Category Archives: History

One Hundred and Twenty Five Years Ago Today

And over 60 years before they would line the walls of diners everywhere (and become staples in hundreds, if not thousands, of movies about the swinging ’50s), the first jukebox, built by the Pacific Phonograph Company, went into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco and launched the Music-on-Demand revolution. (See the Wired obituary.) Unlike a modern jukebox, which blasted music though built in speakers, this early version required the listener to use a stethoscope-like tube that was attached to an Edison Class M electric phonograph to hear the recording.

And then a mere sixty-five years later, as chronicled in our post last month, TI would launch the mobile music revolution. Forget Apple. Forget Sony. Forget RCA. The real revolutionaries that made music on demand are long out of the music business.

Twenty Five Years Ago Today

Due to a miscommunication, the Berlin Wall Fell (a day before it was supposed to) and Germany was united. (See the Wikipedia History.)

It’s both a reminder of how a situation can literally change over night and of how fast the world moves on. For example, a report over on euractive.com notes that while most of Germany wants to look ahead rather than reflect on their recent history that consisted of a divided Germany, 58% of the 14-29 demographic would like to find out more about the history of the communist East German state and the German division because they feel they don’t know enough about their own history.

Today’s fast paced world is moving so fast and focused so much on the future that recent history is being overlooked because the older generation, who still remembers it, feels that it’s recent enough that it does not need to be discussed. However, it is not yet making the school curriculum and being taught in enough detail to the younger generation in a manner that will allow them to understand why the older generation just wants to focus on the future and what the lessons to be learned from the past are.

But we have to remember, because if we don’t, we’ll make the same mistakes, and more importantly, we’ll forget how to deal with the situation when it rises again. For example, the Ukraine is in the process of splitting just like Germany was split after World War II, and may, or may not, reunite someday. As long as there is conflict, borders are destined to change, border crossing rules are destined to be revised, and new trade restrictions will be created while old ones removed. So we have to remember, learn, and prepare.

60 Years Ago Today TI Launched the Mobile Music Revolution

Steve Jobs may have wanted you to think that the iPod launched the Mobile Music Revolution, but it was just a new-and-improved mobile MP3 player which replaced the portable CD player which replaced the portable cassette player which replaced the portable 8-track player which replaced the portable radio.

And guess what made radios portable — the transistor. Before transistors, invented in 1947, revolutionized computing for the masses, these semiconductor devices used to amplify and switch electronic signals and electrical power, revolutionized the portable music industry with the transistor radio that was announced by Texas Instruments 60 years ago today. Before the transistor radio, the average small vacuum tube radio weighed about 20 pounds or so and didn’t fit in a pocket, whereas a small transistor radio weighed less than a pound and fit in a (large) pocket.

And those who were Young at Heart could take music with them wherever they went.

50 Years Ago Today Russia Took Us One Step Closer to Inter-Planetary Supply Management

But we still aren’t there yet!

I know I keep ranting and raving about this, but considering that 51 years ago General Dynamics told us that a mission to Mars could be launched in 1975, and yet, we still haven’t gone beyond the moon, it is more than a little disheartening. But then what can one expect when the budget allocated to NASA in 1971 was less than one half of the budget in 1966 and NASA’s funding dropped from 4.41% of the federal budget to 1.61% in a mere five years, and has been on the decline since. (By 1975 it was under 1% and only broke 1% three times since, reaching 1.05% in 1991, before dropping back down to 0.94% in 1994.) In comparison, the defense department consistently gets about 18% of federal spending, which is not only, relatively speaking, about 4 times the amount spent by most countries on defense but 18 times what NASA gets. (I’m not saying the US shouldn’t spend at least as much on defense as anyone else because it should even if your goal is peace as you never want to be caught with your pants down. I am saying that maybe some of that R&D research budget should be redirected to more useful pursuits. We’re running out of rare earth minerals and other raw materials here on earth. Maybe we can mine Mars and, someday, with enough advances in technology, build bio-domes that will allow us to live there as well.)

So what happened 50 years ago today? The Soviet Union launched the Voskhod 1. While the seventh manned Soviet space flight might not be a memorable one for most people, it was the first flight to carry more than one crewman into orbit, the first flight without the use of spacesuits, and the first flight to carry either an engineer or physician into outer space. It also set the manned spacecraft altitude record of 336 km (209 mi). It was another step towards GD’s goal of a manned mission to Mars … which never happened. Sigh.

A Brief History of Labour Day

SI was going to give you a brief history of Labour Day in North America, and Canada and the United States, in particular, where it is observed as the first Monday of September (and not May 1, which is International Workers’ Day and synonymous with Labour Day in Many Countries), but the LOLCats thought that was just too boring and did this:



Maybe next year. In the interim, maybe The Cat Whisperer can help me out!