The first electric shaver is introduced, the first solar-powered satellite is launched, and Apple releases the Power Macintosh… It all happened This Week in Tech History.
This week in 1931 – Schick Dry Shaver, Inc, displayed the first electric shaver in Stamford, CT. This early electric razor did not meet widespread acceptance.
1958 – The U.S. Navy launched the Vanguard 1 satellite. It was the first solar-powered satellite and was used to measure the shape of Earth. Although communication with the satellite was lost in 1964, it remains the oldest man-made object still in orbit, together with the upper stage of its launch vehicle.
1985 – IBM announced that it was planning to stop making the PCjr consumer-oriented computer. The machine had been expected to dominate the home computer market but didn’t quite live up to those expectations. In the 16 months that the PCjr was on the market, only 240,000 units were sold.
1994 – Apple Computer introduced the Power Macintosh. The machine featured a 60 MHz PowerPC 601 (60 MHz) processor, 8/16 MB of RAM, and a 160/250 MB hard drive in a compact, desktop case.
And this week in 2008 – Airbus’s A380, the world’s biggest passenger plane, touched down in London on its first commercial flight to Europe.