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This week in 1893 – Commercial production of the Addressograph, created by Joseph Smith Duncan, started in Chicago, Illinois. The addressograph was an early form of labeling system.
1914 – The first transcontinental telephone service was inaugurated when two people held a conversation between New York and San Francisco.
In 1925 – Station 2XAG in Schenectady, NY became the first radio station in the U.S. to broadcast with a 50,000-watt transmitter. The station, soon known as WGY Radio, could broadcast with 50,000 watts, since it was owned by the General Electric Company — a company that knew lots about watts.
1958 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, effectively creating NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
1963 – Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.
1971 – Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin became the first to ride in a lunar rover, often referred to as the “moon buggy.” Their first stop on their five mile journey, at the rim of Elbow Crater was televised back to Earth to millions of viewers.
And this week in 1998 – Bell Atlantic and GTE announced a nearly 53 billion dollar stock-swap deal to create the second-largest telephone company — behind AT&T. The resulting mega-corporation would later to be named Verizon Communications.