Hi I'm Molly Wood. It's a pril 21, 2008 and here is what happened today in technology history.
On this date in 1870, Edwin S. Porter was born, an early film pioneer who worked with Thomas Edison's Company. For those of you who have studied film history, you're most likely to remember him from his 1903 hit "The Great Train Robbery."
In 1894 Norway formally adopts the Krag-J?rgensen rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years for Norway, Denmark and the US army. It was designed by - you guessed it, Ole Krag and Erik Jorgensen.
On this date in 1960 Brasilia was inaugurated as the Capital of Brasil. Brasilia is an incredibly unique city designed by Lucio Costa. When seen from above, the city resembles an airplane and the roads were designed with cloverleafs or traffic circles rather than intersections or traffic lights, so cars have no reason to stop. No traffic lights! Awesome! Uhm, except if you are a pedestrian, then it's not so awesome.
And finally on this date in 1980, Rosie Ruiz, the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon, was disqualified when officials discovered she had jumped into the race about a mile from the finish. Yeah, that's not going to happen again. Now most big marathons use a small transponder (The ChampionChip) that gets tied to each runners shoe that keeps track of their moves and pace throughout the race, so if you try to hop on a bus, you are going to get caught.
Now you know, I'll see you next week.
