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Dantheman62 · 01-09-2009, 04:52 AM

Here's some geek facts for you to read.

648 B.C.
The first know record of a total solar eclipse is made by the Greeks.
1869
Celluloid becomes the first plastic to be patented. Read more about the history of plastic.
1876
The American Chemical Society is founded by a group of thirty-five chemists who meet at the University Building of New York University. Visit the official American Chemical Society website.
1889
George Eastman releases the first Kodak Camera to stores.
1906

First animated cartoon film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, by J. Stuart Blackton, is copyrighted in the US. Despite the film’s rough use of simple animated chalkboard drawings, it is a revolutionary achievement. Watch Humorous Phases of Funny Faces in your browser at Wikipedia. Read more about the history of Animation at Animated Divots. IMDB listing Running Time: 3 mins

1925

Imperial Airways becomes the first airline to show a film on a scheduled flight. The first film shown is First National’s classic silent film, The Lost World. IMDB listing
1930
Executive James Dewar of Hostess invents Twinkies, small shortcake treats filled with banana cream filling. Visit the official Twinkie website.
1931
Experimental television station W2XCD of Passaic, New Jersey, operated by the De Forest Radio Corporation, broadcasts the first of six daily installments of the full-length feature film Police Patrol. It is the first full-length film to be broadcast by a television station.
The Little Orphan Annie radio series premieres on WGN in Chicago, sponsored by Ovaltine. The show will eventually graduate to a national audience on the NBC Blue Network. The fifteen minute episodes air six days a week at 5:45pm. It will grow in popularity until October 30, 1936, when Shirley Bell Cole, who played the part of Annie, quit the show over a contract dispute.
1936
Universal Pictures releases the first of thirteen episodes of the science fiction serial Flash Gordon, directed by Frederick Stephani and starring Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton, Priscilla Lawson, and Frank Shannon, to US theaters. The serial was produced on a budget of US$350,000. IMDB listing Running Time: 4 hrs 5 mins
1938
Du Pont researcher Roy J. Plunkett discovers Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), later renamed Teflon. Plunkett and his lab assistant Jack Rebok were researching the chemical reactions of the gas perfluoroethylene when he discovered an apparently defective cylinder of the gas with the same weight as the other full cylinders. Inside the cylinder, they discovered a slippery white powder with unusual chemical properties, such as being an exceptional dry lubricant and having a very high melting point, PTFE. Visit the official Teflon website.

1953
Universal Pictures releases the science fiction comedy film Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, directed by Charles Lamont and starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Mari Blanchard, and Dudley Dickerson, is released to US theaters. The film was produced on a budget of US$762,000. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 17 mins
1954
Swanson & Sons puts the first TV Dinner on sale. Visit the official Swanson TV Dinner website.
1955
The New York Times publishes a page-length column reporting the discovery of Carnegie Institute astronomers Bernard F. Burke and Kenneth L. Franklin that the planet Jupiter emits radio waves resembling short bursts of static like those which interfere with radios during lightning storms. It is the first time that radio waves have ever been detected emanating from any planet within the solar system. The discover was announced at the semi-annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Princeton, New Jersey.

1965
Intelsat 1 (Early Bird), the first commercial communications satellite to be placed into a geostationary orbit is launched from Cape Canaveral, following the Russian’s earlier launch of the “WORM” test satellite. Visit the official Early Bird website.
1967
The Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” first airs. (No. 28) In it, the Enterprise discover a portal that leads to other places in time, and McCoy accidentally enters and alters Earth history. Kirk and Spock follow him in order to stop the Nazis from winning World War II. The first draft of the episode was written by acclaimed author Harlan Ellison, who receives credit, however, the screenplay was edited several times before being finalized. Memory Alpha entry

1968
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer releases the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, and Douglas Rain, is released to US theaters, four days after its April 3rd premiere at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C. It will be nominated for four Academy Awards and win one for Best Visual Effects. Produced on a budget of US$12 million, the film based on the Arthur C. Clarke novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: G Running Time: 2 hrs 19 mins
1969
The final episode the science fiction Western The Wild Wild West, “The Night of the Plague,” airs on CBS, after four seasons and 104 episodes. The series follows two Secret Service agents through the old west as they foil the schemes of madmen using a wide array of unlikely gizmos. The series is notable among geeks for its gratuitous use of gadgets. TV.com entry
1973
NASA launches the Pioneer 11 spacecraft on a mission to investigate the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Unlike Pioneer 10, which only explored Jupiter, Pioneer 11 will use Jupiter’s mass as a gravitational slingshot to alter its trajectory to a path towards Saturn. On September 1, 1979, Pioneer 11 will become the first space probe to perform a flyby of Saturn, passing within 21,000km of the planet’s cloud tops. Visit the official Pioneer Project website.
1987
The anime series City Hunter premieres on Animax and Yomiuri TV in Japan. It will run for four season and a total of 140 episodes.
1990
Tecmo releases Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in Japan.
1992
At the Comdex/Windows World conference held in Chicago, Illinois the Microsoft Corporation introduces the Windows 3.1 operating system, which provides IBM and IBM-compatible computers a graphical user interface (GUI). Windows 3.1 features improved support for CD Audio, MIDI, modems with speed up to 9600bps, sound cards, and Super VGA monitors. The operating system abandons “Real Mode,” a vestigial environment dating back to the Intel 8086 processors. It introduces scalable TrueType fonts and the Control-Alt-Delete command (also known as the “three finger salute”), and it refines the object Linking and embedding (OLE) concept, allowing users to cut and paste data and objects between applications. In total, the software is comprised of over three million lines of code. Price: US$149.00

