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Merchants and Bankers
1950-2008

Trade - an international perspective

This website, produced by Australian historian Dan Byrnes, is a no-frills, text-based website designed simply to list historical and genealogical information on many notable merchants and traders of what is termed, the Western World.

Look for this Home Page navigation button as you travel. This page updated 11 August 2008

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1950s: Invention of the computer floppy disk by Japanese Dr Yoshiro NakaMats. Edison patented 1093 inventions. NakaMats has patented 3280.

1950, In US, the era of "the Seven Dwarfs", small companies interested in developing computers.

1950s, The first computers are released for a commercial market. The first commercial computer is the Sperry-Rand UNIVAC 1. The first (1950) Personal Computer Kit called "Simon", goes on sale in the US. Edmund Berkeley had first described Simon in his 1949 book, "Giant Brains, or Machines That Think", and he went on to publish plans to build Simon in a series of issues of Radio Electronics in 1950-1951.

1950: United nations troops retreat in Korea.

9 December, 1950: Korean War: Australian troops withdraw from North Korea to South.

1950: Japan: Korean War, Communist Party driven underground. Japanese economy takes off.

1950: Malaya: Terrorist murders of Malayans reaches to 100 per month.

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1950: Senator McCarthy in US begins anti-communist "witch-hunts".

25 June, 1950: North Korea as a Soviet client invades South Korea.

More computing history: 1950s, The first computers are released for a commercial market. The first commercial computer is the Sperry-Rand UNIVAC 1.

Computing history: 1950, In US, the era of "the Seven Dwarfs", small companies interested in developing computers.

February 1950: Vietnam: As France creates Assoc. States of Indochina, the Soviet Union and China respond by recognizing Hanoi, ie, Ho Chi Minh's efforts create a legitimate government, the Viet Minh.

The history of digital cameras began with the 1940s/1950s evolution of TV. VTR technology developed by 1956. In the 1960s, NASA found it had to digitally rework images. Cold War technology was also applied to digital imaging as spy satellite imaging systems were improved. A few notes follow e here on the history/development of digital cameras. - Timelines: 1984, Canon demonstrates first electronic still camera. 1985: Pixar introduces digital imaging processor. 1990: Eastman-Kodak announces Photo CD as a digital image storage medium. 1995: The first digital camera was the dc40 from Kodak, marketed for under US$1000 from 1995. In 1995 also came the Apple Quick Take 100, and both the 1995 cameras hooked via a serial cable to a computer.

1951: Australia's first working computer, the CSIR Mark I (later CSIRAC) is officially launched in 1951, although its first operations were run in 1949. A valve computer built by Dr Trevor Pearcey and Maston Beard, CSIR Mark I processed projects for CSIRO, the Snowy Mountains Authority and weather bureau. Over a five-year period it was steadily improved, and was moved in 1955 to Melbourne University. Today CSIRAC is displayed at Museum of Victoria.
CSIR Mark I was also arguably the (first?) computer to play music. Software developer Geoff Hill programmed it to play "Colonel Bogey" at is launch in 1951. Once in Melbourne, Prof. Thomas Cherry developed a program so that anyone who understood standard musical notation could create a punched paper data tape for CSIRAC to perform that music.

1951: Japan: San Francisco Peace Treaty and the US-Japan Security Pact.

1951, October 15: First synthesis of a steroid leading to The Pill (oral contraceptive), in a small laboratory in Mexico City, with Dr. Carl Djerassi, who was using a commercial testing laboratory in Wisconsin, Endocrine Laboratories Inc., with Dr. Elva G. Shipley.

1 September, 1951: Security treaty made, ANZUS, signed in San Francisco. Australia occupation force in Japan to come home.

1951: In 1951, in Tokyo, Japan signs peace treaty re outcome of World War Two. Supposedly settling all questions of any future reparations.

1951: NSW Australia introduces world's first paid sick and long-service leave entitlements for employees.

1952-3: Japan: 4th Yoshida Government.

November 1952: An Australian army observer unit sent to Malaya during the emergency there.

3 October, 1952: UK explodes its first atom bomb in Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia.

4 August, 1952: First ANZUS council opens at Honolulu.

1952 - April: Japan: Occupation ends. Japan regains full independence.

1 April, 1952: Australia agrees to let its UK and USA allies develop uranium deposits at Radium Hill, South Australia.

1952: Coining of the term, "Third World", by French demographer Alfred Sauvy, thinking of the pre-revolutionary third estate in France as he considered the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Vis-a-vis the capitalist "first world and the communist "second world".

1953: Japan: Television broadcasting begins.

15 October, 1953: Britain explodes first of two nuclear devices at Emu Field, Woomera, South Australia. Second explosion on 27th.

27 July, 1953: Korean War armistice signed.

15 April, 1953: Australian Atomic Energy Commission established.

1953: Soviet Union detonates its first hydrogen bomb.

1954: Herbert Simon and Allen Newell pioneer information-processing (IP) psychology, showing how cognitive processes in problem solving and understanding can be explained in IP terms and modelled with computer programs, leading to modern artificial intelligence.

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1953-1954: Japan: 5th Yoshida Government.

1954: Japan: Self Defense Force.

1954-7: Japan: Hatoyama Government.

5 October, 1954: Last French troops leave Hanoi.

4 September, 1954: SEATO formed to counter communist expansion in Southeast Asia.

20-21 July, 1954: Geneva Accords partition Vietnam temporarily pending outcome of national elections.

July 1954: Ngo Dinh Diem becomes premier of South Vietnam under Bao Dai.

1 June, 1954: US agents begin covert operations in Vietnam.

7 May, 1954: French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrenders.

March 1954: Vietnam: Siege of Dien Bien Phu (which fell on 7 May).
Late 1954 arises the US puppet in Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic, recruited from refugees of the post-colonial war, and in next nine years, efforts to create a viable state of South Vietnam fail.

