1966 Inventions: Facts That Will Inspire You To Innovate Something

The mobile phone is an invention of the '60s that has made us addicted.

Contact lenses work like magic for students and professionals. There are so many products in the consumer market that are inventions of the '60s.

Over the past century, there have been many technological developments. Some have helped us make life easy and better. While some other inventions have helped save lives.

An artificial heart is one such game changer in the field of medicine. Diabetic insulin, cordless tools, cell phone, video games. A few of these modern inventions have become a part of our lives in such a way that we cannot imagine life without them.

Medicines like penicillin and antibiotics have helped fight grave diseases. And the invention of the Polio vaccine has helped eradicate the disease forever from many countries. while fiber optics has brought the world closer.

We have now laptops and personal computers for our use. But the invention of the World wide web, the first web page, and the computer mouse all happened in the 60s era. A few of these inventions have been appreciated by giving Nobel prizes for the same.

Scientific Discoveries In 1966

As technology and humans advance hand in hand our lives are becoming easy and beautiful. The first model of an invention may not look that pretty but over time they have become so convenient just like the mobile phone.

Charles K. Kao presented the first model of fiber optics along with George Hockham. The Optical fiber is a little thicker than the hair we have but it carries huge amounts of information at high speed. The light is transmitted for communication.

The data can travel long distances without loss. In metal wires there was leakage and loss of signals. the problem has been solev by the use of fibers.

In May the ATM machine was patented. James Goodfellow got it patented in the UK. ATM is actually an acronym for Automated Teller Machine. To use this machine a plastic card is used.

To validate the card credentials a PIN is used. The main purpose is to do financial transactions at any time of the day without having to visit your home branch. A person can withdraw, deposit, inquire about balance and do much more.

Soviet Union had launched its first GEV. GEV means ground effect vehicle. It was named the Caspian sea monster. Although it was developed in 1960, but launched in 1966.

It was the heaviest vehicle at that time. It basically remained over the surface of water due to the movement of air. It does not sail like a boat but glides on the surface. The aerodynamics of the design makes it possible. It has been later modified into Hovercrafts.

A home security system was made in the USA. As the crime rate had increased a lot, Marie Van Brittan Brown came up with the system.

There was the use of disposable cameras, automated locks, and doors that can be operated remotely. The first video game was created by Ralph H. Baer in September 1966. This is when the multi-million businesses came to life.

The use of the personal computer came to our homes and we also got to use a computer mouse for ease. The BCPL programming language was developed in 1966 by Martin Richard. These are basically codes for the machines to process information and give understandable results.

New information about enzymes enhanced the studies in Biochemistry. The development of insulin medicine made the life of diabetic people easy. The Discovery of LPT helped us understand the functioning of the brain and the memory function of humans.

In 1966 a living Pygmy Possum was found in Australia. It was believed to have gone extinct. Carterfone was invented in 1966. It is a device that connects mobile phones and radios to the telephone network with the use of radio waves.

HP computers or Hewlett-Packard launched its first computer. The word processing speed was high as per that time competitors.

The A. M Turing award was given for the first time in 1966 to Alan J. Perlis. He had made his mark in the early progress of computing. DOCTOR was a language coding system that answers your queries just like a psychotherapist.

The first commercial use of ICs was done by IBM. IC is an integrated circuit that made running computers much easier and faster. there were many more advancements in the field of computers. Like the 8 Bit RAM was developed for microcomputers. The invention of Acoustic modems too took place.

When USSR launched Sputnik in response to that USA launched ARPA for all sorts of advanced research. The small calculators that we use now that are easily hand held were also developed in the year 1966.

The credit goes to Texas Instruments. This bullet proof material used to make bulletproof vests was developed by Stephanie Kwolek in the same year. This material is five times stronger than steel and at the same time, it is lightweight.

Another milestone event occurred in medical science. The use of the Polio Vaccine was given its due importance in 1966. The Mammogram machine was also developed and has since then helped in the treatment of cancer patients.

Astronomical Achievements In 1966

The Soviet spacecraft makes the first soft landing on the moon. Before LUNA (there had been many failed attempts to land on the moon. Luna was a crewless spacecraft.

This was three years before Apollo went out there. The soft landing helped scientists understand that there is a hard surface as well on the moon. Apollo 11 carried astronauts Neil Armstrong to the moon.

While another milestone achievement was made by Venera3. It crashed on the surface of Venus. Although not a smooth landing, it did make it that far and reached Venus. It was a project by the soviet union.

Soon after that NASA sent Gemini 8. This was not for a planet but for a target vehicle. They performed the docking of two spacecraft in the orbit. A major in-space system failure occurred in this mission. The mission had to be aborted. The crew was able to come to earth safely.

Luna 10 was the first spacecraft to reach lunar orbit in 1966. The Soviet Union sent this robotic spacecraft.

It was also accomplished by becoming the first artificial moon satellite. It carried out a significant study in lunar orbit, acquiring crucial data on the power of the Moon's magnetic field, its radiation belts, and the composition of lunar rocks, cosmic radiation, and micrometeoroid density.

