1637 – Rene Descartes published “Discourse on the Method for Guiding One’s Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences”, which formed the basis of the modern scientific method. It’s also the source of the quote “I think, therefore I am.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=UPGVFEDVc0wC&pg=PA226&lpg=PA226&dq=descartes+1637+june+8&source=bl&ots=IRzDxujrmz&sig=8Zo5pCV6q5e18OY_U4o26FCcwB4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=x3iqUaOyCumdiAK4zIH4DA&ved=0CCwQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=descartes%201637%20june%208&f=false
1949 – George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. The book still affects notions of privacy and inspired the iconic Apple commercial that introduced the Macintosh computer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/10/1984-george-orwell
1955 – Tim Berners-Lee was born in London. He grew up to develop the World Wide Web. http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Longer.html
2008 – Apple announced Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Apple_Announces_Mac_OS_X_Snow_Leopard/
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.