1950's: U.S. efforts to contain the spread of Communism in Asia involves forging alliances with tribes and warlords inhabiting the areas of the Golden Triangle, (an expanse covering Laos, Thailand and Burma), thus providing accessibility and protection along the southeast border of China. In order to maintain their relationship with the warlords while continuing to fund the struggle against communism, the U.S. and France supply the drug warlords and their armies with ammunition, arms and air transport for the production and sale of opium. The result: an explosion in the availability and illegal flow of heroin into the United States and into the hands of drug dealers and addicts.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1955: Japan: Liberal Democratic Party (Two traditional conservative enemies, Yoshida and Hatoyama, unite to form the LDP. The LDP has held power till 1993. Ishihara Shintaro writes Season of Violence. One of the angry young men of postwar Japanese media, Ishihara later becomes a conservative politician, authored The Japan that Can Say No in 1989 (English version in 1991), and became the governor of Tokyo in 1999. Mid 50's - per capita production levels of pre-war years.

22 April 1955: Australia sends an infantry battalion to Malaya plus artillery battery and support, part of British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve, with two RAAF squadrons there since 1950.

March 1955: Singapore becomes self-governing, and is still separate from Federation.

February 1955: French programs failed in South Vietnam and French businessmen withdraw. A coup against Diem in April 1955, but he fended it off with troops loyal to US aid, (It would cost the US $300 million to hold Vietnam.)

1 January 1955: More Australian troops sent to Malaya, first actions in Kedah.

Circa 1955: Start of period of fast economic growth in Japan.

1956: Suez War. Britain, France, and Israel attack Egypt. Israel seizes Egypt's Sinai peninsula. US and USSR demand Israeli, French, and British withdrawal. Egypt (and Sinai) are freed.

1 November 1956: Australian government announces intention to support Anglo-French military action against Egypt to re-take Suez Canal. Egypt breaks diplomatic relations.

1956: Japan: A full peace treaty with the Soviet Union. Japan's participation in the United Nations approved.

16 May 1956: UK explodes more nuclear devices on Australia's Monte Bello Islands. Second blast send a radioactive cloud over Australia.

February 1956: French High Command dissolved in Vietnam.

1956: Malaya and Britain agree on independence and draft constitution, Malaya is more peaceful and some troops regroup to attack hardest-core Communist areas.

1956: Russia invades Hungary.

Computing history: 1956: Computer programming is possible using FORTRAN language. Later on appears COBOL, PASCAL, etc. Bill Gates is born 28th October 1956. Also born in 1956 is Kuzohiko Nishi, of Kobe, Japan, who introduced Microsoft products to Japan from 1977.

1956: SILLIAC, a valve computer, is built by Brian Swire at Sydney University. The project is funded by Sydney jeweller Adolph Basser after a win on the Melbourne Cup. John Bennett comes from Ferranti UK to manage the software and teaching of same. In UK, UTECOM, a valve computer produced by English Electric, based on Alan Turing's ACE prototype. It is installed at University of NSW. It filled 12 cubic metres and operated at 8,000 instructions per second.

1956: WREDAC, a modified Elliott 401, is installed at the Weapon Research Establishment in Salisbury, South Australia. This computer processes missile telemetry recorded at the Woomera testing range. It had very sophisticated analog to digital equipment to handle the input and very early graphical output, possibly a world first, using modified weather recorders.

1956: Computer programming is possible using FORTRAN language. Later on appears COBOL, PASCAL, etc. Bill Gates is born birthday 28th October 1956. Also born in 1956 is Kuzohiki Nishi, of Kobe, Japan, who introduced Microsoft products to Japan from 1977.

1957: In 1966, easing of an Australian drought beginning in 1957.

1957: US Marine Major John Glenn sets a transcontinental speed record when he flies a jet from California to New York in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds.

1957: US shocked with launch of Sputnik by Russia. The space race begins.

1957: Vietnam: The army of South Vietnam does not formally exist till 1957.

1957-1960: Japan: Kish (formerly convicted of being a wartime criminal) Government.

1957: US oceanographer Roger Revelle warns that people are conducting a "large-scale geophysical experiment" on the planet by releasing greenhouse gases. Colleague David Keeling sets up first continuous monitoring of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Immediately Keeling finds regular year-on-year rise. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1957: Launch of Sputnik-1, the world's first satellite, by Russia, ushering in a new age of technology and communciations.

1958, First use of the word software to describe aspects of "automative "programming" by mathematician and statistician John Tukey, in an article in American Mathematical Monthly. Tukey also invented the term "bit" as short for binary digit. The earlier first use of the term "software" was thought to be from 1960.

1958-1959: Kruschev's threats create Berlin Crisis.

1958: First US earth satellite, Explorer I, is launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1958: Egypt: Gamel Abdel Nasser is formally nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic.

1958: Russia takes Cuba.

1958: Especially with surrender of two high-ranking communists, the Malayan communist insurgency begins to falter.

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1958: In the wake of Suez crisis, the Blue Streak program is abandoned as being too costly. Britain buys Polaris missile program from US and abandons its own efforts with rocketry.

1959: COBOL, the first mainstream commercial programming language is developed.

1959: At the instigation of John Bennett, seven groups involved in early applications of computing worked together to establish the Australian National Committee on Computation and Automatic Control (ANNCCAC) to advance the design, development and application of computing through conferences and knowledge exchange. They were the Institute of Engineers (Australia), Australian Institute of Management, Actuarial Socieity of Australasia, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, Australasian Institute of Cost Accountants, Institute of Physics and Statistical Society of NSW.

1959: Savage civil war in Rwanda, then under Belgian rule, and thousands of Batutsi (earlier arriving perhaps from Ethiopia), gaining independence for the winning Bahutu, more massacre of Batutsi in 1963 and then in 1973.

1958-1961: China has a catastrophic famine in which about 30 million people starve to death.

1958, First use of the word software to describe aspects of "automative "programming" by mathematician and statistician John Tukey, in an article in American Mathematical Monthly. Tukey also invented the term "bit" as short for binary digit. The earlier first use of the term "software" was thought to be 1960.

1959: Japan: Free Trade and exchange policy adopted.

1959: 12 September, Soviet Union launches Luna 2, the first spacecraft to strike the moon.

April 1959: Communist insurgency increases in Vietnam after a branch of the communist Lao Dong party is formed in South Vietnam.

1960s: UNIX appears from Bell Laboratories as a data-handling system. Later, in the 1990s, the Internet still relies heavily on UNIX due to its cross-platforming capabilities.