Konami releases the run and gun Contra III: The Alien Wars for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in North America. Visit the official Contra 3 website. ESRB: E (Everyone)
1993
The explosion of a radioactive waste tank at the Siberian Group of Chemical Enterprises military research facility at Tomsk-7 releases an enormous radioactive cloud over Russia 1,700 miles east of Moscow. It is the worst nuclear accident in the country since the incident at Chernobyl in April 1986. Read more about Tomsk-7 at the Global Security website.
1994
Namco releases Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
1997
Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) releases the racing game 2 Xtreme for the PlayStation in Europe.
1998
BBC Books publishes the science fiction novel The Hollow Men by Martin Day and Keith Topping. (ISBN 0-563-40582-1) It features the seventh Doctor. Outpost Gallifrey entry Length: 288 pages
Jasc Software releases version 5.0 of Corel Paint Shop Pro for Windows. This version features several improvements in its user interface and, for the first time, support for layers. As the lack of an ability to work with layers was the application’s major disadvantage in the graphical editing software market, version 5.0 is a major advance. Visit the official Paint Shop Pro website.
1999
Del Rey releases the fantasy novel Enchantment by Orson Scott Card as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0345416872) It is the story of a Ukraine-born, American graduate student who is transported to the ninth century to take on the role of the prince in a Russian version of Sleeping Beauty. Visit the author’s official website. Length: 400 pages
International Business Machines (IBM) introduces the RS/6000 Model H70 as the world’s fastest 64-bit, four-way web server. The server, designed to host ecommerce sites, bench tests at 11,774 hits per second.

