On May 16, 1960, Theodore Maiman did something totally awesome at Hughes Lab: he fired the first functional laser and sent the future of arena rock and the rave scene well on its way. Hughes Lab has since moved on to become the military skunkworks Raytheon and the laser has moved into history as one of the coolest things to ever come out of a laboratory. Not a week goes by that we don't see someone doing something amazing with the things, whether it's blowing up ballistic missiles or just beaming your home movies on the wall. So, to everyone involved in the creation of the laser (including the great Albert Einstein himself), we salute you with this commemorative video embedded below.