This Day in Computer History: September 24

Quick Take

Today marks the anniversary of robotics pioneer Honda’s founding and the return of the first robot to fly solo to the Moon. Read about these events and more in “This Day in Computer History”, a chronology of notable events in the computer, ecommerce, and software industries on this day in history.

On this page

This Day in Computer History

1948

The Honda Motor Company was founded. It will later become one of the principal developers of popular robotic technologies.

1970

The Luna 16 robotic probe completes the first unmanned Moon mission to return lunar samples.

1979

CompuServe, the first computer information service, was launched.

1980

One of Japan’s largest newspapers, The Asahi Shimbun, became the first publication to be printed using an entirely automated process and was touted as being “untouched by human hands.”

1986

Computer manufacturer Honeywell announced that it was tentatively exploring the possibility of a merger with NEC of Japan or Groupe Bull of France in an attempt to bolster its position in the market. The maneuver comes in response to IBM’s increasing dominance of the market following the release of the PC, during which time Honeywell’s marketshare dropped by thirty-seven percent.

1993

The world’s first webcomic, David Farley’s Doctor Fun, was first posted. Earlier webcomics, including Where the Buffalo Roam, were circulated via electronic mediums, such as Usenet, beginning in 1991, but Doctor Fun is the first in the long tradition of comics posted to the web. Doctor Fun, which was sometimes compared to The Far Side, would run for 520 strips, unit June 9, 2006.

1996

Netscape Communications released version 3.0 of the Netscape Navigator web browser in two editions: Personal and Gold Personal. Price: US $50 and US $80

1997

The United States Federal Trade Commission announced that it had launched an investigation into Intel’s alleged illegal practice of restricting sales of processors to manufacturers who deal with competitors’ products.

1998

eBay, Inc. made an initial public offering (IPO) of over nine million shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange at the initial price of eighteen dollars a share. By the end of the day’s trading, the value of the company will rise by $29.375 a share.

1999

Space Imaging launched the world’s first commercial high-resolution photo satellite, hyped in the media as the first big-business “spy” satellite. The satellite was capable of taking photos at a resolution of four meters, along with multispectral (MS) and panchromatic (PAN) photos. The New York Times called the landmark “one of the most significant developments in the history of the space age.”

Yahoo! launches Yahoo! China.

2003

One thousand loan applications that were left entirely unsecured were exposed in on the Dealerskins website, a host for car dealership websites. The scandal was well-covered in the media, and CNN will cite the blunder in its article covering on the “Dumbest Moments in Business” at the end of the year.

2007

PC-BSD 1.4 was released. The Unix-like operating system was designed to be easy to install and ready to use.

WinRAR 3.71 was released.

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

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

This Day in Computer History: September 24

This Day in Computer History

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

More from Tech