The main result of this discovery was the finding of the mass Mascons. These are the areas of high density on the surface of the moon.

The United States launches Satellite Explorer 32. The United States launched a NASA satellite to examine the Earth's upper atmosphere. The launch was from Cape Canaveral on a Delta C1 launch vehicle on On May 25, 1966. It was in space till Feb 1985.

In July Gemini 10 was sent by NASA. The astronauts established a worldwide altitude record of 474 miles (763 km) after docking with an Agena target vehicle.

During the flight, John Young and Michael Collins piloted the spacecraft. Michael Collins was future Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot. Collins made history by being the first person to do two extravehicular activities.

The United States launches Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to circle the Moon. Its main aim was to click photographs of the smooth regions of the moon's surface.

This was done to choose and verify safe landing locations for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. Lunar Orbiter 1 also has the capability of collecting other sensitive micrometeoroid impact data.

In the month of November, there was a magnificent display of Leonids over the USA. The Leonids are a spectacular meteor shower connected with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The comet Tempel-Tuttle is well noted for its stunning meteor showers that occur every 33 years or so. These meteor showers are located in the constellation Leo.

Thus they get their name from here. the frozen gases from the comet evaporate due to the sun's heat. Thus there is a display of Leonids in the American sky.

On October 29, Janus was first photographed. Audouin Dollfus identifies Janus, one of Saturn's moons. Saturn X is another name for it. It takes its name from the legendary Janus.

Epimetheus, another of Saturn's moons had been discovered. it was confused with Janus till 1978 as they both have the same orbit. Epimetheus is Saturn's innermost satellite. Saturn XI is another name for it. It is named after the legendary Epimetheus.

In England, Mullard Space Science Laboratory was established. The UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) is the largest university space research group in the United Kingdom. MSSL is part of University College London's Department of Space and Climate Physics. This is one of the world's first universities to do space research.

MSSL has been a part of 35 satellite missions. 10 of these are operational to date. There have been over 200 sounding rocket tests done by MSSL since its inception.

Television Shows And Movies Created In 1966

On the verge of so many incredible innovations, people's imaginations were running wild. Science fiction was mixed with technology to produce dazzling, thought-provoking entertainment. Here are some of the year's most notable science fiction movies that kept people in cinema halls repeatedly.

Peter Cushing as the Doctor, the film adaptation of Dr. Who and the Daleks came in 1966. It was the first Doctor Who media that was both colored and shot in widescreen.

'Fahrenheit 451' is a British production based on Ray Bradbury's novel of the same name. The story revolves around a firefighter who is stranded in a dystopian authoritarian state and is entrusted with burning all books. The film received a Golden Lion nomination.

'Women Of The Prehistoric Planet' involves a story of explorers landing on another planet. The movie was so horrifying that it was given the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.

Another science fiction that we remember to date was 'Star Trek'. The first broadcast of the TV series was in 1966. Captain James was a household name as everyone was so mesmerized by the picture animation in the series.

The ship and device they used and all the technology looked so real and amazing just like the aliens. The idea of aliens was very bubbling at that time due to so many space ventures. This show struck the right cords and became popular.

'Fantastic Voyage' was a story created by acclaimed writer Isaac Asimov. In this book, a group of men and women were reduced down to a microscopic size.

They were then entrusted with the horrifying job of entering a dying man's body to remove a blood clot. This was a book way beyond its time in the terms of technology used. The idea of removal of a clot of blood even by surgery had not been thought of.

Mathematical Achievements In 1966

The world was advancing in the field of Mathematics as well. Many major functions and theories were developed and verified this year. They were recognized worldwide and have been used to date.

The Fabius feature is now available. The Fabius function, discovered by Jaap Fabius, is an example of an indefinitely differentiable function that is nowhere analytic. Chen Jingrun publishes Chen's theorem, which states that any sufficiently big even integer may be represented as the product of a prime and a semiprime.

Mumford-Tate groupings are introduced by David Mumford. The Mumford-Tate group was formed from a Hodge structure F. This is a specific algebraic group G in algebraic geometry. Sir Michael Francis Atiyah received the highest mathematical accolade for his research on algebraic topology. He also contributed to proving Atiyah-index Singer's theorem.

Paul Joseph Cohen was a mathematician from the United States. He received the Fields Medal for demonstrating the autonomy of the continuum hypothesis from the various axioms of set theory.

The 'Tohoku Paper' by Alexander Grothendieck was well known. Grothendieck was also given the prize for his achievements in algebraic geometry for this article, which revolutionized homological algebra. Stephen Smale solved the extended Poincaré conjecture in dimension while working in the subject of differential topology.

FAQs

What foods came out in 1966?

Food that was invented this year includes everything from frozen french fries to Doritos!

What happened in 1966 in the world?

Many important events such as the war in Vietnam, the first landing in space, and many other milestones were reached in this year.