1971 – The Soviet Union’s Mars 2 orbiter released its descent module which probably had too steep an angle of entry, and malfunctioned and crashed. But hey, it was still the first manmade object to reach the surface of Mars.

http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/marschro.htm

1998 – The Sega Dreamcast game console launched in Japan.
http://www.giantbomb.com/dreamcast/3045-37/

2001 – Scientists announced they had used the Hubble telescope to detect and analyze the atmosphere on an extrasolar planet for the first time. The planet HD 209458 b, unofficially called Osiris was found to have sodium in its atmosphere.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast27nov_1/

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

1894 – Norbert Wiener was born in Columbia, Missouri. He would get his BA in mathematics at age 14 but is most remembered for his theory of regulation and of signal transmission which he called “cybernetics”

http://www.isss.org/lumwiener.htm

1922 – “Toll of the Sea” debuted. It was the first color movie that didn’t require a special projector, the second technicolor film ever, and the first in wide release.
http://archive.org/details/TheTollOfTheSeanovember261922

2003 – The final flight of a Concorde ended when the supersonic jet touched down at Filton, Bristol, England, the airfield where it was built.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/3238674.stm

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

1816 – Gaslight illuminated Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street Theatre, improving on an innovation pioneered in London. Instead of coal the gas was created from pitch, reducing the malodorous vapors caused by the wonder’s creation.

http://www3.northern.edu/wild/LiteDes/ldhist.htm

1915 – Albert Einstein presented general theory of relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/11/economist-explains-17

1957 – PG&E and General Electric inaugurated the Vallecitos Nuclear Power Plant in Pleasanton California. It was the first privately funded atomic power plant.

http://archive.org/details/FirstPri1957 http://www.energy.ca.gov/nuclear/california.html

1976 – The Project Viking landers passed through superior conjunction at Mars, enabling scientists to begin an experiment that used the landers as transponders. The data collected confirmed the Shapiro Delay, becoming one of the best confirmations of General Relativity we have seen.

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1979ApJ…234L.219R

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

1932 – The FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (known then only as the Technical Crime Laboratory) officially opened in Washington DC. It’s location was chosen because it had a sink, and its one employee, Agent Charles Appel had to borrow a microscope.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-fbi-crime-lab-opens-its-doors-for-business
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/highlights-of-history/articles/laboratory

1969 – The Apollo 12 command module with its all-Navy crew splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon. Credit goes to the USS Hornet for its second flawless recovery effort.

http://www.uss-hornet.org/history/apollo/

1998 – AOL announced it would purchase Netscape Communications, merging what were then two of the biggest names on the Internet.
http://money.cnn.com/1998/11/24/technology/aol/

2014 – Attackers calling themselves “Guardians Of Peace” hacked into Sony Pictures Entertainment’s internal networks, stealing data, deleting data, and placing a message and an image of a red skeleton on computer desktops throughout the company.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/24/7277451/sony-pictures-paralyzed-by-massive-security-compromise

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