What Happened Today, March 4th

An Wang sells his patent for magnetic core memory to IBM for $500,000. One of the most important inventions in computer history, core memory was the principal method of random access storage used in digital computers from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s. The US Patent Office awarded Wang a patent, for what he called a pulse transfer controlling device and which formed part of the solution to using core memory practically, in 1955. It was MIT's Jay Forrester who ultimately perfected core memory, initially used in the 1951 Whirlwind computer.

The first LISP Programmer's Manual is released. Considered the mother tongue of Artificial Intelligence (AI), LISP is older than most other high-level languages still in use today. John McCarthy created the recursive and symbolic language.

The New York Times reports that the Japanese National Institute for Fusion Science had challenged the United States by announcing that a Japanese supercomputer designed by NEC Corporation could perform all the tasks the Institute required. Cray Research Inc., who stood to sell the institute one of its supercomputers, insisted on testing the machine itself before agreeing to the claim.

The Homebrew Computer Club first met in a garage in Menlo Park, California. Founders Fred Moore and Gordon French hosted about 30 microcomputer hobbyists, who spent the first meeting discussing the Altair, a computer that could be built at home from a kit. The club and others like it led to a burgeoning popularity of the personal computer.

An Wang sells his patent for magnetic core memory to IBM for $500,000. One of the most important inventions in computer history, core memory was the principal method of random access storage used in digital computers from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s. The US Patent Office awarded Wang a patent, for what he called a pulse transfer controlling device and which formed part of the solution to using core memory practically, in 1955. It was MIT's Jay Forrester who ultimately perfected core memory, initially used in the 1951 Whirlwind computer.

In an early demonstration of the impact computers could have on people's lives, the Los Angeles Times reports that a blind student was taking advantage of a talking Toshiba T1000 laptop computer to help him complete courses necessary to graduate from UCLA. After 15 years of going to college on and off, the computer provided Robert Antunez the independence and aid he needed to complete a bachelor's degree in political science.

Concerns over the Michelangelo virus sparked a scare among everyone from personal computer users to world governments. As many as 5 million computers reportedly were at danger of contracting the virus, set to erase data on the March 6 anniversary of the artist's birth. In fact, Michelangelo spread to only a few thousand machines.

For the first time ever, an internet entry wins Bob Levey's Washington Post neologism contest. Contestants were charged with creating a new word to describe a negative reaction to Washington. Scott Burroughs' suggestion, sqwashington, arrived 11 minutes before an identical entry.