Silicon Valley is synonymous today with high-tech startups and technology, a center for computer research and big-name tech companies. But in the 1930s that reputation was just beginning to form when the city of Sunnyvale sold some land to the US government to establish an airbase, today known as Moffett Field. The history of that airfield and the work done there has done more than a little to earn Silicon Valley its name.
From Blimps to Microchips: Moffett Field
On November 26, 1914 the battleship HMS Bulwark was moored in the river Medway, part of a fleet assembled in anticipation of a possible raid against London by the Imperial German fleet when, without any warning, as one witness reported, “there was a flash, a cloud of smoke, and the ship vanished.”