1962 – NASA launched the Mariner 2 unmanned space mission to Venus.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1962-041A
1989 – The first direct-to-home TV satellite launched from Cape Canaveral. Marco Polo I delivered the British Satellite Broadcasting service to homes in the UK.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1989-067A
2003 – Fairbanks, Alaska got the world’s biggest UPS backup. The city hooked up the world’s largest storage battery, built to provide an uninterrupted power supply of 40 megawatts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3312118/Worlds-biggest-battery-switched-on-in-Alaska.html
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.