1793 – Eli Whitney applied to patent his improved cotton gin, capable of cleaning 50 pounds of lint per day, and powering patent metaphors and arguments for centuries to come.
http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=1028
1955 – A pair of proud Seattle parents welcomed their new son into the world, having no idea he would become one of the most loved and hated men of all time. Happy birthday William Henry Gates the third. You know him as Bill.
http://www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520
1998 – President Bill Clinton signed into law the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, making it illegal for you to use computers the way they were designed to be used, if big companies didn’t want you to.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/10/dmca-ten-years-unintended-consequences
2014 – The W3C published its recommendation of HTML5, the final version of the standard. It included the video and canvas tags among other improvements.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.