Radio is born, the precursor to the Internet makes its first connection between two computers and High Definition Television is launched… with another type of launch… It all happened This Week in Tech History.
This week in 1920 – KDKA of Pittsburgh began broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the 1920 presidential election.
1925 – If you put everything into it except the kitchen sink, you’d have the TV transmitter that beamed TV to London for the first time. To build the transmitter, John Baird used a tea chest, a biscuit box, darning needles, piano wire, motorcycle lamp lenses, old electric motors, cardboard scanning discs and glue, string and sealing wax.
1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET, which was the precursor to what we know now as the Internet. The transmitted message was intended to be the word “login”. The letters L and O were transmitted, but the letter G crashed the system.
1987 – In Japan, NEC released the first 16-bit (fourth generation) video game console, the PC Engine, which was later sold in other markets, including the US, under the name TurboGrafx-16.
And this week in 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States was inaugurated with live coverage of the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral in Florida.