The first e-mail from space

August 9, 1991

ON this day, the very first electronic mail message from space was sent by the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis, mission STS-43, from an Apple Macintosh Portable computer and by using the AppleLink online service. Atlantis astronauts Shannon Lucid and James C. Adamson sent the following message:

“Hello Earth! Greetings from the STS-43 Crew. This is the first AppleLink from space. Having a GREAT time, wish you were here,… send cryo and RCS! Hasta la vista, baby, … we’ll be back!”

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August 10, 1937

THIS day, the US Patent Office awarded patent to G.D. Beauchamp for an instrument known as the Rickenbacker Frying Pan. The instrument was nick-named ‘Frying Pan’ because of its circular body and long neck which make it resemble a frying pan. This was the earliest form of electric guitar.

Inventor G.D. Beauchamp, partner with Adolph Rickenbacher in the Electro String Instrument Corporation of Los Angeles, California, spent more than five years pursuing his patent on the ‘Frying Pan’.

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August12, 1939

THIS day, The Wizard of Oz, receives its world premiere in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, the US.

Frank Baum’s bestselling novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published in 1900. It was adapted numerous times for the stage and screen and even set to music prior to 1939. It was this year when the film adaptation earned the novel a permanent place not only in cinema history, but also in music history.

The original songs for The Wizard of Oz were written by song writers Lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Harold Arlen teamed up in 1938.