The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first large-scale civilian nuclear power plant in the world first fed electricity into the grid for the Pittsburgh area. Shippingport is located on the Ohio River about 25 miles from Pittsburgh. Ground was broken in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower when the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 authorized private nuclear power production in the U.S. He made the official opening dedication on 26 May 1958, a year in which the United States would detonate 77 atomic tests, but one that would also see the first tentative test ban agreement. It was taken out of service in 1982. Decommissioning was completed in 1989.

The pioneering Altair 8800 microcomputer was first put on sale in the U.S. as a do-it-yourself computer kit, for $397. It used switches for input and flashing lights as a display. Ed Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) to market his product that used the 8800 microprocessor. The demand for the $395.00 machine exceeded the manufacturer's wildest expectations. The Altair 8800 was featured on the cover of the Jan 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. The first commercially successful personal computer, the Commodore PET, which integrated a keyboard and monitor in its case, came out in early 1977. The Apple II followed later that year.