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.
1967 – Hong Kong TV, the first free over the air commercial television station in Hong Kong was established. Today it is known as TVB.
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.”
2006 – The Nintendo Wii launched in North America.
2007 – Amazon launched an e-reader called the Kindle that used an e-ink screen.
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.
Amazon Echo can send texts, Apple reduces cost of fixing touch disease, and Baidu dumps BMW.
Qualcomm introduced new 10-nanometer Snapdragon chip, LinkedIn blocked in Russia, UK passes snooping bill.
Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation, Facebook fixes ad reporting mistakes, Snapchat files for IPO.