It Shines for All”: Newspapers in America
Today in 1833, the first issue of the The New York Sun was published. Steven Lubar in InfoCulture: “New technology, in fact, came along after (italics mine) the renaissance of the newspaper. The New York Sun was the first ‘penny paper,’ … Continue reading
Posted in News, Newspapers, Social Impact, This day in information
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Cash Flow
Today in 1969, Chemical Bank installed the first ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York. The first ATMs were designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card. A … Continue reading
Posted in Digitization, This day in information
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Copy Rights
Today in 1486, the republic of Venice granted its first privilege to an author for a specific book (a history of Venice), the Decades rerum Venetarum by Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus, securing protection against illegal replication. Sabellico’s privilege set the precedent for the … Continue reading
Posted in Copyrights, This day in information
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Radio News
Today in 1920, station 8MK (today’s WWJ) in Detroit, Michigan, aired the first radio news program. Today, according to SBD, 45% of listeners in the USA rely on their smart phones to access Internet radio.
Posted in Radio, This day in information
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Online Education
According to a new Pew Research Center report, just three-in-ten American adults (29%) say a course taken online provides an equal educational value to one taken in a classroom. By contrast, about half of college presidents (51%) say online courses … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Social Impact
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First Tornado Photograph
Today in 1884, the first known photograph of a tornado was taken near Howard, South Dakota. The tornado may have inspired L. Frank Baum to include one in his book, The Wizard of Oz, for he was a news reporter in nearby Aberdeen.
Posted in Photography, This day in information
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“Television” Coined
Today in 1900, Constantin Perskyi, Professor of Electricity at the Artillery Academy of Saint Petersburg, coined the word “television” in a paper read at the International World Fair in Paris at the 1st International Congress of Electricity.
Posted in Television, This day in information
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Apple: Welcome, IBM. Seriously.
Thirty years ago today, Apple Computer ran a full-page ad in the The Wall Street Journal, twelve days after IBM entered the personal computer market with the launch of the IBM PC.
Posted in Computer history, PCs, This day in information
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Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing
[Originally appeared on this blog on October 12, 2010] Today in 1988, Steve Jobs unveiled the NeXT Computer at Symphony Hall in San Francisco. A day or two later, I was among a standing-room only crowd at Boston’s Symphony Hall admiring the … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history
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Animation Milestones
Today in 1908, the first animated cartoon, Fantasmagorie, was released. The film (watch it on YouTube) was created by Émile Cohl by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, which gave the picture a … Continue reading
Posted in Film, This day in information
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The Story of Information 