1887 – Herman Hollerith applied for a patent for the ‘Art of Compiling Statistics’, which was his punched card calculator. He then went on to form the Tabulating Machine Company, one of the companies that would go on to become IBM.
This week in 1896 – Henry Ford completed the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gave it a successful test run.
1965 – Sony Corporation unveiled its first consumer 1/2-inch format helical scan VTR (video tape recorder). It was priced at just under $3000 (and that was only in black & white).
1977 – The Apple II, designed by Steve Wozniak went on sale. It was one of the first successful personal computers. The machine sold for about $1,300 which would be the equivalent of about $5,000 today.