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This Week in Tech History: First Automatic Parking Garage & Last Apollo Mission

On This edition of "This Week in Tech History," Chris takes a look at the first push-button controlled parking garage, the last Apollo Mission and the beginnings o fthe International Space Station.

1884_Iolanthe_BijouTheatre_Boston
Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe at the Bijou Theatre, 1884

This week in 1882 – The Bijou Theatre in Boston, MA became the first theatre to be lighted by electricity.

1951 – The first push button-controlled garage opened in Washington, DC. A single attendant, without entering a car, could automatically park or return an auto to or from the ‘Park-O-Mat’ in less than a minute.

Univac1107
UNIVAC 1107 Computer

in 1960 – Sperry Rand Corporation of St. Paul, MN unveiled a new computer, known as Univac 1107. The electronic wizard employed what was known as thin-film memory.

in 1967 – The French prototype Concorde was rolled out in France. The joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, took two more years of testing and fine-tuning the powerful engines before it made its maiden flight.

1972 – Apollo 17, The last Apollo moon mission, was launched. The crew took the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they left the Earth.

Endeavour
Endeavour, docked to Unity, moves the Zarya spacecraft into position for mating

And this week in 1998 – Astronauts on the U.S. space shuttle “Endeavour” completed the most difficult task of their 12-day mission, mating modules from Russia and the United States to create the first two building blocks of International Space Station.

Written by Chris Graveline

Chris has covered consumer technology for over 20 years. He is the host of This Week in Tech History as well as a regular co-host on "Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline" and our Technical Director.

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