The world’s second programme controlled machine, first images of earth from orbit and Jimmy Whales is born. All on today’s On This Day from TestHuddle.
1944 – Harvard Mark 1
IBM presents the Harvard Mark 1. The machine is only the second programme controlled machine in the world, having just being proceeded by Konrad Zuse’s Z3. The machine was built under the leadership of Professor Howard Aiken of Harvard University. The machine was built and financed by IBM.
1959 – First Images of Earth
The first photographs of the Earth from orbit are transmitted by the Explorer 6 satellite. The satellite was launched on August 7th 1959. It was fitted with a UHF transmitter for digital telemetry and for TV signal. Two VHF transmitters were used to transmit the analog signal. The fist images of earth from space were actually taken by a U.S. V2 rocket experiement on October 24, 1946.
1966 – Jimmy Whales is born
The co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Whales is born on this day in 1966. With Larry Sanger and others, on January 15, 2001, he launched Wikipedia. In 2006, Time magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
If you would like to add anything to these events, or know of other significant technology events that happened on this day in history, feel free to comment below.
Images: Wikipedia