1960: The first ANNCCAC Conference held in Sydney, attracting 650 delegates. Later conferences attract over 900 registrations as interest in computing grows. Australia's first computer society is The Computer Society of South Australia, formed in November 1960 with Ren Potts as president and Don Overhu as vice-president. Also in 1960: Australia's first transistor computer, SNOCOM, is developed by David Wong and Murray Allen at CSIRO/Sydney University, for the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Authority's (SMHA) Snowy Mountains Scheme. Use of transistors means SNOCOM is one-tenth the size of its vacuum-tubed predecessors and uses much less power. The Weapons Research Establishment needs to predict where items land on earth, which requires high-speed real-time processing of various telemetry data streams, so Hinckfuss, Keith and Macauley invent remote digital communications and use the UK's TREAC design to build ATROPOS, a Digital Impact Predictor (DIP) at Woomera.
Also in 1960, the high-speed, bargain-basement ARCTURUS computer is installed at Sydney University. IBM unveils its first transistorised mainframe, the IBM 7090. In 1960, Digital Equipment Corporation releases the DEC PDP-1, the world's first transistor minicomputer, the first commercial computer equipped with a keybaord and monitor, which cost US$120,000. (Yes, one hundred and twenty thousand!)

September 1960: The Vietnamese Civil War begins officially, when the Communists declare for overthrow of Diem and American imperialist rule.

1960: Japan: Revision of the Security Treaty. Opposition to the US-Japan Security Treaty brings down Kishi Government.

1960-1964: Japan: Ikeda Government. Income-doubling Plan by Prime Minister Ikeda (but actually doubling every seven years) Ikeda's famous quote, "Japan doesn't need the poor!" MITI helps engineer three decades of unsurpassed economic growth.

1960: The first communications satellite (non-commercial), is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and placed in orbit.

1960: Malaya: In Malaya 1948-1960 the leader of Malayan Communist Party (MCP) is Chin Peng.

1960: Malayan state of emergency ends, with all Malaya cleared except for Chin Peng and 400 men astride the Thai border.

1958-1961: China has a catastrophic famine in which about 30 million people starve to death.

1961: Soviet Union proposes immediate ban on nuclear testing without international controls.

1961: Henry Stommel suggests in 1961, re the addition of fresh water to the ocean surface, diluting the salt-heavy surface waters before they became unstable enough to start sinking. More rain falling in the northern oceans -- exactly what is predicted as a result of global warming -- could stop salt flushing. So could ice carried south out of the Arctic Ocean. (Greenhouse Timeline)
William H. Calvin, The Great Climate Flip-Flop, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1998, Volume 281, No. 1, pp. 47-64.

1961: Iran: Shah of Persia tries to institute "white revolution" which includes calls for end of serfdom.

5 December 1961: A turning point, Sir Howard Beale Ambassador for Australia sends a cable that Australia supports Republic of Vietnam and he suggests Australia can supply counter-insurgency training personnel, small arms and ammunition.

22 November 1961: as North Vietnam steps up its efforts, US authorizes more military aid for South Vietnam including helicopters, transport aircraft and strike aircraft. General Duong Van Minh takes over South Vietnam.

1961: Vietnam: During 1961 the US military effort in Vietnam was expanding, advisers worked with battalion and company level while civilian advisers worked with provincial governments. US wanting political support of other nations. Intense nationalism of the Vietnamese on both sides.

14 August, 1961: Berlin Wall erected.

29 June, 1961: Australia and US announce joint guided missile research project to be at Woomera, South Australia.

May 1961: Tunku Abdul Rahman proposes formation of Malaysia. Later arises idea for a merger of Malaya and Singapore, though conflict possible over place of British North Borneo with Philippines; Borneo people want a Malaysia link.

18 April, 1961: Cuba invaded by sea by anti-Castro rebels, Bay of Pigs situation.
April 1961: Bay of Pigs fiasco as JFK tries to liberate Cuba from Communists, using CIA and Cuban exiles.

March-Spring 1961: With possible loss of Laos to Communism, the domino theory gradually appears all too credible.

January 1961: John F. Kennedy assumes US presidency. He views USSR as a danger to American security. 20 January 1961: President Kennedy inaugurated in US.

1961: Ludo De Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba. Verso, ? (On "Belgium's abject colonial history in Africa". Patrice Lumumba was murdered in 1961)

Computing history: 1961, Development of first computer video game.

Computing history: 1960s, UNIX appears from Bell Laboratories as a data-handling system. Later, in the 1990s, the Internet still relies heavily on UNIX due to its cross-platforming capabilities.

1961: Development of first computer video game.

1961: The Victorian Computer Society is established and becomes a member of ANCCAC. Prof. Tom Cherry of University of Melbourne is founding president, with his University of Melbourne associate Trevor Pearcey as vice-president. ANCCAC is accepted as 16th full member of International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), the global society representing computing professionals.

1961: Establishment of R. J. Kingsmiths, believed to be first Australian software company.

1962: Britain agrees to provide arms to India to resist Chinese aggression.

1962: Indonesia's President Sukarno proclaims West New Guinea an independent province.

1962: Jamaica achieves independence after 300 years of British rule.

1962: Britain makes first of her two unsuccessful bids to join European Common Market.

1962-1963: Severe credit squeeze in Australia.

1961-1962: Indonesia: Indonesia's President Suharto covets West New Guinea/Irian Jaya, last part of former Dutch East Indies under colonial Dutch rule. The US is already embroiled in Laos and Vietnam. US has investments in Indonesia, and Indonesia supplies most of the oil for Japan. Finally, the Indonesians got the New Guinean land.

1962: Rwanda and Burundi gain independence from Belgium.

1962: Burma outlaws opium.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1962: Vietnam: US advisor numbers leap from 1000 to 11,000 men.

1962: Britain makes first of her two unsuccessful bids to join European Common Market.

1962: Vietnam situation becomes the first war in which Australia did not fight with the British.

1962-1963: Severe credit squeeze in Australia.

December 1962: Indonesia declares confrontation policy and a revolt in Brunei fails.

25 October, 1962, US and USSR on collision course over Cuban missile base. See re Bay of Pigs fiasco.

15 May, 1962: Thailand of SEATO is afraid of regional ramifications of the fall of Laos.

14 May, 1962, Australia assures Diem in Vietnam that Diem will have full support of Commonwealth of Australia.

10 May, 1962: Australia foreshadows establishment of a US naval communications centre at North-West Cape, Western Australia.

