This Day in Computer History: November 20

This Day in Computer History: November 20
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This Day in Computer History

1963

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s student newspaper made the earliest known use of the word “hacking” in print, marking its entry into the mainstream of computer science. In an article published on this day “The Tech” reported that, “Many telephone services have been curtailed because of so-called hackers, according to Prof. Carlton Tucker, administrator of the Institute phone system. […] The hackers have accomplished such things as tying up all the tie-lines between Harvard and MIT, or making long-distance calls by charging them to a local radar installation. One method involved connecting the PDP-1 computer to the phone system to search the lines until a dial tone, indicating an outside line, was found. […] Because of the ‘hacking,’ the majority of the MIT phones are ‘trapped.’”

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IBM introduced the IBM System/360 Model 20, which was the least expensive of the six computers in the widely used IBM System/360 line and which would go on to become the most popular.

1985

Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in four different versions: 1.01, 1.02, 1.03 and 1.04. Version 1.01 was distributed in the U.S. Version 1.02 was a multi-lingual version distributed globally in the most common European languages. Version 1.03 was distributed only in the U.S., but it included a range of drivers for popular European devices. Version 1.04 included support for the then-new VGA monitors. All versions provided a front-end to the MS-DOS operating system which provided a limited ability to multi-task. The OS would never become popular as it provided little in the way of innovation to the already widely used MS-DOS. Price: US $99.99.

1997

America Online (AOL) Studios acquired the sports content provider Extreme Fans, Inc.

1998

Amazon.com announced the approval of a three-for-one common stock split on Friday, December 18.

Sony unveiled its Memory Stick and memory card drive for digital cameras at the COMDEX trade show. The sticks feature an 8 MB storage capacity on a card only 1.5 inches long. Price US $40.

Touchstone Pictures released the suspense thriller Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman In the film, a defense lawyer becomes the target of a corrupt politician and a squad of NSA agents armed with a wide array of paranoia-inducing surveillance equipment after he unwittingly becomes the recipient of murder evidence. (MPAA Rating: R)

2000

Intel introduced Pentium 4 processors with clock speed of 1.4 and 1.5 GHz. Following the introduction, server major manufacturers released desktops featuring the new chips, including: Compaq, Dell, Gateway, and IBM. Code-name: Willamette. Price: US $819 and US $644 respectively.

2001

A Court in Amsterdam ordered the KaZaA peer-to-peer file sharing network to shut down within two weeks or pay a penalty of forty thousand dollars per day thereafter. However, come December, KaZaA would remain open, ignoring the order.

NeuStar takes on the duties of managing the .us top-level domain (TLD) of the internet.

This post is part of the series: A Chronology of Computer History for the Month of November: This Day in Computer History

This series provides a daily account of what happened on this day in the history of computing and technology. It discusses developments, breaking news, new releases and global implications that occurred as a result of these ground breaking events.

  1. This Day in Computer History: November 4
  2. This Day in Computer History: November 5
  3. This Day in Computer History: November 6
  4. This Day in Computer History: November 7
  5. This Day in Computer History: November 9
  6. This Day in Computer History: November 10
  7. This Day in Computer History: November 11
  8. This Day in Computer History: November 12
  9. This Day in Computer History: November 13
  10. This Day in Computer History: November 14
  11. This Day in Computer History: November 15
  12. This Day in Computer History: November 16
  13. This Day in Computer History: November 17
  14. This Day in Computer History: November 18
  15. This Day in Computer History: November 19
  16. This Day in Computer History: November 20
  17. This Day in Computer History: November 21
  18. This Day in Computer History: November 22
  19. This Day in Computer History: November 24
  20. This Day in Computer History: November 25
  21. This Day in Computer History: November 26
  22. This Day in Computer History: November 27
  23. This Day in Computer History: November 28
  24. This Day in Computer History: November 29
  25. This Day in Computer History: November 30