It’s July, the sun is shining and at Roar we are ready for the summer!
July was a busy month for the innovators of years gone by, with the launch of Twitter, the sale of Yahoo and the first ever car!
That’s it for this month but keep your eyes peeled for the August release of This Month in Tech History where we her Majesty Queen Victoria send the first official telegraph to the US in 1858 (it took almost all night to get there!)
On July 3, 1886, mechanical engineer Karl Benz drove the first automobile in Mannheim, Germany, reaching a top speed of 10mph!
Using much of the technology that would later be used in modern day cars, electrical ignition and a braking system.
Benz’s work became the foundation for the Mercades-Benz which we know today. Although, when I think of a Merc, I don’t think of this car.
July 15th 1928, the Enigma codes it’s first message!
Used during the second world war, the German Enigma machine would code messages sent between camps. The typed letters were replaced by a cipher text displayed on illuminated lamps. The cipher was symmetrical so entering the cipher text into another ENIGMA reproduced the original message.
However, by late 1941, British codebreakers managed to break the Enigma code and they could then read most of the Enigma traffic until the end of the war.
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore were already known in the industry when they founded Intel in July 1968.
They had become restless at their previous company and wanted for a new adventure, a new challenge.
Seen (right) is their original business plan and while what some would the hard part, defining their business, was now done. They had one more challenge to face… picking a name.
Using N.M. Electronics on the initial paperwork, they felt it was too bland for the innovative company they were trying to build. So, after much deliberation they decided to rename the company Intel, a portmanteau of integrated electronics.
They later found a hotel using the name “intelco” in the midwest but decided paying for the rights was much easier than trying to come up with a new name.
140 characters to tell the world how you feel.
It’s 2006, you just sent a text you started writing yesterday on your Nokia and Twttr (changed to Twitter later on) just went live!
Despite Boasting over a billion users, Twitter struggles to make money, losing 60% of it’s share value within 3 years of floating the company on NYSE.
Microsoft and Yahoo finally reach a deal on July 29th 2009.
After 18months of talks and deliberation, Microsoft and Yahoo reach a partnership in order to tackle Google’s 65% market share.
I’m sure we all know how that’s worked out…
But, at the time Yahoo had almost double the market share of Microsoft ( who had just 8.6%) so joining forces seemed a smart move.
Under the deal, Yahoo and Bing would maintain their own branding but search results on Yahoo.com will say "powered by Bing."
