This Date in IT History May

CIO, May, 2003 by Daniel J. Horgan

2 The first 10 licenses for commercial television are granted on this day in 1941 by the FCC. NBC owns Channel 1, and it broadcasts from the Empire State Building (above). Sixty days later, 4,000 TV sets around New York City are tuned to see NBC's first telecast, a Brooklyn Dodgers versus Philadelphia Phillies baseball game at Ebbets Field. The Phillies win 6-4.

8 An ocean of junk mail shuts down the computer networks of high-profile spam propagator Cyber Promotions for 20 hours in 1997. The counterattack against the company and CEO Sanford Wallace, a.k.a. the Spam King, is a temporary setback. A year later, Wallace closes shop and becomes a consultant to spam victims.

14 A long time ago (1944), in a Modesto, Calif., suburb (far, far away), film and special effects...

Read the full article with a Free Trial at MyWire.

Premium Content Partnership | MyWire provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.