Today we celebrate the day of the Internet. This day is observed annually on October 29th.
The internet is the window to the world. Everything nowadays can be found on the internet. Can you imagine your world without the internet? No instant access to streaming media, no Facebook, no Twitter, no shopping online, no online news. The world of internet that we rely on our day to day life. Nowadays, you can attend school online, and all of this is because of the internet.
The internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.
The origins of the Internet date back to research commissioned by the federal government of the United States in the 1960s to build a robust, fault-tolerant communication with computer networks. Although the Internet was widely used by academia since the 1980s, the commercialization incorporated its services and technologies into virtually every aspect of modern life.
Nowadays, newspapers, books, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or are reshaped into blogging, web feeds, and online news aggregators. The Internet has enables and accelerated all the new forms of personal interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking.
The business has grown exponentially for major retailers and small businesses because of online shopping. Steady advances in semiconductor technology and optical networking created new economic opportunities for commercial involvement in the expansion of the network in its core and for delivering services to the public.
So, today, celebrate this day by thanking the people behind the internet, a technology that brought the world to you in the comfort of your living room. Share on social media some internet message to your friends and loves one recognizing the internet using #InternetDay.
1948 Killer smog claims elderly victims
Killer smog continues to hover over Donora, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1948. Over a five-day period, the smog killed about 20 people and made thousands more seriously ill.
Donora was a town of 14,000 people on the Monongahela River in a valley surrounded by hills. The town was home to steel mills and a zinc smelting plant that had released excessive amounts of sulphuric acid, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants into the atmosphere for years prior to the disaster. During the 1920s, the owner of the zinc plant, Zinc Works, paid off local residents for damages caused by the pollution. Still, there was little or no regulation of the air pollution caused by the industries of Donora.
Beginning sometime on October 26, weather conditions in the valley brought a heavy fog into Donora. This fog appears to have trapped the airborne pollutants emitted from the zinc smelting plant and steel mills close to the ground, where they were inhaled by the local residents. Soon, a wave of calls came into area hospitals and physicians. Dr. William Rongaus, the head of the local Board of Health, suggested that all residents with pre-existing respiratory problems leave town immediately. However, 11 people, all elderly and with heart problems or asthma, were already dead.
(excerpted from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/killer-smog-claims-elderly-victims)
