April 8

History of Technology for April 8th

Podcast Episode

Prev DITH - Next DITH

Prev: April 7 - Next: April 9 - Full Catalog list at Day in Technology History Project

1886

German scientist, Dr. Carl Gassner, is issued a German patent for the first “dry” cell battery, which uses zinc as its primary component. (No. 37,758) He encased the cell chemicals in a sealed zinc container. Gassner’s battery is much like the carbon-zinc, general-purpose batteries popularly used today. Gassner will also patent his invention in Austria, Belgium, England, France, and Hungary by the end of the year. A US patent will be issued to Gassner in 1887. (US No. 373,064)

1908

Harvard University votes to establish Harvard Business School

1977

The Clash release their first album "The Clash"

1983

Steve Jobs convinces John Sculley to take a position as president and CEO of Apple Computer. Sculley was president of PepsiCo at the time.

1988

IBM announces that it will license Micro Channel Architecture patents to competitors.

1991

Sun's Java team moves from Sun Microsystems to work in secret on its "Oak" development project (later re-named "Java.")

1997

Microsoft Corp releases Internet Explorer 4.0

2004

The Fair Trade Commission of Japan (JFTC) raid of the offices of Intel’s Japanese subsidiary during the course of an investigation of allegations that Intel violated Japanese antitrust laws in the processor market.

2008

Software and storage company EMC announced that it will purchase Iomega for $213 million, or $3.85 per share

Yahoo adds videos to it’s popular Flickr site - The videos, limited to 90 seconds and 150MB, will be shown as thumbnails alongside users' photos, and will inherit all the features of photos stored on the site

The construction of the world's first building to integrate wind turbines is completed in Bahrain.

2009

Facebook hits 200 million members

RIAA backs a Three strikes bill implemented by France to illegal file sharing. However, the French Parliment votes to not implement the bill.

A federal jury finds Microsoft has violated a patent owned by Uniloc and is ordered to pay $388 million. Windows XP, Office XP and Server 2003 infringed on the patent on how the product activation works.

2010

Apple releases the 16 and 32 GB iPad models. The 3G versions would be released at the end of the month. 300,000 in the first day, which surpassed the first day sales of iPhone in 2007 (270,000) $499 and $599.

2011

Commodore 64 comes back from the dead.

Google signs deal with DOJ on ITA (Travel) acquisition