9 May 1962: Australian External Affairs minister Garfield Barwick announces that Australia "if invited" will send a handful of military instructors to South Vietnam; up to 30 instructors were committed on 24 May. The DMZ (demilitarized zone) is already spoken of. There are usually 20 Vietcong dead per week. (Beginning of habit of publicizing body count, a habit which lasts for the duration of the war.)

April 1962: Vietnam: In South Vietnam, the gigantic strategic hamlet program is initiated, aided by a British advisory mission led by former secretary for defense in Malaya, RKG now, Sir Robert Thompson. Some 12,000 hamlets are constructed in two years in Vietnam, versus 400 new villages made in Malaya. (Policy: winning the hearts and minds of the people fails in Vietnam since the reasons it worked in Malaysia are absent).

By 30 March 1962: US been repeatedly asking Australia to send military personnel to Vietnam. On 31 March, 1962, Diem appealed to heads of 93 non-communist states including Australia for increased military aid and support against North Vietnam as backed by the Communist bloc.
By 1962, Australian troops had been seven years in Malaysian jungles, engaged in counter-insurgency, useful experience.

21 February 1962: Space: Mankind enters a new environment, Space! John Glenn goes into space for three orbits and returns (following a successful earlier Russian venture).

February 1962: Vietnam: Historian Tuchman, March of Folly, p. 373, dates the beginning of the Vietnam War with a full field command with a three-star general established, MACV, Military Assistance Command Vietnam. Americans begin to take casualties; a kind of undeclared war begins. A futile "strategic hamlets" plan means re-settlement of peasants from ancestral land. (Tuchman, Folly, pp. 306ff, on 1946-1954ff.)

February 1962: Vietnam: Two South Vietnamese pilots try to strafe and assassinate Diem. Relations between the US press and US military sour considerably.

12 January, 1962: Australia reluctantly accepts Indonesian sovereignty over West New Guinea/Irian Jaya.

1962: Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute invents the mouse pointing device for computers.

1962: Queensland Computer Society is established, with founding chairman Prof. Hugh Webster and Don Overhu as deputy-chair. In Australia, first steps are taken to forming a national computer society at a meeting between Victorian Computer Society and ANCCAC.

1963: CSIROnet, Australia's first computer network, is built at CSIRO using a CDC 3600 in Canberra, and two CDC 3200s in Sydney and Melbourne. The "network" initially relied on overnight airfreight of magnetic tapes. In 1963, Trevor Pearcey and Murray Allen start a game to design "the perfect computer", which they christen CIRRUS. By the early 1960s, they have a paper design for hardware plus compilers and a multi-user operating system, and it seems a waste to fail to build it all. They obtain funding and work at University of Adelaide.

1963: Part of savage civil war in Rwanda, by the Bahutuu, more massacre of Batutsi in 1963 and more again in 1973.

1963: Federation of Malaya is formed, of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo. Some 100,000 help the celebrations by burning a British Embassy.

23 November, 1963: US President John Kennedy assassinated. Replaced by President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ).
Early 1964: LBJ determined not to lose in Vietnam. But even if US senators are terrified of a nuclear war, what would China do? What are implications if US withdraws from Vietnam? LBJ decided on an air-strike war with ground support. His election gave him massive electoral support. (Notes from Tuchman, Folly, pp. 306ff.)

1 November, 1963: In South Vietnam, a successful general coup.
1-2 November 1963, Military coup overthrows President Diem. Diem and his brother Hgo Dinh Diem are assassinated.

25 September, 1963: Australia pledges military assistance to new nation of Malaysia in event of direct or indirect aggression.

September 1963: US secretary of state Dean Rusk declares, "There can be no assured and lasting peace until Communist leaders abandon their goal of world revolution."

9 May, 1963: Australia and US sign agreement allowing US to establish a base at North-West Cape, Western Australia.

8 May, 1963: Vietnam: Buddhist riots in Hue, Vietnam.

April 1963: Indonesia: Sukarno flushed with his success in New Guinea in 1963 decides to try a confrontation with Malaysia, by now a newly-created state. The British to counter him decide to send 50,000 troops to Malaysia, mostly to the borders of Borneo. In April 1963, Indonesian guerillas begin raiding North Borneo territories. By July 1963, Indonesia is prepared to concede support for Malaysia if UN indicates support in Sabah and Sarawak.

Summer 1963: Vietnam: Buddhist revolt in Vietnam. Riots. Monks set fire to themselves, hundreds of monks arrested. Idea in Washington to dump Diem by some sort of coup. De Gaulle in France proposed a neutralist idea, hoping for Vietnamese nationalist success free of external influences, re a possible negotiated settlement. US only annoyed at De Gaulle's "pomposity" here. The Burmese U Thant later also proposed a "Neutralist" settlement. (Notes from Tuchman, Folly, pp. 306ff.

1964: Japan: Tokyo Olympic Games - new sense of national pride and purpose The obligations of Article 8 of the IMF agreement. Membership in OECD. Bullet train (Hikari) service began

1964-1972: Japan: Sato Government.

1964: Palestinians form Fatah under Yassar Arafat; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is formed in 1967 by George Habash. Jordan becomes the main base for guerrilla actions.
1964: The Palestine Liberation Organization is formed by the Arab League under Egyptian direction. The PLO Charter calls for a united Palestine under Arab control. Only Jews there before 1946 can remain.

In 1964, Australia and 17 other countries set up group later called Intelsat, a satellite communications systems. A space tracking station is set up at Carnarvon, Western Australia. (29 Oct., 1966, OTC opens first satellite communications earth station at Carnarvon, WA (Another one is later set up at Moree, New South Wales).

30 January, 1964: After JFK assassinated, a military coup in South Vietnam as General Nguyen Khanh deposes Duon Van Minh.

23 April, 1964: US Pres. Johnson appeals for "more flags" for Vietnam, so by now, ten years pass and many flags have not joined the US in Vietnam since 1954 or so.

April 1964: Indonesian guerillas land on mainland Malaya but are quickly mopped up.

