Events, Verisoph

c. December 1935 Italy Uses Mustard Gas in Ethiopia 1 cit. Italian forces repeatedly used mustard gas, sprayed from aircraft, against Ethiopian troops and civilian populations in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which Italy had signed. Mussolini personally authorized the gas attacks, and Badoglio expanded their use through the following months. Historians estimate the gas killed thousands of Ethiopians and contaminated water sources and grazing land used by civilians long after the war. technology / war ●●●

c. 1936 Founding of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 0 cit. A group of Caltech students and researchers, including Frank Malina and Jack Parsons, began rocket experiments in the Arroyo Seco. The work grew into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, later run for NASA. science / technology ●●●●

1936 Argus cameras are named for the hundred-eyed giant of Greek myth 0 cit. The Argus camera brand, launched in Michigan in 1936, borrows the name of Argus Panoptes, the hundred-eyed all-seeing giant of Greek myth. economy / religion / technology ●

1936 Turing defines computation and its limits 0 cit. Alan Turing described an abstract machine that captured what it means to compute, and proved that some problems can never be solved by any such machine. His work answered a question left open by Godel and Hilbert about the limits of mechanical reasoning. The theoretical machine he imagined became the blueprint for the digital computer. science / technology ●●●●

31 March 1936 Italy uses poison gas at Maychew and beyond 0 cit. As Ethiopian resistance stiffened, Italy sprayed mustard gas from aircraft over troops, civilians, herds, and water sources, in breach of the Geneva Protocol it had signed. The decisive Battle of Maychew broke the emperor's main army and opened the road to the capital. The gas attacks were widely reported and condemned, yet no power moved to punish Italy for them. technology / war ●●

28 May 1937 Founding of Volkswagen 0 cit. The Nazi labor front founds Volkswagen to build Ferdinand Porsche's 'people's car,' with a factory at what becomes Wolfsburg. After the war the Beetle becomes the best selling car in history and VW a global auto giant. economy / politics / technology ●●●●

28 August 1937 Founding of Toyota 0 cit. Kiichiro Toyoda spins the Toyota Motor Corporation out of his father's loom works. Its lean production system becomes the world's most studied manufacturing method, and Toyota becomes the largest automaker. economy / technology ●●●●

1937 The jet engine 0 cit. Frank Whittle ran the first bench test of a working turbojet engine. Jet propulsion led to fast, high flying aircraft and made mass air travel practical. technology ●●●

c. 1937 Peenemuende rocket center established 0 cit. The German army opened a research center on the Baltic coast to develop long-range rockets under Wernher von Braun. It became the birthplace of the V-2 missile. science / technology / war ●●●

1938 The Mercury car brand is named for the Roman messenger god 0 cit. Edsel Ford launched the Mercury car brand in 1938, naming it after Mercury, the swift Roman messenger god, to convey speed and dependability. economy / religion / technology ●●

4 March 1938 Oil found in commercial quantities at Dammam No. 7 0 cit. After years of dry holes, well number seven at Dammam finally strikes oil in commercial volumes, proving Saudi Arabia sat atop enormous reserves. It began the transformation of a poor desert kingdom into the world's swing producer. economy / technology ●●●

1 January 1939 Founding of Hewlett-Packard 0 cit. Bill Hewlett and David Packard formalize their partnership, working from a Palo Alto garage now marked as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. HP grows into a leading maker of instruments, computers, and printers. economy / technology ●●●

30 April 1939 New York World's Fair of 1939 0 cit. Built around the theme "The World of Tomorrow," this fair featured the Trylon and Perisphere and previewed television, nylon, and early concepts of highway-based suburban living to Depression-weary Americans. It opened four months before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, and several participating countries' pavilions closed early as the war began. culture / technology ●●

