The Engineering Pathway is creating a “Today in History” database of engineering and technology events for every day of the year. Currently, the “Today in History” events are displayed in the news area under the left navigation. As most days have more than one event – only one is randomly displayed with each refresh. Where relevant, discipline-specific events are displayed on the Computer Science Education and Engineering Education Disciplinary Community pages as well. The events are accompanied by a daily blog that gives more details on the events and relates them to educational resources in the Engineering Pathway.

Below is the blog and events for November 10 with a focus on the first documented experimental computer virus.

Today in History – November 10, 1983 – Fred Cohen presented to a security seminar the results of his test on the first documented virus, created as an experiment in computer security.

The first virus in the wild was found earlier in 1981 on the Apple II, spread on floppy disks containing the operating system. The author of the Elk Cloner virus was Rich Skrenta, a ninth grade student at the time.

Created while he was studying for a PhD at the University of Southern California, Cohen was the first to demonstrate a working example on a computer system and present the results in a public forum. A year later, his research was published in a paper where he defined a virus as “a program that can ‘infect’ other programs by modifying them to include a … version of itself”.

This experiment in creating a hazard in order to prevent an even worse one provides an interesting case in computer privacy, security, responsibility and engineering ethics. A well designed virus can have a devastating effect on society, disrupting work, communications and causing billions of dollars in damages. Their success shows how interconnected human beings have become on the Internet and how dependent we have become on its stable operations. See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on computer viruses and internet security. For more on related curricular programs and educational resources visit the Software Engineering Education, the Computer Science Education, the Information Systems Education or the Information Technology Education community sites.

Also on this day in history in 1903, Granville T. Woods, a famous black American inventor, received a patent for an “Electric Railway” (U.S. No. 729,481). Woods held numerous other patents relating to the electric railway, electrical devices, brakes, and telegraphy for railways.

On this day in 1965, Mary Edward Walker, the first Army female surgeon, was awarded the Medal of Honor for her work during the Civil War. Dr. Mary Walker changed the face of medicine as a physician and as an advocate for women’s rights and healthy cothing for women. As she concluded in 1897, “I am the original new woman…Why, before Lucy Stone, Mrs. Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were—before they were, I am. In the early ’40’s, when they began their work in dress reform, I was already wearing pants…I have made it possible for the bicycle girl to wear the abbreviated skirt, and I have prepared the way for the girl in knickerbockers.“