1879 – James Jacob Ritty patented the first cash register as “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier”. He was motivated to invent it by the no-good thieving employees at his saloon.

http://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2010/11/necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention/

1939 – Packard Motor Co. exhibited the first air-conditioned automobile at the 40th Automobile Show in Chicago, Illinois.

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/bp/november-4-packard-offers-first-car-air-conditioner-132542726.html

1952 – Fresh off census duty, the UNIVAC computer projected General Dwight David Eisenhower would defeat Adlai Stevenson for President of the US. All the polls showed Stevenson had a clear advantage so CBS delayed using the projection fearing inaccuracy.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/09/univac-the-troubled-life-of-americas-first-computer/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1957 – The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 carrying the first animal ever to enter orbit, a dog named Laika. It would go on to inspire the saddest Jonathan Coulton song ever, “Space Doggity” and the band Laika and the Cosmonauts.

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/sputnik2.html

1973 – NASA launched Mariner 10 towards Mercury. It would become the first space probe to reach the planet.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/history/70s/Mariner10_1973.htm

1992 – Tim Berners-Lee posted a page describing the World Wide Web. It’s the oldest page still served on the Web.

http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#Examples

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1815 – George Boole was born in Lincolnshire, England AND he became a mathematician who laid down the foundations for Boolean logic XOR Boolean Algebra. Search engine power users everywhere thank him.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/73612/George-Boole

1920 – KDKA in Pittsburgh started broadcasting as the first commercial radio station in the US. The first broadcast? Election results. Actual results, not projections.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2010/04/01/kdka-history/

1936 – BBC Television Service went on the air with the world’s first regular “high definition” service. Back then high definition meant 200 lines not 1080. The channel became BBC One in 1964.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/6adec60d71fe458b93ccee9b40d279dc

1988 – The Morris Worm began replicating across 6,000 computers causing slow systems and proving difficult to eradicate. 24-year-old Robert Tappan Morris Jr. at MIT had created the worm in order to see how many computers were hooked up to the Internet.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/in-1988-one-rogue-worm-shut-down-10-percent-of-the-internet

2015 – Hewlett-Packard split into two companies. HPE handled enterprise services and traded under the stock ticker HPE. HP Inc. kept the PC and printer business and the stock ticker HP.

http://www.ibtimes.com/hp-split-marks-historic-moment-75-year-old-silicon-valley-company-2164532

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

1870 – The United States Weather Bureau (now known as the National Weather Service) made its first actual weather report. 24 observers sent reports by telegram to Washington DC.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/evolution.php

1963 – The largest radio telescope ever constructed, the Arecibo observatory opened in Arecibo Puerto Rico. It would be used for many major discoveries including the first direct imaging of an asteroid.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/nov1/worlds-largest-radio-telescope-opens/

1968 – The MPAA and 2 other industry organizations introduced the voluntary ratings system. G meant good for all ages, M meant mature audiences, R was restricted and X… well you know what X means. It would serve as a model for future voluntary systems like that used by the video game industry.

http://books.google.com/books?id=4WHgzaihSTgC&pg=PP104&lpg=PP104&dq=november+1+1968+voluntary+ratings+system&source=bl&ots=hulqwGH9et&sig=SxD_ymp776yKEiBtTnajoeSVsqE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bnU8VN3fH9DbsASl-IDQBw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=november%201%201968%20voluntary%20ratings%20system&f=false

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.

2000 – The Soyuz TM-31 launched, carrying Expedition 1 the first resident crew to the International Space Station, including Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei Krikalev and William Shepherd. The TM-31 was used as the crew’s lifeboat while on the station.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/spacenews/reports/issreports/2000/iss00-43.html

2000 – Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and Napster agreed to develop a service for swapping and sharing music. The service never materialized.

http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/10/31/bizbuzz/napster/

2007 – Nintendo of Japan finally ended support for the repair of FamiCom game consoles, the Japanese name for NES, citing a shortage of parts. End of an 8-bit era.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/18/nintendo-of-japan-calling-it-quits-on-famicom-hardware-support/

Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.