Today in Tech History: July 8, 2008 Video

Today in Tech History: July 8, 2008 Video Transcript

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>> Hi, I'm Molly Wood. It's July 8, 2008, here's what happened today in Technology History. Space alien fans call today the UFO Roswell Incident. On this date in 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release saying its personnel had recovered debris from a crushed flying disc. Later that day, the Air Force said, it was actually a balloon, not a flying saucer. And after that, a press conference confirmed that it was definitely a weather balloon. Case closed until 1978 when Air Force Major involved in the original recovery told a Ufologist that the military had covered-up evidence of an alien ship. It's pretty much been all downhill from there. Today marks the death of Christian Huygens who died in 1695. He was a Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist, closely associated with the so-called Scientific Revolution. He argued that light consisted of waves. He helped developed calculus, he discovered Saturn's moon Titan, he postulated on the possibility of alien life and he patented the pocket watch in 1675. This is also the birth date of Ferdinand von Zeppelin, born in 1838. He invented the Zeppelin Airship in the 1900s. And finally on this date in 1920, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen was born. He was the son the Lego Group founder and he bought the patent to the Lego brick in 1949 and eventually developed the Lego as we know it today. That was a pretty meaty collection of historical tech trivia -- no? More to chew on tomorrow.