1939 Hewlett-Packard is founded in a Palo Alto garage 0 cit. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, students of Stanford's Frederick Terman, started HP in a garage that is now treated as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. Wartime and Cold War military contracts for electronics gave the young company its first steady business. economy / technology / war ●●

c. 20 January 1940 Bletchley Park breaks Enigma traffic 0 cit. Codebreakers at the Government Code and Cypher School's wartime station, Bletchley Park, achieved their first sustained breaks into German Enigma-encrypted traffic, building on earlier Polish cryptanalytic work. The resulting decrypted intelligence, codenamed Ultra, gave Allied commanders access to German military communications for the rest of the war. Historians credit Ultra with shortening the war, though its full extent stayed classified until the 1970s. technology / war ●●●

1940 Sengier ships Congolese uranium to New York 0 cit. Edgar Sengier, a director of Union Miniere, foresaw war and had roughly 1,200 tons of high-grade Shinkolobwe uranium ore shipped to New York, where it sat in a warehouse on Staten Island. In 1942 he sold it to the United States Army for the secret atomic bomb program. The ore was far richer than American or Canadian sources, and its origin in a Belgian colony was kept quiet. economy / technology / war ●●●

13 August 1942 to 1947 Launch of the Manhattan Project 0 cit. The Army establishes the Manhattan Engineer District to build an atomic bomb, growing into a secret empire of sites at Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos employing 130,000 people. It produces the weapons used against Japan and the template for big federal science. science / technology / war ●●●●

3 October 1942 First V-2 rocket reaches space 0 cit. A German V-2 test flight became the first human-made object to reach the edge of space. The rocket, designed as a weapon, proved that large liquid-fueled machines could fly to the boundary of space. science / technology / war ●●●●

19 August 1943 Quebec Agreement 0 cit. Secret agreement between Britain and the United States to pool atomic bomb research, never to use the weapon against each other, and not to use it against others without mutual consent. It governed the Manhattan Project partnership. diplomacy / science / technology / war ●●●

c. 1943 Compartments and code words wall off the secrets 0 cit. The Manhattan Project and Allied codebreaking under the ULTRA code word pioneered compartmentalization, the rule that people learn only what their own task requires and no more. This need-to-know approach later grew into Sensitive Compartmented Information, whole layers of secrecy hidden inside secrecy and reached only through special code-word clearances. It guards against leaks but also makes it hard for anyone to see the whole picture. technology / war ●●

7 December 1944 Chicago Convention 0 cit. Convention on international civil aviation establishing rules of airspace sovereignty and founding the International Civil Aviation Organization. It remains the constitution of world air travel. diplomacy / economy / technology ●●●

8 September 1944 First combat use of the V-2 rocket 0 cit. Germany fired the first V-2 ballistic missiles against London and Paris late in World War II. The weapon killed thousands and was built largely by concentration camp labor. technology / war ●●●

September 1944 Von Braun's V-2, the first ballistic missile 0 cit. Wernher von Braun's V-2 rocket strikes London and Antwerp, the first long-range ballistic missile and the ancestor of every space rocket. It was built at the Mittelwerk using concentration-camp slave labor, a fact often glossed over in the space story. technology / war ●●●●

1945 The ENIAC electronic computer 0 cit. ENIAC was among the first general purpose electronic digital computers, using thousands of vacuum tubes. It showed that machines could compute at electronic speed and pointed the way to the computer age. technology ●●●●●

c. 1945 Operation Paperclip begins 2 cit. The United States secretly recruited Wernher von Braun and hundreds of German rocket scientists at the end of World War II. Their knowledge fed the American missile and space programs. politics / technology / war ●●●●

2 May 1945 Von Braun surrenders to American forces 0 cit. Wernher von Braun and his core rocket team gave themselves up to United States troops in the Alps. They chose the Americans over the advancing Soviet army. politics / technology / war ●●●

c. 1945 Project SHAMROCK collects cable traffic 0 cit. Predating and later absorbed by the NSA, Project SHAMROCK obtains copies of international telegrams entering and leaving the United States through arrangements with major telegraph companies. It runs for roughly three decades until exposed and terminated in 1975, revealed by the Church Committee as one of the longest-running warrantless surveillance programs against Americans. politics / technology ●●

