1959

Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite in space, is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution. The satellite is still in orbit today and is expected to continue to orbit for about 300 years.

For further reading,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_2

1994

Apple launches their QuickTake 100 digital camera, one of the very first digital cameras aimed at the consumer market. Unfortunately for Apple, as was endemic for them at the time, they didn’t execute the marketing for this device very well, allowing other companies to take the lead in the digital camera market. Apple was out of the digital camera market by 1997.

For further reading,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_QuickTake

1996

World chess champion Garry Kasparov defeats Deep Blue in game 6 winning the match 4-2. He would lose the next match. Deep Blue’s origins trace back to 1985, when Carnegie Mellon University doctoral student Feng HsiungHsu began developing a chess-playing computer called “ChipTest.” The computer later became known as “Deep Thought,” after a machine in the science fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

For further reading,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer)

2000

Microsoft introduces the latest version of the Windows NT line of operating systems, Windows 2000. While Windows 2000 did bring plug and play to the Windows NT line, it was targeted to the business market and not the consumer. It was not until Windows XP that Microsoft merged the NT line with the Windows 95/98 line. Unfortunately, Microsoft unleashed Windows ME upon unsuspecting consumers in the meantime. Sigh.

For further reading,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2000