28 May, 1964: Australian army engineers are sent to Sabah, Malaysia.

19 July, 1964: 34 Royal Australian Air Force personnel from Sydney to South Vietnam to fly and maintain Caribou aircraft there.

7 August 1964: The Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave "a blank cheque for Executive War", so the US Government did as it pleased. (Tuchman, March of Folly, pp. 306ff). US Congress provides Pres. Johnson "unlimited powers to repel communist aggression". Later was the US Bombing, Rolling Thunder, in March 1965, supervised directly from White House.

30 October, 1964: Australian troops capture Indonesian guerillas in Malacca during their first action in Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation.

Computing history: 1964, IBM releases its 360 computer which took 70 per cent of the market. See p. 218, re use of a Russian computer, the Ural II, with 4K of memory, in Hungary by Charles Simyoni, later a programmer for Microsoft, a developer of the mouse. Development of BASIC at Dartmouth College, USA, (Beginners All Purpose Instruction Code).

1964: Australia's first mini-computer the DEC PDP-5 is delivered to University of NSW. Control Data Corporation delivers the world's first supercomputer, the CDC 6600. Dartmouth College in UK develops the BASIC programming language. IBM releases its general purpose System/360 range of computers.

1964: IBM releases its 360 computer which took 70 per cent of the market. (See Sinclair, p. 218, re use of a Russian computer, the Ural II, with 4K of memory, in Hungary by Charles Simyoni, later a programmer for Microsoft, a developer of the mouse.) Development of BASIC at Dartmouth College, USA, (Beginners All Purpose Instruction Code). The American Standard Association adopts ASCII as the standard code for data transfer.

1965-1970: US involvement in Vietnam is blamed for the surge in illegal heroin being smuggled into the States. To aid U.S. allies, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sets up a charter airline, Air America, to transport raw opium from Burma and Laos. As well, some of the opium would be transported to Marseilles by Corsican gangsters to be refined into heroin and shipped to the U.S via the French connection. The number of heroin addicts in the U.S. reaches an estimated 750,000.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

In 1964, Australia and 17 other countries set up group later called Intelsat, a satellite communications systems. A space tracking station is set up at Carnarvon, Western Australia. (29 Oct., 1966, OTC opens first satellite communications earth station at Carnarvon, WA (Another one is later set up at Moree, New South Wales).

1965: Launch of Early Bird I, the world's first commercial communications satellite, from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

1965: The French depart Vietnam.

January 1965: Indonesia withdraws from UN on election of Malaysia to security council, concentrates troops maybe to invade Malaysia.

21 February 1965: US Black nationalist leader Malcolm X is murdered in New York as he is about to address a meeting of his Afro-American Unity Organisation.

In Australia's 12 months from March 1965 to March 1966 there were 80 or so demonstrations, vigils, sit-ins, strikes, folk concerts marches, teach-ins, all based on earlier-appearing protest movements/actions (anti-Vietnam War) in US.

2 March 1965: Vietnam War: Begins Operation Rolling Thunder to bomb North Vietnam into submission, supervised directly from White House. Bombing of Vietcong supply trails from Laos.

8 March 1965: First US combat troops arrive in South Vietnam, to Da Nang.

23-29 April, 1965: Australian Government announces commitment of an infantry battalion to supplement US 173rd airborne brigade at Bien Hoa, Vietnam.

27 May, 1965: First Battalion, Royal Australian Regt., leaves Sydney in aircraft carrier Sydney for active duty in Vietnam.

May 1965: US pauses its bombing of Vietnam.
Mid-1965, the American Univ campuses were reacting badly to Vietnam war. Tuchman, March of Folly, p. 404 writes: "The movement was less a sudden embrace of Asia than an extension of civil rights struggle and the "Free Speech" and other student radical enthusiasms of the early sixties". US has up to 82,000 troops in Vietnam.

Mid-1965: Indonesia: The Indonesian army fearing a rising communist influence has coup against Sukarno who'd sacked the US rubber plantations and confiscated remaining foreign property. A bloody coup, and successful, which toppled Sukarno and re-instituted Indonesian-US friendship. Coup allegedly activated by CIA, etc.

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9 June, 1965: US "fateful decision" to authorise combat support of South Vietnam by US ground forces, and search and destroy missions are entailed.

July 1965: US drafts more troops, to get strength to 125,000 men by end of 1965; and got to 200,000 men. North Vietnamese regular army has over 400,000 men; US would demoralise these by end of 1966, which did not happen. (LBJ avoided asking Congress for a declaring of war for fear of what Russia or China might do, which in the long run opened a door to further dissent.

August 1965: Singapore decides to become an independent state, but promises close links with Malaysia and also wants to retain a British base.

1965: Second War between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

Computing history: 1965, First birth pangs in the US of a market for mini-computers. In Japan, Kuzohiko Nishi at age nine is using a Wang computer (the existence of which is not explained).

1965: First birth-pangs in the US of a market for mini-computers. In Japan, Kuzuhiko Nishi at age nine is using a Wang computer (the existence of which is not explained).

1965: The first commercial mini-computer sells for less than $10,000, the DEC PDP-8 as released by Digital Equipment Corporation.

1966: The Chinese Communist Party opens a plenum meeting declaring the start of the Cultural Revolution, which will last ten years and is a destructive disaster.

1966: Origin of US policy on Vietnam on winning the hearts and minds of the people? Clutterbuck, a Britisher, publishing in 1966, and with a foreword by the chief of the staff of the US army, General Templer, on 1952 Malaya, quoting "The answer lies not in pouring troops into the jungle but in the hearts and minds of the people," perhaps following John Adams, USA, 1818, "The [American] Revolution was affected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people."

1966: Vietnam: Buddhist revolt in Vietnam itself.

8 March, 1966: Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt (destined soon to mysteriously drown off Victorian coast), announces trebling of forces to Vietnam.
By April 1966, US has troops of 245,000 and war costs US $2 billion per month.

16 June, 1966: Australia and Pacific countries form the Asian and Pacific Council.

30 June, 1966: Australian prime minister Holt on visit to US promises support for escalation of Vietnam War = "All the way with LBJ". There is widespread outrage in Australia at such words from Holt.