6 August 1945 Congolese uranium in the Hiroshima bomb 0 cit. Historians of the Manhattan Project record that much of the uranium for the first atomic bombs, including the weapon dropped on Hiroshima, came from the Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo. The colony supplied a decisive strategic material for the nuclear age. It received almost nothing in return, and Congolese people had no say in how their ground was used. science / technology / war ●●●

c. 1945 American supremacy is plain by war's end 0 cit. At the end of the Second World War the United States produced roughly half of the world's manufactured goods, held about two-thirds of the world's gold reserves, and accounted for around a third of world output. Its homeland was undamaged while the other great powers were exhausted or in ruins, a concentration of economic power without precedent in modern history. economy / technology / war ●●●

5 March 1946 UKUSA Agreement 0 cit. Secret British-American agreement to share signals intelligence, later extended to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as the Five Eyes. Its existence was not officially acknowledged until decades later. diplomacy / politics / technology ●●●

7 May 1946 Founding of Sony 0 cit. Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita found Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo in bombed-out Tokyo, renamed Sony in 1958. Transistor radios, the Trinitron, the Walkman, and the PlayStation make it a symbol of Japan's postwar rise. culture / economy / technology ●●●●

1 August 1946 Atomic Energy Commission and the National Laboratories 0 cit. The Atomic Energy Act moves nuclear weapons and research from the Army to a civilian Atomic Energy Commission. Argonne is chartered as the first national laboratory the same year, beginning the network that includes Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Lawrence Berkeley. science / technology ●●●

5 March 1946 The UKUSA Agreement founds the Five Eyes network 0 cit. A secret signals-intelligence pact between Britain and the United States, later joined by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, created what is now called the Five Eyes. It is a documented alliance for sharing intercepted communications, not a rumor. politics / technology ●●

c. 1 June 1946 GC&CS becomes GCHQ 0 cit. After the war the Government Code and Cypher School was renamed the Government Communications Headquarters, GCHQ, and placed under the Foreign Office. It retained the signals intelligence role built up at Bletchley Park, now directed at the emerging Cold War rather than Germany. It moved its main site to Cheltenham in the early 1950s. politics / technology ●●

1946 Stanford Research Institute takes on defense work 0 cit. Stanford set up a research institute to do contract work, much of it for the military and intelligence agencies during the Cold War. SRI became a hub where Pentagon money paid for advances in computing, networking, and artificial intelligence. science / technology / war ●

18 September 1947 Founding of the United States Air Force 0 cit. The Army Air Forces become an independent service under the National Security Act, recognizing air power's decisive role in World War II. The new service soon carries the nuclear deterrent at the heart of Cold War strategy. technology / war ●●●

December 1947 The transistor 1 cit. Researchers at Bell Labs built the first working transistor, a tiny solid state switch and amplifier. Transistors replaced bulky vacuum tubes and are the basic building block of all modern electronics. technology ●●●●●

24 September 1948 Founding of Honda 0 cit. Soichiro Honda incorporates the Honda Motor Company in Hamamatsu, starting with motorized bicycles. It becomes the world's largest motorcycle maker and a major automaker known for its engines. economy / technology ●●●

c. 1948 Rise of the television networks 0 cit. Around 1948 NBC, CBS, and later ABC built national television networks, and set ownership grew rapidly through the 1950s. Television became the dominant mass medium of postwar American life. culture / technology ●●●●

29 August 1949 First Soviet Atomic Bomb Test 0 cit. The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, ending the American nuclear monopoly. The test opened a long arms race between the two superpowers. science / technology / war ●●●●

1949 Garuda Indonesia is named for the divine bird of Hindu myth 0 cit. Indonesia's national airline, established in 1949, is named after Garuda, the divine bird that serves as the mount of Vishnu in Hindu mythology. Garuda also appears on the country's national emblem. economy / religion / technology ●●

