You are here: Home › 2018

Yearly Archives: 2018

cinematography
Erich von Stroheim – Always a man of his own Invention

Erich von Stroheim – Always a man of his own Invention

Harald Sack
On September 22, 1885, Austrian-American director, actor and producer Erich von Stroheim was born. He is most noted as a film star and avant garde, visionary director of the silent era. His masterpiece adaptation of Frank Norris’s McTeague entitled Greed is considered one of the finest and most important films ever made. After clashes with Hollywood studio bosses over budget and workers’ rights issues, von Stroheim was banned for life as a…
Read more
communication
What a Brick! – The World’s First Cell Phone

What a Brick! – The World’s First Cell Phone

Harald Sack
On September 21, 1983, the Motorola DynaTAC, the world‘s first commercially available cell phone received its FCC certification. DynaTAC was an abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage. But, with a price of $3,995 in 1983 ($9,322 in present-day terms) it was a rather expensive while also exclusive gadget. But, it was not the first mobile phone at all. Actually, in Germany, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Railways) already started experimenting with a…
Read more
mathematics
What’s your Erdös Number? – The bustling Life of Mathematician Paul Erdös

What’s your Erdös Number? – The bustling Life of Mathematician Paul Erdös

Harald Sack
On September 20, 1996, Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdös passed away. He published more scientific papers than any other mathematician in history, with hundreds of collaborators. Thus, he even created a ‘small world’ of its own, the famous club of people that posess an ‘Erdös Number‘. BTW, my Erdös number is 3, i.e. I have published a paper together with a co-author whose Erdös number is 2. In this little game of numbers,…
Read more
computer science
Scott Fahlman and the Origin of the Emoticons :-)

Scott Fahlman and the Origin of the Emoticons :-)

Harald Sack
On September 19, 1982, Scott Fahlman posted the first documented emoticons 🙂 and 🙁 on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System. As SMS and the Internet became widespread in the late 1990s, emoticons became increasingly popular and were commonly used on text messages, internet forums and e-mails. Emoticons have played a significant role in communication through technology. “I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile —…
Read more
archeology
Pompeii – Conquered, Buried, Rediscovered

Pompeii – Conquered, Buried, Rediscovered

Tabea Tietz
Pompeii was an ancient city in Campania on the Gulf of Naples, which like Herculaneum, Stabiae and Oplontis was buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, but remained largely preserved under the volcanic ashes.[1] In its approximately seven hundred year history Pompeii was inhabited and shaped by Osci, Samnites, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans, but was forgotten after the burial in the course of time. The rediscovery in the 18th century…
Read more
computer science
Linux at the Core of the Open Source Revolution

Linux at the Core of the Open Source Revolution

Harald Sack
On September 17, 1991, the Finnish student of computer science Linus Torvalds, uploaded Linux kernel version 0.01 to the ftp server ftp.funet.fi. This might be considered as the date of birth of the famous free operating system Linux, although Torvalds announced the new OS a few weeks earlier on usenet already. Nevertheless, Linux has become one of the most popular operating systems today, and this of course with a god reason…. I…
Read more
explorer
Hoist the Sails! The Mayflower and its Journey to the new World…

Hoist the Sails! The Mayflower and its Journey to the new World…

Tabea Tietz
On September 16, 1620, the famous transport ship Mayflower started its first voyage to the new world with English and Dutch separatists on board and arriving Plymouth, Massachusetts in the same year. The ship has become a cultural icon in the history of the United States. Rough Seas and First Winter On board of the 170 ton Dutch cargo ship were a total of 102 passengers and an additional number of 30 crew…
Read more
literature
Agatha Christie – Explorer, Archaeologist, and World Famous Author of Detective Stories

Agatha Christie – Explorer, Archaeologist, and World Famous Author of Detective Stories

Harald Sack
On September 15, 1890, English writer Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, known as Agatha Christie, was born. Agatha Christie is known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Christie also wrote the world’s longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap. The Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels…
Read more
biology
Alfred Kinsey and his Scientific Interest in Sex

Alfred Kinsey and his Scientific Interest in Sex

Tabea Tietz
On September 14, 1953, Dr. Alfred Charles Kinsey published the second of his controversially discussed and provoking reports entitled ‘Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female‘. Kinsey’s work has profoundly influenced social and cultural values in the United States and many other countries. From Engineering to Biology Alfred Charles Kinsey grew up in a strictly religious Christian family and even though he did not share his parent’s enthusiasm, Kinsey followed their wishes and demands. He even…
Read more
computer games
The Hero of Mushroom Kingdom saves Princess Toadstool – Super Mario!

The Hero of Mushroom Kingdom saves Princess Toadstool – Super Mario!

Tabea Tietz
On September 13, 1985, Nintendo‘s jump-’n’-run video game Super Mario Bros. was released and Princess Toadstool could finally be saved from Bowser and his evil forces by the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario! Jump ‘n’ Run Industrial designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who was hired by Nintendo in 1977, developed titles such as Donkey Kong (Arcade, 1981) and Mario Bros. (Arcade, 1983) with the later Game Boy inventor Gunpei Yokoi [6]. The success…
Read more
Relation Browser
Timeline
0 Recommended Articles:
0 Recommended Articles: