http://www.google.com/patents?id=BehtAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
1973 – Sergey Brin was born in Moscow. His family emigrated to the US in 1979. He would grow up to co-develop a search engine with Larry Page and co-found Google.
http://www.biography.com/people/sergey-brin-12103333
1993 – NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer three days before it was supposed to enter orbit. As it began to pressurize fuel tanks, the spacecraft’s transmitters went silent and it was never heard from again.
http://science.nasa.gov/missions/mars-observer/
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.