August 1949 The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb 0 cit. The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb, years earlier than many in Washington expected. The American monopoly on nuclear weapons was over, opening the arms race that would define the Cold War. Soviet espionage inside the US Manhattan Project is widely documented as having sped the effort. science / technology / war ●●●

c. 1950 Television enters the home 0 cit. After the war, television sets spread quickly into ordinary homes. TV became the dominant form of home entertainment and reshaped daily life. society / technology ●●●●

1950 The Diners Club charge card 0 cit. Diners Club launched a card that let members charge meals at participating restaurants and pay the bill later. It was the first widely used general charge card and a step toward modern payment cards. economy / technology ●●●●

8 November 1950 First jet-versus-jet dogfight 0 cit. During the Korean War, a U.S. Air Force F-80 Shooting Star pilot shot down a Soviet-built MiG-15 flown by North Korean or Chinese pilots in the first confirmed air-to-air combat between jet aircraft. The clash opened the era of jet warfare, later intensified in 'MiG Alley' where American F-86 Sabres and Soviet-supplied MiG-15s fought regularly. Jet dogfighting reshaped fighter tactics and aircraft design for the following decades. technology / war ●●

20 December 1951 EBR-I generates the first nuclear electricity 0 cit. The Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho produces the first usable electricity from atomic energy, lighting four bulbs. It is the first small step from weapons work toward nuclear power. science / technology ●●●

1951 The Invention Secrecy Act locks up patents 0 cit. The Invention Secrecy Act let the government slap a secrecy order on a patent application whose disclosure it judged harmful to national security, barring the inventor from publishing or filing abroad. Thousands of such orders have been imposed and some have stayed in force for decades. It is a quiet corner of the secrecy state where private ideas can be sealed by the government. politics / technology ●

1951 Terman builds the Stanford Industrial Park 0 cit. Frederick Terman, a Stanford dean who had run a wartime electronics lab, opened land next to the university to technology firms and steered defense research their way. This deliberate marriage of the university, the Pentagon, and private companies is the foundation Silicon Valley was built on. economy / technology / war ●●

4 November 1952 Founding of the NSA 0 cit. Truman secretly creates the National Security Agency to unify American codebreaking and signals intelligence. So classified that officials joked its initials stood for No Such Agency, it grows into the largest intelligence organization in the world. technology / war ●●●●

4 November 1952 National Security Agency founded 0 cit. President Truman signs a classified memorandum establishing the National Security Agency, consolidating the country's signals intelligence and cryptologic activities under a single agency. Its existence remains officially unacknowledged by the government for years, leading to the joke that NSA stood for No Such Agency. politics / technology ●●●

1952 A spy agency is created in secret 0 cit. President Truman created the National Security Agency by a classified memorandum, so secret that the agency's very existence went unacknowledged for years and insiders joked that NSA stood for No Such Agency. A whole institution collecting the nation's signals intelligence operated with almost no public record. It became a symbol of how deep official secrecy could run in a democracy. politics / technology ●●

c. 1952 Volunteers man the Ground Observer Corps 0 cit. The United States revived the Ground Observer Corps, enlisting hundreds of thousands of civilian volunteers to scan the skies for Soviet bombers before radar coverage was complete. Ordinary people took shifts at watch posts as a citizen early-warning line for home defence. Improved radar made the corps unnecessary, and it was wound down by the end of the 1950s. society / technology ●

November 1952 The National Security Agency is founded 0 cit. President Truman created the NSA in a secret memo to centralize American signals intelligence. For years the government would not confirm the agency even existed, and insiders joked that NSA stood for No Such Agency. It grew into the largest and best-funded surveillance organization in the world. politics / technology / war ●●●

26 June 1954 Obninsk, the first grid-connected nuclear plant 0 cit. A small Soviet reactor near Moscow becomes the first nuclear power plant to feed electricity into a grid. Atomic energy crosses from weapons work into civilian use. science / technology ●●●

