Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day which has been celebrated annually since 1969. The Day marks the founding of ITU on 17 May 1865 when the first International Telegraph Convention was signed in Paris.

Theodore Maiman fires the first functional laser The American physicist’s invention, an advancement of earlier research by scientists in the U.S. and the Soviet Union, was patented in 1967.

The first McDonald’s fast food restaurant opens Maurice “Mac” and Richard “Dick” McDonald opened McDonald’s Bar-B-Q in San Bernardino. Today, McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast food chain.

Skylab is launched. The United States’ first space station crashed back to Earth on July 11, 1979, four years ahead of schedule. In its six years of service, the laboratory was used for many biomedical and technological experiments.

Apple pie is seen as being very American. Just how American? Well, there is not one but two National Apple Pie Days in a year. And it’s almost a certainty you’ve heard the phrase “as American as apple pie.” How ironic it is, then, that apple pies didn’t even originate in the United States, nor…