1895 – The US Patent office granted George B. Selden the US patent for his road engine, often considered the first car. He made good money licensing the patent, until Henry Ford crushed him in court. Hence the reason none of us drive Seldens.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-selden-patents-gas-powered-car
1994 – Ken McCarthy of the Internet Gazette along with Marc Andreessen of the brand new Netscape (still called Mosaic Communications Corp) and Mark Graham held the first conference to focus on the commercial potential of the World Wide Web.
http://www.kenmccarthy.com/archive/ig1.html
2007 – China’s first lunar satellite, the Chang’e 1 went into orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft operated until March 2009.
http://www.gov.cn/english/2007-11/05/content_795918.htm
2007 – The Open Handset Alliance introduced a little something called the Android operating system for mobile phones. Few people expected it to seriously challenge the dominance of Blackberry and Palm.
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/android-is-5-years-old-today-heres-how-it-all-began-50009685/
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.