17 January 1955 USS Nautilus puts to sea on nuclear power 0 cit. The first nuclear-powered submarine gets underway from Groton, signaling the message 'Underway on nuclear power'. Naval propulsion becomes a major driver of reactor technology and of the arms race at sea. technology / war ●●●

1955 Area 51 opens at Groom Lake 0 cit. The CIA and Air Force built a secret test site at a dry lake bed in the Nevada desert to fly aircraft that officially did not exist. The base, later nicknamed Area 51, tested real classified planes; the government did not even acknowledge it existed until 2013, which is part of why it became the center of so many alien rumors. politics / technology / war ●●

August 1955 The U-2 spy plane is built in secret 0 cit. Lockheed's secret Skunk Works unit built the U-2, a plane that flew so high it could photograph the Soviet Union from beyond the reach of its defenses. Developed under deep secrecy, its high-altitude flights were later blamed for many UFO sightings by people who had no idea such an aircraft existed. diplomacy / technology / war ●●

29 June 1956 Launch of the Interstate Highway System 0 cit. Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act, committing the government to build 41,000 miles of limited-access highways with 90 percent federal funding. The largest public works project in American history reshapes cities, commerce, and daily life. economy / society / technology ●●●●

17 October 1956 Calder Hall opens 0 cit. Queen Elizabeth II opens Calder Hall, the first nuclear power station to deliver electricity at industrial scale. The plant also quietly produces plutonium for Britain's weapons program. economy / technology ●●●

1956 Shockley brings the transistor to the West Coast 0 cit. William Shockley, a co-inventor of the transistor, set up a semiconductor lab south of San Francisco and hired brilliant young engineers. His difficult management drove them out within a year, but he had gathered the talent that would create the chip industry. economy / science / technology ●●

1957 Founding of Fairchild Semiconductor 0 cit. Eight engineers leave Shockley Semiconductor to found Fairchild, which co-invents the integrated circuit. Its alumni go on to found Intel, AMD, and dozens of other firms, seeding Silicon Valley. economy / science / technology ●●●●

4 October 1957 Launch of Sputnik 0 cit. The Soviet Union puts Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit. The launch opens the space age and the space race, and spurs massive Western investment in science and technology. science / technology ●●●●

18 December 1957 Shippingport reactor comes online 0 cit. America's first full-scale commercial nuclear power plant synchronizes to the grid in Pennsylvania. Its pressurized water design, adapted from naval reactors, becomes the world standard. economy / technology ●●

4 October 1957 Launch of Sputnik 1 0 cit. The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, a metal sphere that beeped as it circled the Earth. The event shocked the United States and opened the space age. politics / science / technology ●●●●●

3 November 1957 Sputnik 2 carries Laika into orbit 0 cit. The Soviet Union sent a dog named Laika into orbit, the first living creature to circle the Earth. The animal did not survive, but the flight showed that living things could ride a rocket into space. politics / science / technology ●●●

6 December 1957 Vanguard rocket explodes on the pad 0 cit. The first American attempt to answer Sputnik ended when the Vanguard rocket rose a few feet and blew up on live television. The failure deepened fears that the country was losing the space race. politics / technology ●●

4 October 1957 Sputnik 1, the first satellite 0 cit. The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, stunning the world and the United States. The beep from orbit opened the space age and the space race in a single night. science / technology ●●●●

c. 1957 Every space rocket is also a nuclear missile 0 cit. The R-7 that launched Sputnik was designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile, and America's space boosters were likewise weapons. The space race was inseparable from the nuclear arms race: the same rockets could carry a satellite or a warhead. technology / war ●●●

1957 The traitorous eight found Fairchild Semiconductor 1 cit. Eight engineers quit Shockley's lab and started Fairchild Semiconductor, funded to make transistors for the defense and space markets. Fairchild's alumni went on to found Intel, AMD, and dozens of other firms, making it the family tree of the whole Valley. economy / science / technology ●●●

