Apple’s iPhone is released
The original iPhone was described as “revolutionary” and a “game-changer” for the mobile phone industry.
Business
Denmark completes world’s first ever offshore wind farm
Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm was the first offshore wind farm in the world, erected in 1991 off the coast of the town of Vindeby on the Danish island of Lolland. It was decommissioned for cost reasons in 2017 after 25 years of useful life.
Steve Jobs introduces the first Macintosh computer
The original Macintosh was the first mass-market personal computer that featured a graphical user interface, built-in screen and mouse.
The first utility-scale solar farm in the U.S. begins operation
The Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) pioneered utility-scale solar power generation in 1982. ARCO opened a 1.1 megawatt operation in Hesperia, California, the first industrial solar power plant in the country. The company later opened a larger, 5.2 MW solar power plant in Carrizo Plain, California. The plant in Carrizo Plain operated from 1983 to 1994 and had one of the largest photovoltaic arrays in the world.
IBM releases Microsoft’s MS-DOS
MS-DOS was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s and the early 1990s.
U.S. Windpower installs the world’s first wind farm in New Hampshire
The world’s first wind farm stood on the north side of Crotched Mountain in southern New Hampshire, on land owned by the Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, a hospital and school that serves individuals with disabilities and their families. It consisted of 20 30kW turbines – quite small by standards of the 2020s.
The Altair 8800 sparks the microcomputer revolution
The Altair 8800 is a microcomputer designed in 1974 by MITS and based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics.
Five feminists create the first women’s owned-and-operated record label, Olivia Records
Olivia Records was a collective founded in 1973 to record and market women’s music.
Motorola employee Martin Cooper makes the world’s first cell phone call
Using a prototype of what would become the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, the world’s first commercial cell phone, Cooper placed a call to the headquarters of Bell Labs in New Jersey.
Atari releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game
Pong quickly became a success and was the first commercially successful video game, which helped to establish the video game industry along with the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey.