This Day in Tech History

August 19, 2004

Google holds its Initial Public Offering (IPO) selling over 22 millions shares at a starting price of $85. Google shares closed that day at $100.34 and the IPO created many instant millionaires and a few billionaires.

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August 18, 1947

Hewlett-Packard is incorporated by William Hewlett and David Packard, nine years after they sold their first products from their garage ...

August 17, 1982

“The Visitors” by ABBA becomes the world’s first commercial music compact disc (CD) manufactured, pressed in Langenhagen, Germany by Polygram Records, a subsidiary of Royal Phillips Electronics. Phillips and Sony co-developed the CD standard, whic...

August 16, 1995

Microsoft introduces Internet Explorer, which at the time was a modified version of Spyglass Mosaic, which Microsoft had licensed. Later when Microsoft began including Internet Explorer for free with Windows, Spyglass sued Microsoft for not paying what they felt were the proper royalties. Microsoft settled for $8 million.

August 15, 1998

After three months of anticipation, the original iMac G3 goes on sale. The “Bondi Blue” iMac became well-known for its colorful case, which bucked the industry norm beige. However, it is also known for being the first commercially successful computer to eliminate the use of legacy ports and the floppy drive. Widely criticized at the time for not includi...