As Control Design celebrates its 15th anniversary, each month we bring you a look back at some of the events and developments that shaped technology during that time. In August, Apple Computer and Microsoft reached an agreement to share technology, Lego's Robotics Invention System was released, and Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet."
Aug. 6, 1997: Apple Computer and Microsoft agreed to share technology in a deal giving Microsoft a stake in Apple’s survival.
Aug. 23, 1997: The first Robot World Cup (RoboCup) soccer games were held in Nagoya, Japan, at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
Aug. 25, 1998: A survey released said that one-third of Americans use the Internet.
August 1998: Lego released its first Robotics Invention System, naming the product line Mindstorms after Seymour Papert’s seminal book on children and computers.
Aug. 9, 2004: Donald Duck received the 2,257th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Aug. 24, 2005: Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Aug. 4, 2009: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry earlier in the year.
Aug. 5, 2011: Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a mission to Jupiter.
