Ernie Smith

How the shipping container, a dominant force in ocean shipping, came from a truck driver whose invention proved to be too good at its job.

The PC industry first landed on the FCC’s radar not for the computers themselves, but for the electrical noise they emitted. Blame the CB radio.

How a decision sparked by the death of one of the world’s biggest pop stars knocked the Billboard 200 out of alignment.

Handheld calculators saw a massive amount of innovation in the 1970s—thanks in no small part to LCD screens and a primitive form of typography.

One of the best-known icons of modern society is a classic example of a symbol—it’s easy to spot, but hard to explain. Who came up with it?

Corporate motivation isn’t enough when it comes to digital preservation. Here’s a case for creating a National Register of Historic Places for websites.