Chuck Hull invents stereolithography
Stereolithography is a form of 3D printing technology used for creating models, prototypes, patterns, and production parts in a layer by layer fashion using photopolymerization.
North & Central America
Michael Jackson releases “Thriller”, one of the highest selling albums of all time
The critically acclaimed album sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards and broke down racial barriers on radio and television networks like MTV.
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.
Belize officially gains independence
Between 1975 and 1981, Belizean leaders stated their case for self-determination at a meeting of the heads of Commonwealth of Nations governments, the conference of ministers of the Nonaligned Movement, and at meetings of the United Nations (UN).
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.
Denmark’s Home Rule Act of 1979 gives Greenland limited autonomy
As a consequence of political complications in relation to Denmark’s entry into the European Common Market in 1972, Denmark began to seek a different status for Greenland, resulting in the Home Rule Act of 1979. This gave Greenland its own legislature taking control of some internal policies.
Robert Austrian, Jerome Gold, and colleagues develop world’s first pneumococcal vaccine
With the discovery of penicillin in 1928, interest in vaccines to prevent pneumonia waned. The assumption was that the problem would largely be eliminated by use of this antibiotic. Austrian and Gold, however, showed that, despite treatment with penicillin, deaths from pneumococcal pneumonia were unchanged in the first 96 hours of therapy. These efforts ultimately led to the licensing first of a 14-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide in 1977 followed by the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide in 1983.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardons all Vietnam War draft dodgers
On January 21, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.
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.