A new invention saves the telephone, another invention changes the way we listen to music, and evidence of water is found on a faraway world… It all happened This Week in Tech History.
This week in 1877 – Famed inventor, Emile Berliner came up with a thing called the microphone. It was a good thing, too, because the Bell System – which was run by Alexander Graham Bell, of course — was in desperate need of something to help the progress of the telephone. The invention landed Berliner a job as chief engineer at the Bell telephone company.
1972 – Pioneer 10 was launched towards an asteroid belt and planet Jupiter. This was the first man-made craft sent to the giant planet.
1983 – After being available only in Japan, Compact discs and players were released for the first time in the United States and other markets.
1998 – Microsoft head Bill Gates testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that his company was not a monopoly out to crush rivals in the Internet software market.
And this week in 2004 – NASA scientists reported that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water was once present on the surface the planet.