7 February 1958 Founding of DARPA 0 cit. Shocked by Sputnik, the Pentagon creates the Advanced Research Projects Agency to fund high-risk, high-payoff research outside the military bureaucracy. Its projects lead to the ARPANET, stealth aircraft, and GPS precursors. science / technology / war ●●●

29 July 1958 Founding of NASA 0 cit. Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, converting the old aeronautics committee NACA into a civilian space agency that opens on October 1, 1958. NASA goes on to run Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the moon landing within eleven years. exploration / science / technology ●●●●

1958 The integrated circuit 0 cit. Jack Kilby built the first integrated circuit, placing multiple components on a single chip. The microchip made electronics small, cheap and powerful and enabled the digital world. technology ●●●●●

1958 BankAmericard and the modern credit card 0 cit. Bank of America issued BankAmericard, which offered revolving credit rather than a bill due in full each month. It grew into the network that later became Visa. economy / technology ●●●●

31 January 1958 Explorer 1, the first US satellite 0 cit. A team led by von Braun and JPL launched Explorer 1, the first American satellite. Its instruments discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth. politics / science / technology ●●●●

7 October 1958 Project Mercury announced 0 cit. NASA unveiled Project Mercury, its first program to put an American in space. The effort selected seven military test pilots as the original astronauts. science / society / technology ●●●

January 1958 Von Braun launches America's first satellite 0 cit. After the shock of Sputnik, von Braun's team puts Explorer 1, the first American satellite, into orbit. The former V-2 engineer became the public face of the US space effort. science / technology ●●●

February 1958 ARPA is founded in the shock of Sputnik 0 cit. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the United States created the Advanced Research Projects Agency inside the Pentagon to make sure it was never again caught off guard by an enemy's technology. Given money and freedom to fund high-risk research, ARPA (later DARPA) would go on to seed many of the technologies that built the modern world. politics / science / technology ●●●

13 September 1959 Luna 2 reaches the Moon 0 cit. The Soviet probe Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another world when it struck the Moon. It marked another Soviet lead in the early space race. exploration / science / technology ●●●

c. 1 January 1959 to c. 1976 Air America flies the CIA's secret wars 0 cit. The CIA ran Air America, an airline that moved arms, supplies, and personnel for covert operations in Laos and beyond. It became a symbol of the agency's hidden role in Southeast Asia. technology / war ●●

1960 The laser 1 cit. Theodore Maiman built the first working laser, producing a narrow, intense beam of coherent light. Lasers now drive fiber optics, surgery, manufacturing, scanners and data storage. science / technology ●●●●

1960 Corona: the space race's secret twin, the spy satellite 0 cit. The United States begins the top-secret Corona program, the first spy satellites, which photographed the Soviet Union from orbit and were not declassified until 1995. Behind the public race to the Moon ran a hidden race to watch the enemy from space. technology / war ●●●

May 1960 The U-2 incident exposes American spy flights 0 cit. Soviet air defenses shoot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet territory and capture its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Washington first denied the mission, then was caught out when Moscow produced the pilot. The affair wrecked a planned Paris summit and hardened tensions. politics / technology / war ●●

1960 The Corona satellites photograph the world from orbit 0 cit. Behind a cover story about a science program called Discoverer, the US ran Corona, a fleet of spy satellites that dropped film capsules back through the atmosphere to be caught in midair. The program stayed secret until 1995 and gave America its first look at Soviet military sites from space. diplomacy / technology / war ●●

6 September 1961 Founding of the National Reconnaissance Office 0 cit. The Pentagon and CIA jointly create a secret agency to build and operate spy satellites after the U-2 shootdown. The NRO's very existence stays classified until 1992. technology / war ●●●

12 April 1961 Gagarin, First Human in Space 0 cit. Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth aboard Vostok 1, becoming the first person in space. The flight was a major propaganda victory for the Soviet Union. exploration / science / technology ●●●●

