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Flashback calendar

Programming language Java is released

Java is a general-purpose programming language that is class-based, object-oriented, and designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It was originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform.

Georges Claude dies

Georges Claude died at age 90. He was a French engineer and inventor, noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on generating energy by pumping cold seawater up from the depths.

NASA contacts Explorer 1 for the last time

First U. S. satellite stopped to transmit data. It was launched after Russian satellites Sputnik 1 and 2 as a part of American participation in the International Geophysical Year. Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt. It remained in orbit until 1970 and has been followed by other probes in Explorer series.

Benjamin Franklin invents bifocals

One of the founding fathers of the USA, Benjamin Franklin, described bifocals in a letter to his friend. For Franklin, the bifocals were a way how to avoid wearing two pairs of glasses. Franklin wrote, “I had the glasses cut and half of each kind associated in the same circle. I have only to move my eyes up and down.”

Anniversaries of the (in)famous

born 1974

Ken Jennings

died 2015

Alicia Nash

born 1936

M. Scott Peck