Episode 786: It Came From the Mainframe

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On This Day In History for October 29, 2025

This is the 302nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 63 days remaining in 2025.

  • On October 29, 1675, Leibniz made the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus.
  • It was 162 years ago today that Eighteen countries met in Geneva and agreed to form the International Red Cross
  • That same date in 1929 was known as Black Tuesday. The New York Stock Exchange crashed, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.
  • It was on this date in 1969, that the first-ever computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
  • British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the last stretch of the M25 motorway on this date in 1986.
  • Also on October 29, 1991, The American Galileo spacecraft made its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
  • ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States was inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission 27 years ago today.
  • On that same mission, 77-year-old John Glenn became the oldest person to go into space at that time.
  • October 29, 2008, Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world’s largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five.

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

  • French historian, explorer, and author, Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, born on this date in 1682.
  • English mathematician and astronomer, Martin Folkes was born 335 years ago today.
  • Laura Bassi, the Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have a doctorate in science was born 314 years ago today.
  • Italian astronomer and meteorologist, Caterina Scarpellini, born on this date in 1808.
  • Abram Ioffe, the Russian physicist and academic was born 145 years ago today.
  • Carl Djerassi, Austrian-American chemist, author, and playwright was born on that same date in 1923.
  • Also turning 68 today is American actor, voice artist, comedian, singer and producer Dan Castellaneta.
  • Also born on that same date in 1971,  American mathematician, cryptologist, and academic, Daniel J. Bernstein.

Listener Birthdays

  • 29 – Big Jim Clark, MegaPodTastic
  • 30 – WolfGeek
  • 31 – Sylvain Racicot
  • 1 – Amber Elstad
  • 2 – Mark McCoy
  • 3 – Ken Pace
  • 3 – Craig Glassner (aka Ranger Craig)
  • 4 – Avner (OMG, its 2014 – I’m 40 already)

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for October 29, 2025

  • If you want to get on the Technorama Birthday Calendar, visit our website and look for the Birthday Calendar link.

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Question of the week

  • Before the internet made everything instantly available, what was your primary ‘analog’ source for geeky information? Was it a specific magazine (like OMNI, Starlog, or Byte), a TV show (like Beyond 2000), or the sci-fi section of your local library?

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