August 17, 2011

This is The Nerd's Almanac for Wednesday, August 17, 2011.

It's the anniversary of the 1970 launch of Venera 7 by the Soviet Union. It landed on Venus and was the first spacecraft to communicate with Earth from another planet.
Today is the birthday of Pierre de Fermat -- yes, the guy with the theorem was born on this date in 1601. Calculus, geometry, number theory, probability -- important math dude, for sure.

I've just learned that today is the anniversary of the first compact disc, manufactured by Phillips on this date in 1982. How strange that they've nearly gone the way of the vinyl record. The what, you say? Ha!

And today is Larry Ellison's birthday. He's the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, maker of database and enterprise software -- very nerdy stuff indeed.

Here's a quote from today's birthday boy...
“When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.” -- Larry Ellison

Well that's the Almanac for today. And nerds of the world, we salute you!

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_17
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_program
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Fermat
http://www.newscenter.philips.com/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Ellison
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/larry_ellison/

P.S. Did I mention that we'd love to hear from you all? If you have anything to share with other nerds today (or any day) be sure to let us know! Our address is nerdsalmanac (all one word) at gmail (dot) com.