1933 – Wiley Post returned to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes after leaving, becoming the fastest person to circumnavigate the Earth by air and the first to do it solo.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/wiley-post-flies-solo-around-the-world
1962 – The first Mariner space probe to Venus had to be destroyed shortly after lift-off because of “improper operation of the Atlas airborne beacon equipment.” The error was caused by a missing overbar in the program that must have disappeared during hand transcription.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0A16F63C59137B93C1AB178CD85F468685F9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overbar
1997 – Apple announced OS 8 for Macintosh computers. It added easier Internet integration and a 3D look to the OS.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/sep97/applesep97.html
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.