TODAY IN HISTORY: Birth of the CD

In 1923, “Time” magazine published its inaugural issue.

In 1933, the movie “King Kong” had its world premiere in New York.

In 1939, a fire at Queen’s Hotel in Halifax claimed 28 lives.

In 1943, the Second World War’s “Battle of the Bismarck Sea” began. Australian and American warplanes intercepted a Japanese convoy en route to New Guinea. Most of the 16-vessel convoy was destroyed and more than 3,000 Japanese troops were killed.

In 1951, the first Canadian casualty list from the Korean War was issued. Six soldiers had been killed.

In 1958, Dr. Vivien Fuchs, a British explorer and scientist, completed the first overland crossing of the Antarctic.

In 1962, Philadelphia 76ers centre Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in an NBA game against the New York Knicks.

In 1983, Sony and Philips introduced their jointly developed compact disc system. The CD is a digital medium in which sound waves are replicated as a series of binary numbers on the 12-cm disc. A laser in the CD player reads the digital information, which is then translated into sound. In contrast, vinyl records were traditionally recorded using analog technology, which replicates sound waves in the grooves of a record. The sound is transmitted through a needle vibrating in a groove via a cartridge to an amplifier. The major advantage of digital recording over analog is that it eliminates extraneous noise. In analog recording, a noise reduction mechanism is needed to minimize hisses and crackles. At a 1980 demonstration of the new product, renowned conductor Herbert von Karajan declared that “all else is gaslight.” Within a decade of the CD’s introduction, vinyl records had virtually disappeared from stores.

In 1990, Nelson Mandela was elected deputy president of the African National Congress.

In 2000, world and Olympic champion curler Sandra Schmirler died in Regina of cancer at the age of 36. She skipped her team to three national and world curling titles in the 1990s, as well as the 1998 Olympic title in Nagano.

In 2008, Canadian rock blues and jazz musician Jeff Healey, who won a Juno in 1990 for Entertainer of the Year, died at age 41 after a long battle with cancer that robbed him of his sight when he was a baby.

In 2012, Sears Canada announced the October closures of three high-profile stores in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa, affecting some 670 jobs.