01-09-2009, 04:52 AM	#125
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: _AVALON LOUNGE_ Open 24 hours Here's some geek facts for you to read. 648 B.C. The first know record of a total solar eclipse is made by the Greeks. 1869 Celluloid becomes the first plastic to be patented. Read more about the history of plastic. 1876 The American Chemical Society is founded by a group of thirty-five chemists who meet at the University Building of New York University. Visit the official American Chemical Society website. 1889 George Eastman releases the first Kodak Camera to stores. 1906 First animated cartoon film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, by J. Stuart Blackton, is copyrighted in the US. Despite the film’s rough use of simple animated chalkboard drawings, it is a revolutionary achievement. Watch Humorous Phases of Funny Faces in your browser at Wikipedia. Read more about the history of Animation at Animated Divots. IMDB listing Running Time: 3 mins 1925 Imperial Airways becomes the first airline to show a film on a scheduled flight. The first film shown is First National’s classic silent film, The Lost World. IMDB listing 1930 Executive James Dewar of Hostess invents Twinkies, small shortcake treats filled with banana cream filling. Visit the official Twinkie website. 1931 Experimental television station W2XCD of Passaic, New Jersey, operated by the De Forest Radio Corporation, broadcasts the first of six daily installments of the full-length feature film Police Patrol. It is the first full-length film to be broadcast by a television station. The Little Orphan Annie radio series premieres on WGN in Chicago, sponsored by Ovaltine. The show will eventually graduate to a national audience on the NBC Blue Network. The fifteen minute episodes air six days a week at 5:45pm. It will grow in popularity until October 30, 1936, when Shirley Bell Cole, who played the part of Annie, quit the show over a contract dispute. 1936 Universal Pictures releases the first of thirteen episodes of the science fiction serial Flash Gordon, directed by Frederick Stephani and starring Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, Charles Middleton, Priscilla Lawson, and Frank Shannon, to US theaters. The serial was produced on a budget of US$350,000. IMDB listing Running Time: 4 hrs 5 mins 1938 Du Pont researcher Roy J. Plunkett discovers Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), later renamed Teflon. Plunkett and his lab assistant Jack Rebok were researching the chemical reactions of the gas perfluoroethylene when he discovered an apparently defective cylinder of the gas with the same weight as the other full cylinders. Inside the cylinder, they discovered a slippery white powder with unusual chemical properties, such as being an exceptional dry lubricant and having a very high melting point, PTFE. Visit the official Teflon website. 1953 Universal Pictures releases the science fiction comedy film Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, directed by Charles Lamont and starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Mari Blanchard, and Dudley Dickerson, is released to US theaters. The film was produced on a budget of US$762,000. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 17 mins 1954 Swanson & Sons puts the first TV Dinner on sale. Visit the official Swanson TV Dinner website. 1955 The New York Times publishes a page-length column reporting the discovery of Carnegie Institute astronomers Bernard F. Burke and Kenneth L. Franklin that the planet Jupiter emits radio waves resembling short bursts of static like those which interfere with radios during lightning storms. It is the first time that radio waves have ever been detected emanating from any planet within the solar system. The discover was announced at the semi-annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Princeton, New Jersey. 1965 Intelsat 1 (Early Bird), the first commercial communications satellite to be placed into a geostationary orbit is launched from Cape Canaveral, following the Russian’s earlier launch of the “WORM” test satellite. Visit the official Early Bird website. 1967 The Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” first airs. (No. 28) In it, the Enterprise discover a portal that leads to other places in time, and McCoy accidentally enters and alters Earth history. Kirk and Spock follow him in order to stop the Nazis from winning World War II. The first draft of the episode was written by acclaimed author Harlan Ellison, who receives credit, however, the screenplay was edited several times before being finalized. Memory Alpha entry 1968 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer releases the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, and Douglas Rain, is released to US theaters, four days after its April 3rd premiere at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C. It will be nominated for four Academy Awards and win one for Best Visual Effects. Produced on a budget of US$12 million, the film based on the Arthur C. Clarke novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. IMDB listing MPAA Rating: G Running Time: 2 hrs 19 mins 1969 The final episode the science fiction Western The Wild Wild West, “The Night of the Plague,” airs on CBS, after four seasons and 104 episodes. The series follows two Secret Service agents through the old west as they foil the schemes of madmen using a wide array of unlikely gizmos. The series is notable among geeks for its gratuitous use of gadgets. TV.com entry 1973 NASA launches the Pioneer 11 spacecraft on a mission to investigate the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Unlike Pioneer 10, which only explored Jupiter, Pioneer 11 will use Jupiter’s mass as a gravitational slingshot to alter its trajectory to a path towards Saturn. On September 1, 1979, Pioneer 11 will become the first space probe to perform a flyby of Saturn, passing within 21,000km of the planet’s cloud tops. Visit the official Pioneer Project website. 1987 The anime series City Hunter premieres on Animax and Yomiuri TV in Japan. It will run for four season and a total of 140 episodes. 1990 Tecmo releases Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in Japan. 1992 At the Comdex/Windows World conference held in Chicago, Illinois the Microsoft Corporation introduces the Windows 3.1 operating system, which provides IBM and IBM-compatible computers a graphical user interface (GUI). Windows 3.1 features improved support for CD Audio, MIDI, modems with speed up to 9600bps, sound cards, and Super VGA monitors. The operating system abandons “Real Mode,” a vestigial environment dating back to the Intel 8086 processors. It introduces scalable TrueType fonts and the Control-Alt-Delete command (also known as the “three finger salute”), and it refines the object Linking and embedding (OLE) concept, allowing users to cut and paste data and objects between applications. In total, the software is comprised of over three million lines of code. Price: US$149.00 Konami releases the run and gun Contra III: The Alien Wars for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in North America. Visit the official Contra 3 website. ESRB: E (Everyone) 1993 The explosion of a radioactive waste tank at the Siberian Group of Chemical Enterprises military research facility at Tomsk-7 releases an enormous radioactive cloud over Russia 1,700 miles east of Moscow. It is the worst nuclear accident in the country since the incident at Chernobyl in April 1986. Read more about Tomsk-7 at the Global Security website. 1994 Namco releases Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). 1997 Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) releases the racing game 2 Xtreme for the PlayStation in Europe. 1998 BBC Books publishes the science fiction novel The Hollow Men by Martin Day and Keith Topping. (ISBN 0-563-40582-1) It features the seventh Doctor. Outpost Gallifrey entry Length: 288 pages Jasc Software releases version 5.0 of Corel Paint Shop Pro for Windows. This version features several improvements in its user interface and, for the first time, support for layers. As the lack of an ability to work with layers was the application’s major disadvantage in the graphical editing software market, version 5.0 is a major advance. Visit the official Paint Shop Pro website. 1999 Del Rey releases the fantasy novel Enchantment by Orson Scott Card as a hardcover. (ISBN-13: 978-0345416872) It is the story of a Ukraine-born, American graduate student who is transported to the ninth century to take on the role of the prince in a Russian version of Sleeping Beauty. Visit the author’s official website. Length: 400 pages International Business Machines (IBM) introduces the RS/6000 Model H70 as the world’s fastest 64-bit, four-way web server. The server, designed to host ecommerce sites, bench tests at 11,774 hits per second.