1935 – A Time magazine article described the use of the pattern of capillaries in the retina as a means of identification called eye prints. Hello biometrics!
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755453,00.html
1947 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain applied two closely-spaced gold contacts held in place by a plastic wedge to the surface of a small slab of high-purity germanium. It was the next step in the development of the Transistor.
http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/labpages/labpg3.html
2002 – Creative Commons formally launched, unveiling Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses and a revamped website.
https://creativecommons.org/2002/12/16/creativecommonsunveilsmachinereadablecopyrightlicenses/
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.