Tech & Science · 1964
Dawn of Mainframes, Computing, and Deep Space Frontiers
In 1964, the digital age took a giant leap with standard-setting mainframes and accessible programming languages. Humanity reached toward the stars with historic planetary missions and peered into cosmic history through groundbreaking physics discoveries.
- April 7, 1964 | Computing | USA
IBM System/360
IBM announces a revolutionary family of mainframe computers that standardizes system architecture and transforms commercial data processing across the globe.
- May 1, 1964 | Dartmouth College | USA
BASIC Programming Language
John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz run the first program written in BASIC, democratizing computer programming for students and non-experts.
- October 1, 1964 | Transportation | Japan
The Tokaido Shinkansen
Japan launches the world's first high-speed rail line between Tokyo and Osaka, ushering in the era of modern high-speed passenger trains.
- November 28, 1964 | Space Flight | NASA
Mariner 4 Mars Mission
NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe, which would go on to perform the first successful flyby of Mars and capture the first close-up photos of another planet.
- 1964 | Astrophysics | USA
Cosmic Microwave Background Discovery
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discover the thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang while testing a sensitive horn antenna at Bell Labs.
- 1964 | Supercomputing | USA
CDC 6600 Supercomputer
Designed by Seymour Cray, Control Data Corporation delivers the CDC 6600, widely regarded as the world's first successful commercial supercomputer.
- 1964 | Hardware | SRI
Invention of the Computer Mouse
Douglas Engelbart invents the first prototype computer mouse, using a wooden shell with two metallic wheels to control an on-screen cursor.
- 1964 | Particle Physics | USA
Proposal of the Quark Model
Physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig independently propose the existence of quarks as fundamental building blocks of subatomic particles.
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