The first automobile is unveiled, Sony introduces a popular music player, and Apple releases a product that completely revolutionizes an industry… It all happened This Week in Tech History.
This week in 1886 – Karl Benz – of Mercedes-Benz fame officially unveiled the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile.
1921 – Documents were signed forming the Radio Corporation of America, better known as RCA. RCA soon rivaled its main competitor, General Electric.
1948 – The transistor was invented by three Bell Laboratory scientists in Murray Hill, NJ. This invention made possible countless other products, including the insanely popular transistor radio, billions of which have been sold since their release.
1979 – Sony introduced the Walkman, arguably the most popular music player up until the release of the Apple iPod in 2001
1995 – For the first time, a U.S. space shuttle linked up with a Russian space station. Space Shuttle Atlantis remained joined to the Mir space station until July 4. The joined craft were visible from earth as a fast-moving, shiny, star and carried a record 10 people (6 Americans and 4 Russians).
2005 – Internet search leader Google unveiled its free 3-D satellite mapping technology, Google Earth.
And this week in 2007 – Apple released the very first iPhone – a device that pretty much revolutionized the smartphone industry.