12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin, first human in space 0 cit. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth once aboard Vostok 1, becoming the first person in space. The flight stunned the world and pressured the United States to respond. exploration / politics / technology ●●●●●

25 May 1961 Kennedy's pledge to land on the Moon 0 cit. President Kennedy told Congress that the nation should commit to landing a man on the Moon before the decade was out. The speech set the goal that shaped the Apollo program. exploration / politics / technology ●●●●●

5 May 1961 Alan Shepard, first American in space 0 cit. Alan Shepard flew a short suborbital hop aboard Freedom 7, becoming the first American in space. The flight came weeks after Gagarin's orbit and gave the country a boost. exploration / technology ●●●●

1962 The communications satellite 0 cit. Telstar relayed the first live television and telephone signals across the Atlantic by satellite. Satellites now carry global communications, broadcasting and navigation. technology ●●●

10 July 1962 Telstar relays the first satellite broadcast 0 cit. The Telstar satellite, launched on 10 July 1962, relayed the first live transatlantic television pictures. Satellites made real-time global broadcasting possible. science / technology ●●●

20 February 1962 John Glenn orbits the Earth 0 cit. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7, circling the planet three times. His flight matched a milestone the Soviets had already reached and made him a national hero. exploration / technology ●●●●

1962 Licklider imagines networked, interactive computing 0 cit. ARPA hired the psychologist J.C.R. Licklider to run its computing office, and he pushed a radical vision of an "Intergalactic Computer Network" and of computers as tools people would use directly rather than feed punch cards. His funding shaped a generation of researchers and set the direction for personal computing and the internet. science / technology ●●

c. 1962 The military becomes the first buyer of the microchip 0 cit. When the integrated circuit was new and expensive, its first big customers were the military's Minuteman missile and NASA's Apollo program, which needed small, reliable electronics at any price. Those guaranteed government orders funded the early chip industry until costs fell enough for a commercial market to appear. economy / technology / war ●●

December 1964 The SR-71 Blackbird flies at the edge of space 0 cit. The Skunk Works built the SR-71, a reconnaissance jet that flew at more than three times the speed of sound and outran missiles rather than dodging them. Developed as a black project, its performance was so far beyond public aircraft that it read like science fiction. science / technology / war ●●

October 1964 The Tokyo Olympics and the bullet train announce Japan's arrival 0 cit. Japan hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics and opened the Shinkansen bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka days before. Both showcased a rebuilt, modern nation less than twenty years after defeat. They marked Japan's return to the front rank of industrial countries. society / technology ●●

1 June 1964 Kenya Air Force inherits RAF personnel and equipment 1 cit. On 1 June 1964, elements of the former Royal Air Force left after independence and their personnel, facilities and equipment converted into the Kenya Air Force. The air arm was therefore not created from scratch. It was a handover from an imperial air base system into a national force. technology / war ●●●

23 March 1965 First crewed Gemini flight 0 cit. Gemini 3 carried two astronauts and began the program that tested the skills needed to reach the Moon. Gemini crews practiced docking, long flights, and working outside the spacecraft. exploration / science / technology ●●●

3 June 1965 Ed White's first American spacewalk 0 cit. During Gemini 4, Ed White floated outside his capsule for about twenty minutes in the first American spacewalk. It proved that astronauts could work in the vacuum of space. exploration / technology ●●●

March 1965 Leonov takes the first spacewalk 0 cit. The Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov leaves his capsule for the first walk in space, another Soviet first. The two superpowers traded milestones as the race toward the Moon accelerated. science / technology ●●

15 October 1966 Founding of the Department of Transportation 0 cit. Johnson signs the act gathering more than 30 scattered transportation agencies, including aviation, highways, and railroads, into one department that opens in April 1967. It becomes the federal steward of the nation's transport networks and safety rules. economy / technology ●●●