ALL of the reading material in the vast Library of Congress may be housed in a few small filing cabinets! To anyone who has seen the thousands of massive volumes in this great building, such a statement seems fantastic. But it remains a fact. Through recent developments in microphotography and the perfection of a new type of micro-grain film, the contents of two 10×15 inch pages can be reduced 400 times to occupy but three-fourths of a square inch of film.
Der Münchner Germanist Theo Vennemann glaubt, den Ursprung der germanischen Schrift gefunden zu haben – sie kam mit den Phöniziern in den Norden. Von Wolfgang Krischke
DIE ZEIT, 22.02.2007 Nr. 09
Nur ein Prozent aller Schriften der Griechen, Römer und Ägypter soll die Zeiten überdauert haben. Bis heute suchen Forscher nach den Überresten der Bibliothek von Alexandria - und in Papyrusfragmenten nach Gedanken aus einer vergangenen Welt.
Das Internet hat viele Väter. Deswegen hat das Internet nicht erst seit heute viele Geburtstage zu feiern, weil viele "Kinder" eben das ergeben, was das heutige Internet ausmacht. Heute ist so ein Geburtstag: Vor 40 Jahren wurde die erste Nachricht zwischen zwei entfernten Host-Computern ausgetauscht.
Today 199 years ago, the first (modern) optical telegraph line following the mechanical telegraphy system of the French inventor Claude Chappe was established between Metz and Mainz was established. No, this wasn't the first of its kind, but it was the first to connect the former already in France established telegraphy system with a (now) German city.
On August 31, 1888, the mutilated body of Mary Ann Nichols was found in Whitechapel, London. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have killed and mutilated five women in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888.
On March 7, 1765, French inventor Nicéphore Niépce was born, who is best known as one of the inventors of photography and a pioneer in the field. He developed heliography, a technique used to produce the world's first known photograph in 1825.
On March 11, 1890, American engineer, inventor and science administrator Vannevar Bush was born. He is best known as as head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during World War II, through which almost all wartime military research and development was carried out, including initiation of the Manhattan Project. In computer science we know Vannevar Bush as the father of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer with a structure analogous to that of the World Wide Web.
On October 23, 1635, German astronomer and mathematician Wilhelm Schickard, who constructued the very first mechanical calculator, passed away. His famous calculator was able to perform additions and subtractions. For more complicated operations, it provided so-called Napier bones, named after the Scottish mathematician John Napier, who came up with the idea of logarithms. Although it is widely believed that the first mechanical calculating device was created by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642. However, that distinction actually belongs to Wilhelm Schickard.
On October 24, 1632, the Dutch tradesman and scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor of the microscope, was born. He is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and considered to be the first microbiologist.
On February 13, 1946, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly introduced Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, the first general purpose, electronic computer. ENIAC was a giant step forward in computing technology.
On April 27, 1737, English historian and Member of Parliament Edward Gibbon was born. His most famous work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788 and is known for the quality and irony of its prose as well as for its scientific historic accuracy, which made it a model for later historians.
On May, 1st, 1851, Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, which was the first in a series of World's Fair exhibitions of culture and industry.
On July 29, 1805, French political thinker and historian Alexis de Tocqueville was born. He is best known for his Democracy in America, where he analyzed the rising living standards and social conditions of individuals and their relationship to the market and state in Western societies.
On August 17, 1586, German theologian, author, and mathematician Johann Valentin Andreae was born. He claimed to be the author of the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459 (1616, Strasbourg, the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz), one of the three founding works of Rosicrucianism, a philosophical secret society said to have been founded in late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreutz. Rosicrucianism holds a doctrine or theology "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm."
On September 20, 450 AD, the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains also referred to as the Battle of Chalons took place. A coalition led by the Roman general Flavius Aëtius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I against the Huns and their allies commanded by their leader Attila faced each other in a decisive battle that should decide the fate of Europe and the whole Western civilization...
Der Blick in die Zukunft: Mit dem "Xerox Alto" stellte man bei Parc 1973 die Verbindung zwischen alter und neuer Bürowelt her. Der erste Personal Computer konnte auch ohne eine Ausbildung zum Techniker bedient werden - und der Bildschirm zeigte nicht nur Buchstaben, sondern auch Grafiken an.
"In den nächsten fünf bis zehn Jahren wird die nächste Milliarde ans Internet andocken: Menschen aus Indien, China, Südamerika und Afrika. Immer mehr werden weltweit ihre Stimme erheben." Davon geht Jimmy Wales aus, der Mitbegründer der Online-Enzyklopädie Wikipedia.
Heute vor 80 Jahren wurde der Sprachwissenschaftler Noam Chomsky in Philadelphia geboren. Jeder Informatiker kennt die Chomsky-Hierarchien, mit denen die Grammatiken von formalen Programmiersprachen klassifiziert werden.
"1609 war die Zeit reif für eine Zeitung"
Georg Ruppelt spricht über den 400. Geburtstag des "Aviso", über den Reiz alter Tintenflecken und über das Gedächtnis der Menschheit
Today 206 years ago, engineer John Augustus Roebling was born. He was best known for the design of the Brooklyn Bridge. Sadly Roebling passed away 14 years before the famous bridge in New York City was opened.
On May 27th 1937 The Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco spanning over the opening of the San Francisco Bay and connecting the City with Marin County was opened for public traffic. When the planning for the bridge started back in 1916 many experts said that a bridge couldn’t be built across the 6,700 ft (2,042 m) strait.
On August 21, 1911 during intensive repair and renovation work the Louvre Museum realized that Leonardo Da Vinci's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, was stolen.
On this day in 1848, the the New York Herald, a major newspaper of the American East Coast printed the exciting news that gold has been found on the West Coast, which caused thousands of immigrants from all over the world to travel to California hoping to to find wealth and glory.