This Day In Information: Boston Computer Society Established

Today in 1977, 13-year-old Jonathan Rotenberg established the Boston Computer Society (BCS), an organization for personal computer users which will eventually grow into the largest such organization in the world. Continue reading

Posted in Computer history, Social Networks, This day in information | Leave a comment

This Day In Information: CBBS, First Social Network

Today in 1978, the first public dial-up Bulletin Board System, the Computerized Bulletin Board System, or CBBS, went online.

Continue reading

Posted in Computer history, Social Networks, This day in information | Leave a comment

This Day In Information: ENIAC Dedicated

Today in 1946,

Eckert, Mauchly, ENIAC

the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), was formally dedicated. Continue reading

Posted in Computer history, This day in information | 1 Comment

This Day in Information: Watson Renames CTR as IBM

Today in 1924, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) changed it name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). Continue reading

Posted in Computer history, IBM, This day in information | 3 Comments

Lost and Found: American Silent Films Back from Russia

PRI’s Lisa Mullins talks to Patrick Loughney, director of the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation about the return of priceless American silent films from Russia. Continue reading

Posted in Digitization, Film, Lost and Found, Preservation | Leave a comment

Political Satire: Early 19th Century Caricatures

Earlier this evening I enjoyed

by James Gillray

a Ticknor Society event in which Tom Michalak talked about early 19th century British caricatures, focusing on political caricatures and pamphlets about King George IV and Queen Caroline. Continue reading

Posted in Bibliophiles, News, Social Impact | Leave a comment

TDII (Extra!): First TV Transmission Across the Atlantic

Today in 1928, John Logie Baird transmited television pictures across the Atlantic, using a short-wave radio. Continue reading

Posted in Television, This day in information | Leave a comment

This Day In Information: First Nationwide Radio Hookup in the U.S.

Today in 1924, John Joseph Carty, Chief Engineer of AT&T, spoke on the first nationwide radio hookup in the United States. Continue reading

Posted in Radio, This day in information | Leave a comment

This Day In Information: First Sputnik Moment

Today in 1958, in response to the launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 four months earlier, the U.S. Department of Defense issued Directive 5105.15, establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Continue reading

Posted in Computer history, This day in information | Leave a comment

This Day In Information: The Telegraph RFP

Today in 1837, The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the Treasury Secretary, Levi Woodbury, to report to the House at its next session, “upon the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the United States.” Richard John in Network Nation: “Of the eighteen responses that Woodbury received, seventeen assumed that the telegraph would be optical and that its motive power would be human…. The only respondent to envision a different motive power was Samuel F. B. Morse… [who] proposed, instead, a new kind of telegraph of his own devising that would transmit information not by sight but, rather, by electrical impulses transmitted by wire.”

Posted in Telegraph, This day in information | 2 Comments