1843
The first typewriter designed by in the U.S. is patented by Charles Thurber of Norwich, Connecticut. (US No. 3,228) Thurber describes the device as a “machine for printing by hand by pressing upon keys which contain the type, called ‘Thurber’s Patent Printer.’” It's the first device to include a paper roller that moves longitudinally with accurate letter and word spacing.
1984
Judith Martin, who writes a syndicated column about personal etiquette under the pen name Miss Manners responds to a question concerning the use of a computer for the first time. In the column, a reader writes to ask about personal correspondence written on a word processor
and printed out on a dot-matrix printer. Miss Manners replies that it’s inappropriate to type out personal letters, that envelopes addressed using dot-matrix printers may be mistaken for sweepstakes entries, and that, if friends discover that portions of personal correspondence have been copied and pasted from other letters it would cause further social difficulties.
1997
The Crystal Space framework for developing 3D applications written in C++ is first publicly released by Jorrit Tyberghein as free software under the GNU Lesser General Public License. It will become very popular as a game engine.
1998
Be Inc. launches Release 3.2 of the BeOS operating system for personal computers running on Intel-compatible processors. The system includes an improved Web browser, improved Window file support, and support for Pentium and PowerPC processors.
CIH, also known as the Win95.CIH virus, which has infected hundreds of computers running Windows 95 and Windows 98 around the globe, strikes. The virus is programmed to attack on the twenty-sixth of every month, deleting files which cause systems to crash.
2002
After acquiring the Santa Cruz Operation's Server Software and Services divisions, Caldera International publicly announces that it will be changing its name to The SCO Group to reflect its shift in focus to developing UNIX systems.
Intel releases two new Pentium 4 processors with clockspeeds of 2.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz and 400MHz front-side buses. Price: US$243 and US$401 relatively in quantities of 1000.
Intel releases two new Pentium 4 processors with clockspeeds of 2.66 GHz and 2.8 GHz and 533 MHz front-side buses. Price: US$401 and US$508 relatively in quantities of 1000.
TeamSpeak Systems releases the first version of
the TeamSpeak voice over IP (VOIP) application that allows gamers to speak with other users through a chat channel while playing games online, especially MMORPG games. Communicating with TeamSpeak gives teams a competitive edge by allowing their members to communicate hands-free.
2003
Sun Microsystems releases version 2 (v1.4.2_01) of the Java programming language.