18 August, 1966: Australian forces in Vietnam inflict heavy losses on large enemy force at Battle of Long Tan.
By late 1966, LBJ's advisors have turned against the Vietnam War, privately, and one thought it would take the US some 750,000 to a million men and some seven years to win. (Notes from Tuchman, March of Folly, p. 430).
Hanoi's intransigence seems built on an idea that US would tire first, from cost and/or public dissent about the war.

1966, 14 September: Indonesian confrontation ceases.

22 October, 1966: Lyndon Baines Johnston, US president, comes to Melbourne, and sees rowdy anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.

29 October, 1966: OTC opens first satellite communications earth station at Carnarvon, WA (another one is later set up at Moree NSW).

22 December, 1966: Australian commitment to Vietnam is increased to 6300 men, with extra tanks, minesweepers and eight bombers.

1966: Australia: University of NSW installs an IBM 360/50 general purpose computer with 24-bit addressing capable of processing data items of 32 bits, 64 bits or 15 decimal digits, and it seems possible that a graphics display might be provided. Texas Instruments makes available the first generation of medium-scale integrated circuits allowing a team being Gordon Rose, Murray Allen and Trevor Pearcey to develop the programmable, multi-user INTERGRAPHIC.

1967: French president Charles de Gaulle rules out negotiations for early British entry into the European Common Market.

18 January, 1967: Premier of South Vietnam Marshall Ky visits Australia; many protest demonstrations.

17 March, 1967: Honeysuckle Creek space tracking station near Canberra opened. Later, a Joint Defence Space Research facility is established at Pine Gap near Alice Springs to become operational in 1969.
By 16 September, 1967, North-West Cape naval communications station officially commissioned. On 29 November, 1967, Australia's first satellite successfully launched from Woomera.

25 April, 1967: Soviet cosmonaut dies in space.

1967: June War (Six-Day War). Israel crushes Egypt, Jordan, Syria; Israel captures the Sinai peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan province from Syria, West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. Approximately 250,000 more Palestinian refugees flee, or are forced, into Jordan. More Palestinians are now under Israeli rule.

3 September, 1967: General Van Thieu is elected president of South Vietnam.

17 September, 1967: PM Holt announces Australia is to increase its military aid to South Vietnam with another battalion and support groups.

October, 1967: Massive anti-Vietnam War rally in Washington DC.

9 October, 1967: Bolivians and a CIA agent, Felix Rodriguez, shoot revolutionary Che Guevera and then cut off his hands.

1967: Dies Gregory Pincus, (1903-1967), father of the birth control pill.

1967-1968: Wilson's government in Britain announces the pound would be floated and all British troops east of Suez would be withdrawn by 1971.

30 January 1968: TV and Vietnam War: Begins Tet offensive, the Vietcong with up to 50 per cent casualty rates, very bloody, and public revulsion arises in US due to TV reportage. Arises the remark, which came from a US army major, "it becomes necessary to destroy the village in order to save it". The Wall St Journal now thinks the Vietnam War is doomed. Westmoreland wanted more troops. Johnson wanted to mobilise another 200,000 men. (Notes from Tuchman, March of Folly).

February 1968: Influential US newsman Walter Cronkite had visited Vietnam and went against the war and the Tet offensive, with about 1.2 million refugees also. LBJ said that if he'd lost "Walter", he'd lost Middle America. Notes from Tuchman, March of Folly).

4 July, 1968: Thousands demonstrate in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide against US and the war in Vietnam.

1967-1968: Wilson's government in Britain announces the pound would be floated and all British troops east of Suez would be withdrawn by 1971.

6 June 1968: Robert Kennedy is shot three times in US. Six neuro-surgeons were trying to remove a bullet from his brain. Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles.

6 April 1968: US race relations: Martin Luther King is assassinated.

3 April 1968: With a US presidential election coming up, Hanoi is contacted re ceasing bombing and beginning talks. This is LBJ's last year of office.

By 1968: Communist-types of the Western World are speaking of "workers control" of workplaces, around the world.

November 1968: Richard M. Nixon elected US president.

1968: Douglas Engelbart demonstrates his system of keyboard, numeric keypad, mouse and windows at the Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. He demonstrates use of a word processor, hypertext system and remote collaborative work with colleagues.

1969: Japan: Reversion of Okinawa - effective in 1972 by late 60's Japan became the 1st or 2nd largest trading partner of almost every country in East and Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, 60's - major role in the Asian Development Bank

1969: Yassar Arafat becomes head of the PLO. It becomes an umbrella organization aspiring to unite and speak for all Palestinians. It is controlled by Palestinians in exile.

1969: Woodstock Festival - Music and Art Fair, near Bethel, New York. A watershed for the counter-culture movement world-wide.

25 January, 1969: Formal truce negotiations in Paris re Vietnam war.
By 31 January 1969, US forces in Vietnam reach peak of 542,000 men.

January 1969: US President Nixon arrives with Kissinger, and by 1969, Pres Thieu in seat in South Vietnam. Privately, Nixon said he wanted to stop the war, yet he took it to his presidency and prolonged the war, partly by Vietnamizing the war as a way to bring home US troops, but also keep up air support for the war. (Notes from Tuchman, Folly).

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March 1969: First secret bombing of Cambodia. Ground withdrawal started an irreversible process, for as forces became thinner, speedier withdrawal was necessary.

3 April 1969: Arrival of first container ship Encounter Bay in Sydney ushers in age of containerisation of sea cargo between Britain and Australia.

Moonwalking: 22 July, 1969: Having walked on moon, US astronauts prepare to leave. Armstrong et al.

July 1969: Nixon announces the "Guam Doctrine" re so-called Vietnamization of the war in Vietnam.

8 June 1969: Nixon announces first US withdrawals from Vietnam. Will lead to complete US disengagement.

1969, "By the year 2000, we will undoubtedly have a sizeable operation on the moon; we will have achieved a manned Mars landing and it's entirely possible we will have flown with men to the outer planets." Wernher von Braun, NASA rocket engineer, 1969.

Sept 1969: Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh dies after fighting 50 years for his nation.

1969: Australia: The great Poseidon nickel boom for miners.

1969: UNIX is developed at Bell Laboratories by Thompson and Ritchie.

1970: Japan; Osaka International Exposition.

