This day in history - September 1

[seamusTX]

1878 - Emma Mills Nutt became the world's first female telephone operator, in Boston. Telephone companies found that women were better at the job than males, who had formerly been employed in that capacity.

1914 - The last known passenger pigeon died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Before 1800, it was one of the most abundant bird species in the world. It was hunted too extinction.

1939 - Germany invaded Poland, officially starting World War II.

1972 - Bobby Fischer became the first (and only so far) American world chess champion, beating Russian Boris Spassky at a time when U.S. national pride needed a shot in the arm. He was a brilliant player from an early age into his 30s, but he became increasingly erratic after the 1970s.

1983 - A Soviet Air Force pilot shot down a Korean Air Lines passenger jet that accidentally entered Soviet airspace, killing 269 people.

Those red buttons under the flip-up covers -- they work.

One far-reaching effect of this incident was a decision to open the U.S. military GPS to civilian use.

- Jim

[Wisewr]

It's amazing to think that the military has had GPS capability since BEFORE 1983. As far as I can tell, GPS has just recently (read last 5-10 yrs.) truley became available for the common civilian. What else do they have that they arn't telling us about....make you wonder.

[seamusTX]

I worked on consumer GPS in 1990. Motorola was selling a unit at that time.

I think the two best-kept secrets of national security (specifically the NSA) are how good they are at cracking encryption, and the resolution of satellite or airborne cameras. Google can show a satellite view of a horse that is detailed enough to tell which way the horse is facing. Maybe the military can see human faces from space.

- Jim

[Purplehood]

In Afghanistan our FOB had an "eye-in-the-sky" on top of a tower. You could see for miles and get close-ups of people that you saw clear across the valley. It was quite "eye-opening".