This week was a busy one in Tech History. From the introduction of the first air-conditioning system, to the launch of one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, Chris takes us on a trip into yesterday with “This Week in Tech History.”
This week in 1901 – Dr. Willis Carrier installed a commercial air conditioning system at a Brooklyn, NY printing plant. The system was the first to provide man-made control over temperature, humidity, ventilation and air quality. For the first two decades of the 20th Century, Carrier’s invention was used primarily to cool machines, not people.
In 1935 – The first automatic parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, OK. You could drive up and park for only a nickel in places where parking used to be free.
This week in 1960 – The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale. Over 50 million units were sold during the next 25 years.
In 1965 this week – The “Mariner IV” spacecraft sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars.
In 1969 –Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Ten years later, in 1979 – America’s first space station, Skylab, was destroyed as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
This week in 2003 – AOL Time Warner disbanded Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation – the organization behind the popular browser, Firefox, was established on the same day.
And this week in 2006 – Twitter was launched, becoming one of the largest social media platforms in the world.