On This Day in Tech History

Apple launched the iTunes Music Store in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom with a price of 79p or 99c per track. In just one week, European customers had purchased 800,000 songs, with 450,000 songs sold in the UK alone. This launch represented a significant expansion of the iTunes Music Store, which had previously only been available in the United States. The availability of the store in these three major European countries likely helped to further establish Apple's dominance in the digital music market.

Microsoft has ceased its support for the Internet Explorer web browser after 26 years, due to its controversial past, including security flaws and an antitrust case. Instead, users will be directed to the newer Edge browser, which generates advertising revenue for Microsoft through Bing search engine. This category accounts for roughly 6% of Microsoft's total revenue, amounting to nearly $3 billion in the first quarter. With a focus on Edge, which is available on various devices and platforms, Microsoft will not provide technical assistance or security updates for Internet Explorer users. Although there are still some loyal Internet Explorer users, particularly for accessing certain corporate web applications, the browser is being retired.

The Russian spacecraft Vega 2 successfully landed on the surface of Venus on June 15, 1985. Vega 2 was a part of the Vega program, which was launched in 1984 with the objective of exploring Venus and Halley's Comet. Vega 2 was equipped with a variety of scientific instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, and a meteorological station, which were used to study the atmosphere, surface, and environment of Venus. The spacecraft transmitted data back to Earth for nearly an hour after landing, providing valuable insights into the composition and properties of the planet. The landing of Vega 2 on Venus was a significant achievement in space exploration, as it was the first successful landing on another planet by a spacecraft from Earth. The data gathered by Vega 2 and the other spacecraft in the Vega program helped to advance our understanding of Venus and planetary science as a whole.

In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge, an English photographer, developed a system of multiple cameras to capture motion in a sequence of photographs. This system, which involved setting up a series of cameras along a track and triggering them in rapid succession, allowed for the first time the visualization of human and animal motion in detail. Muybridge's groundbreaking work on motion photography caught the attention of Leland Stanford, a businessman and racehorse owner, who commissioned him to document the motion of his horses. Muybridge used his multi-camera setup to capture a sequence of photographs of a galloping horse, which he then projected in rapid succession using a zoopraxiscope, a device he invented that created the illusion of motion. This demonstration, which took place in 1879, is widely regarded as the first motion picture and marked the birth of multi-camera filmmaking. Muybridge's work paved the way for the development of motion picture technology, which has since revolutionized the entertainment industry. Today, multi-camera filmmaking is a common technique used in movies and television shows to capture a scene from multiple angles simultaneously. But it all began with Muybridge's innovative use of multiple cameras to capture the motion of a galloping horse more than a century ago.

Jay Forrester's proposal for core memory in 1951 revolutionized the computer industry. Core memory improved the reliability and speed of computers, and was easier and less expensive to produce than other memory technologies of the time. This new storage system remained popular until the development of semiconductors in the 1970s. Forrester's contributions to computer hardware had a significant impact on the evolution of technology and paved the way for further advancements in computer memory. Today, his legacy lives on as core memory is recognized as a crucial innovation in the history of computing.