January 4 – The Day Computers Ran Out of Time

On January 4, 1975, early computer systems reached a hidden limit and quietly broke when they could no longer count forward in time. In this episode of The Strange History Podcast, Amy explores the bizarre true story of one of the earliest time rollover failures — how outdated assumptions caused modern machines to stumble, why engineers never expected their systems to last this long, and how this forgotten incident foreshadowed Y2K and future digital disasters. A strange reminder that even computers are at the mercy of time.

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