1970: In September, militant Palestinians try to overthrow King Hussein with Syrian help. US and Israel mobilize to help Jordan if necessary. More than 3,000 Palestinians are killed. Palestinian guerrilla bases move to Lebanon.

1970-1976: Palestinians form "Black September" to carry out revenge assassinations and hijackings. Israelis form "Wrath of God" to assassinate Palestinian leaders. Much bloodshed follows.

1970: The Scientific American report on lunar soils "can be regarded as the most expensive report in history", at $25 million. (Opinion from John Briam)

1970: First mass strikes in Gdansk, Poland. Lech Walesa emerges as a workers' leader. 1976: Another wave of strikes in Poland, intellectuals join workers. On 14 August, 1980, Walesa jumps the gates of Gdansk shipyards and leads 17,000 workers on strike. By 31 August 1980, creation of Solidarity, the first free trade union in a communist country. Martial law declared in December 1981. Solidarity is outlawed. In 1983, Walesa wins Nobel Peace Prize. In 1989, partially-free elections in Poland. In 1990, Walesa elected President of Poland.

1970: Shoemakers of the world, tremble: Imelda Marcos, wife of the president of the Philippines, visits Britain, and diplomats in 2000 can now reveal that in 1970, she was "as difficult, tactless and inconsiderate as it was possible to be". In Manila, her brother Kokoy Romualdez, had given the British Embassy to understand that Imelda was "completely uncontrollable". (According to world news reports of 2 January 2000)

1970: The murderous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia abolishes money as they associate it with competitive individualism. The invasion by Vietnam later returned money to the areas affected.

27 March, 1970: South Vietnamese forces plus US attack communist base camps in Cambodia.

April 1970: US invades Cambodia as Nixon is becoming paranoid in office. The New York Times calls it "military hallucination". (Notes from Tuchman, Folly).

4 May, 1970: Kent State University, US: Four student protesters killed by national guardsmen. Student protest blazes further.

31 December, 1970: US repeals Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

1970-2001: Death of Indonesian President Sukarno. His daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri in 2001 replaces former president Abdurrahman Wahid (the first democratically-elected president of Indonesia) as Indonesian president.

Computing history: 1971, Invention of micro-processor, and Texas Instruments works on a math calculator.

1971: Nixon Shock (for Japan) - Nixon goes to China

26 May, 1971: Signing of a seabed agreement between Australia and Indonesia. (See post-1997 history of East Timor re oil resources.)

1971: After Cambodia, US invades Laos, with US air support.

1971: Sydney: Beginning of Green Ban Movement in Sydney with union-based activist Jack Mundy. Defiance of wishes of developers to use prime spots prized by Sydneysiders.

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1971: Another war between India and Pakistan over East Kashmir, now Bangladesh.

Japan: 1972-1974 - Tanaka Government.

October 1971: The birth of email, as Roy Tomlinson, the father of @, sent the first message between two computers in October 1971. Mr. Tomlinson can?t remember what he actually wrote. He then worked for a company called BBN Technologies, working on a project to link computers called ARPAnet, the precursor of the Internet. Mr. Tomlinson used @ as he wanted to send message directly to people, not to a numbered mailbox. A decade later a permanent email connection was created between USA and Australia and ARPAnet was established for a group of researchers including Professor Bob Kummerfield (Sydney University) and Piers Lauder.

1971: Invention of micro-processor, and Texas Instruments works on a math calculator.

1972: Japan: Sapporo Winter Olympic Games, Return of Okinawa, Kawabata Yasunari commits suicide. Diplomatic relations between Japan and People's of Republic of China restored.

1972: Heroin exportation from Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, controlled by Shan warlord, Khun Sa, becomes a major source for raw opium in the profitable drug trade.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1972: US Apollo 16 spacecraft and three astronauts make a safe landing in the Pacific after their journey to the Moon.

1972: By 1972, the Vietnam War had lasted longer than any US overseas military engagement, but soon Nixon would "bomb them as they'd never been bombed before", etc. (Notes from Tuchman, March of Folly, pp. 306ff).

1972: Completion of the manuscript of

John Biram, The Death of the World: Teknosis. London, Arlington Books. 1978. (anti-technology views, Foreword by Robert Graves)... a sustained blast at the multi-levels of the use (and mis-use) of technology in the modern world. Biram had long discussed topics also with the noted poet, Robert Graves.

Mid

1972, D. Meadows et al, Club of Rome publishes its book of warnings on world-future, The Limits to Growth.

May 1972: Re US-USSR detente: Moscow summit: Nixon had promised to move from confrontation to negotiation with USSR. But would US recognise a world position for USSR? Nixon and Brezhnev worked out a system of joint projects and commitments so tight it would be difficult to undo, plus mutual resolution to avoid direct confrontations.

1972: 5 September: Olympic Games at Munich. Arab terrorists of Black September movement attack an Israeli dormitory and kill two members of an Olympic team. Later shoot-out at Munich airport.

December 1972: Extremely heavy bombing of North Vietnam. By end of 1972, some intellectuals in US pronounce the end of the Cold War, due to the 1972 summit. Not all were convinced.

December 1972: The Australian "Team" depart Vietnam, one month before conclusion of ceasefire agreement and departure of last US troops.

11 December, 1972: Federal Government announces withdrawal of remaining Australian troops in Vietnam. Last Australian servicemen leave on 19 December.

31 October, 1972: Vietnam War: Kissinger declares, "Peace is at hand".

12 August, 1972: Last US ground combat troops withdraw from South Vietnam. 53,500 airmen and support personnel remain.

May 1972: Re US-USSR detente: Moscow summit: Nixon had promised to move from confrontation to negotiation with USSR. But would US recognise a world position for USSR? Nixon and Brezhnev worked out a system of joint projects and commitments so tight it would be difficult to undo, plus mutual resolution to avoid direct confrontations.

By March 1972: Most US combat forces had gone from Vietnam. Then the Watergate Affair begins, which led to the downfall of President Nixon.

30 March, 1972: Vietnam: NVA forces invade south Vietnam across DMZ, offence repulsed by September.

1972: India and Pakistan sign Shimla Accord, agreeing to solve disagreements including over Kashmir.

