November 2: 35 Years Ago

Computer Worms, Wooden Airplane, Baby Shark, Cheerleading, & More

Author

Cameron Bartkoski
November 02, 2023

Good morning and welcome to Today In History. Explore the past to understand the present, one day at a time.

  • Computer Worm

  • Shaping the World

  • Music

  • Just For Fun

  • Birthdays & Deaths

Robert Morris: Computer Worm (1988)

“Morris Worm” floppy disk

Setting The Scene

Let’s wind up the time machine and head back a short 35 years ago. It’s a busy time in the world. The Berlin Wall is just a year from falling and the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union captures the world’s attention. Environmental concerns are rising, with attention on climate change, deforestation and conservation efforts.

Today, we land in the United States, a significant period in American culture. Michael Jackson’s “Bad” dominates the radio, “The Simpsons” debuts as a series of shorts, “Beetlejuice” hits Broadway, and “Die Hard” captivates movie audiences. In terms of technology, personal computers are becoming more common thanks to the Apple Macintosh and IBM’s PC.

What Happened?

Robert Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University had been working on a computer worm, a malware program intended to spread amongst computers and steal information. After Morris finished up his project, he stored the program on his floppy disk and headed down to MIT to release the worm, an effort to go unnoticed.

Essentially, the worm would check if a computer was already infected, but Morris programmed it to copy itself whether the computer was infected or not. What Morris didn’t realize is that his worm made computers on the network very slow, slow enough to catch the attention of the people in charge and caught.

Morris was prosecuted, making him the first person to be indicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1989. Despite this setback, Morris would go on to cofound Viaweb with longtime friend Paul Graham, which they would later sell to Yahoo for $49 million. They followed that up with the legendary startup firm Y-Combinator, the value of its companies now sitting above $600 billion.

Impact

The “Morris Worm” remains a significant discovery in the history of computer security and the development of the internet. Morris exposed the need for better security practices on the emerging internet and introduced more people to the concept of hacking. In that same light, ethical hacking and cybersecurity became professions, with major industries needing to defend against cyber threats.

What else happened?

Shaping the World

Spruce Goose in flight (1947)

  • Howard Hughes takes flight in the Spruce Goose, a plane made entirely of wood. (1947)

  • Coup in Saudi Arabia leads to Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud takes over the government while King Saud is overseas. (1964)

  • Ronald Regan signs bill to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. (1983)

Music

Album cover for Symphony No. 1

  • Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 premiers in the US at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. (1928)

  • Shakira becomes first female artist to win Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards. (2006)

  • “Baby Shark” becomes the most-watched video on YouTube, amassing over 7 billion views. (2020)

Just For Fun

Johnny Campbell and friends cheer for the first time (1898)

Birthdays

Deaths