1984 – The SETI Institute, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence was founded by Thomas Pierson (CEO), and Dr. Jill Tarter. No luck so far, but they keep looking.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/3992/November-20-SETI-Institute-is-founded

1985 – Microsoft finally released Version 1.0 of Windows. It was considered slightly inferior to competitors like DESQview and the Macintosh.
https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/History/The-History-of-Microsoft-1985

1998 – The first module of the International Space Station launched. Zarya, also called the Functional Cargo Block, provided electrical power, storage and propulsion. It’s now consigned to being used for storage.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/spacenews/reports/issreports/1998/iss3.html

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

1872 – E.D. Barbour of Boston, Mass. received the first US patent for an adding machine capable of printing totals and subtotals. The so-called “calculating machine,” proved impractical.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=MaxFAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

1967 – Hong Kong TV, the first free over the air commercial television station in Hong Kong was established. Today it is known as TVB.

http://www.tvb.com/info/faq/e_corporation.html

1981 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos banned video games, citing such insidious examples as Space Invaders and Asteroids as a “destructive social enemy, the electrical bandit.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=pq6-X1fTm2oC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=november+19+1981+marcos+bans+videogames&source=bl&ots=oQwRvtTza1&sig=5IoZotCSlAzF0Ha10SJWGAT0gUo&hl=en#v=onepage&q=november%2019%201981%20marcos%20bans%20videogames&f=false

2006 – The Nintendo Wii launched in North America.

http://www.cnet.com/news/nintendo-wii-release-details-nov-19-250-with-a-game-included/

2007 – Amazon launched an e-reader called the Kindle that used an e-ink screen. The device had built-in free Internet connectivity and sold for $399.
http://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-debuts-kindle-e-book-reader/

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

1883 – US and Canadian railways adopted five standardized time zones to replace the multitude of local times scattered across North America. It was called “The Day of Two Noons” as each railroad station clock was reset as standard-time noon was reached within each time zone.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/railroads-create-the-first-time-zones

1928 – Steamboat Willie premiered at Universal’s Colony Theater in New York City. It was the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was also the first official appearance of Mickey Mouse. Happy birthday Mickey, now give us back a reasonable public domain date.

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=89284

1977 – A startup called Microsoft, fresh off developing its own version of FORTRAN, won the right in arbitration to license its version of BASIC, previously licensed exclusively through MITS, makers of the Altair.

http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.htm

2012 – The Nintendo Wii U launched in North America. The console did not yet feature it TVii service but did require a 5GB download which took over an hour to update the console’s software.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/19/wii-u-launch-us-problems

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

1790 – August Ferdinand Mobius was born in Schulpforta, Saxony. The mathematician, astronomer and physicist is most well remembered for the discovery of the Mobius strip, a 2-dimensional object with only one side when embedded in 3D space. Poor Johann Benedict Listing also discovered it at the same time but Listing strip just doesn’t have the same ring.
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Mobius.html

1947 – Walter Brattain dumped a semiconductor experiment into a thermos of water and unexpectedly saw a large amplification of electricity. Working with John Bardeen they developed it into a new amplifier that would eventually be called the transistor.

http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/miraclemo.html

1970 – The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium on the Moon. It was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world.

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/538-Lunokhod-1-Revisited.html

1971 – The Kenbak-1 desktop computer was advertised for sale in ComputerWorld for $750 It had first been advertised in Scientific American in September. The 8-bit computer had 256 bytes of memory and was dubbed the world’s first commercially available personal computer by a panel of experts involving Steve Wozniak.

https://books.google.com/books?id=wCl2yLDv2bAC&pg=PT42&dq=Kenbak-1&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bEPqTsXUG4GwiQKO1sC-BA&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Kenbak-1&f=false
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34639183

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

1904 – Sir John Ambrose Fleming went “scudding down Gower Street” in London on his way to patenting the “oscillation valve” which we fondly call the Vacuum Tube. His patent was later invalidated by the US supreme court, but that didn’t stop Fleming from being Knighted and receiving a medal of honor from the Institute of Radio Engineers.

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4401607/Fleming-patents-vacuum-tube–November-16–1904
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/radio_history/gtnames/fleming.php

1965 – The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus. It would become the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet, though it failed to return data.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1965-092A

2000 – ICANN announced its decision to include 7 new top-level domains giving birth to the .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name and .pro, TLDs.

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/icann-pr-16nov00-en.htm

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