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This Week in Tech History: Introduction of the Jet Airliner & First E-mail Spam

On this edition of "This Week in Tech History", Chris takes us back to 1952 or the introduction of the world's first jet airliner. He also tells us of the first unsolicited e-mail message, later known as spam.

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GramophoneThis week in 1851 – Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola, FL patented the mechanical refrigerator.

1886 – The first practical phonograph, better known as the gramophone, was patented.

1952 – The world’s first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden flight, from London to Johannesburg.BEA_de_Havilland_DH-106_Comet_4B_Berlin

1964 – TV sets would be drastically different after a ruling by the FCC stating that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF channels (2-13) and the new UHF channels (14-83). As a result, TV dealers scrambled to unload their VHF-only models as fast as possible. Antenna manufacturers were kept busy, as the new UHF receivers required new antennas too.

uhf6-resizeIn 1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as “spam”) was sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.

1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.

And this week in 2000 – President Bill Clinton announced that accurate access to the GPS system, developed by the Department of Defense, would no longer be restricted to the United States military – paving the way for our modern GPS navigation devices.

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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