Computing history: 1972: From 1972, Gary Kildall using a new Intel 8008 microprocessor chip, writing a programming language for it, having earlier worked on Intel's 4004 chip. Kildall and a friend, John Torode, developed a disk drive system which could store information, by 1974. Kildall and his wife began Digital Research and sold software and a CP/M operating system. Gates at this time was wanting to make CP/M an industry standard. (By late 1978, Gates was considering a merger with Kildall's Digital. The Gates/Kildall friendship untangled in 1979, when Kildall used a BASIC program to compete with Microsoft's BASIC. So Gates then became interested in Unix. Later, in 1980, Gates found IBM wanted to use CP/M, so Gates had to contact Kildall. IBM actually tried to visit Kildall, who was unavailable, with the result that Gates got the chance to provide IBM with an operating system (which became known as DOS). Just then, in 1980, Gates found that Tim Paterson at Seattle Computer Products had developed an operating system for a 16-bit Intel chip.

1972, (See Sinclair, pp. 174ff): From 1972, Gary Kildall using a new Intel 8008 microprocessor chip, writing a programming language for it, having earlier worked on Intel?s 4004 chip. Kildall and a friend, John Torode, developed a disk drive system which could store information, by 1974. Kildall and his wife began Digital Research and sold software and a CP/M operating system. Gates at this time was wanting to make CP/M an industry standard. (By late 1978, Gates was considering a merger with Kildall's Digital. The Gates/Kildall friendship untangled in 1979, when Kildall used a BASIC program to compete with Microsoft?s BASIC. So Gates then became interested in Unix.

1972: The first email message is sent by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson across the ARPANET network. This is the precursor to the Internet, the application that launches the digital information revolution. Tomlinson is also responsible for choosing the @ sign as the locator symbol in electronic addresses. Tomlinson has said about his first message: "I have no idea what the first one was. It might have been the first line from Lincoln's Gettysburg address for all I know. The only thing I know was it was all in upper case."

1973: Cut in Arab oil production and increased prices cause oil crisis in United States and Europe.

1973: Part of savage civil war in Rwanda, by the Bahutuu, more massacre of Batutsi, and earlier in 1963.

1973: Japan: Reona Esaki becomes the Nobel laureate in physics.

28 February 1973: Australia: Bill introduced in Parliament re reducing voting age from 21 to 18.

1973: Japan: Oil crisis (Oil Shock) - Japan's vulnerability (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - more than 60% import - two-digit inflation) -this challenge results in even greater export-inspired economic growth. the 4th Middle East War

27 January 1973: Treaty in Paris re end of Vietnam War. Hanoi overcame Saigon within two years. US suffered 45,000 killed and 300,000 wounded. Cost about $20 billion annually, or, $150 billion over normal military outlay; a contorted US economy. (Notes from Barbara Tuchman, March of Folly)

29 January 1973: Official truce in Vietnam, last US personnel leave.

1973: October or Ramadan or Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria attempt to regain lost territories. They push Israel back in the Sinai peninsula and initially in the Golan province. A massive airlift of US arms to Israel tips the balance. Arab oil states proclaim a boycott against all countries helping Israel.

1973: Xerox Alto produces the first bit-mapped graphics, the first mouse, and the Ethernet network protocol which later dominates networking. In 1973: Work begins on the protocol later called TCP/IP, developed by a group headed by Vinton Cerf from Stanford University and Bob Kahn from DARPA. This new protocol allows diverse computer networks to interconnect and communicate with each other.

1974: Ethiopia's leader Haile Selassie, confronted by continued unrest, agrees to constitutional convention to create a new system of elected democratic government.

1974: 9 August: Effective date for resignation from US presidency of Richard Nixon following his involvement in the Watergate Scandal.

9-10 August 1974: Post-Watergate affair, Nixon is out in disgrace and President Ford takes over.

1974: Japan: Former prime minister Eisaku Sato becomes the Nobel laureate in Peace.

1974-1976: Japan: Miki Government

1974: Yassar Arafat speaks to UN. In a major shift in PLO policy, he calls for a united Palestine with a democratic secular government "where Christian, Jew, and Muslim live in justice, equality and fraternity" (including all Jews who live there). "I come to you with an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun; do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."

1974: Beginning in 1974 of the so-called G-7, later the G-8, the "rich man's club of the world" for the world's most powerful industrial economies, US, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Canada.

Computing history: 1974: Re Kildall, and an agreement with Gates. See p. 183 re Tim Paterson as "father of DOS", at Seattle Computers, developer of the 8086 CPU board, which Digital Research wanted to apply for 16-bit CP/M work. See also, QDOS release by Tim Paterson, (Quick and Dirty Operating System).

Computing history: 1974, The "father/designer of the first personal computer", Ed Roberts of Albuquerque, New Mexico, designed the Altair computer with an 8080 Intel chip, using a BASIC program. US computer hobbyists go wild to buy a unit. Within five years, 200 different brands of microcomputers were available.

Computing history: 1974, Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen deal with Ed Roberts, regarding BASIC, and new Intel 8080 chip, and the Altair computer. Gates writes a BASIC program for a microcomputer (the Altair), thus the origins of Microsoft Basic.

1974, (see p. 175), re Kildall, and an agreement with Gates. See p. 183 re Tim Paterson as "father of DOS", at Seattle Computers, developer of the 8086 CPU board, which Digital Research wanted to apply for 16-bit CP/M work. See also, QDOS release by Tim Paterson, (Quick and Dirty Operating System).

1974, The "father/designer of the first personal computer", Ed Roberts of Albuquerque, New Mexico, designed the Altair computer with an 8080 Intel chip, using a BASIC program. US computer hobbyists go wild to buy a unit. Within five years, 200 different brands of microcomputers were available.

1974, Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen deal with Ed Roberts, regarding BASIC, and new Intel 8080 chip, and the Altair computer. Gates writes a BASIC program for a microcomputer (the Altair), thus the origins of Microsoft Basic.

1974: First use of the term, Internet, by Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn in a paper on Transmission Control Protocol. In 1974: Jim Rowe at Electronics Australia develops the world's first commercial electronic computer kit.

1975: Lebanese civil war begins. By the end of the 1980s, 144,000 Lebanese have died, most in subsequent invasions.

1975: Mid-1970's: Saigon falls. The US heroin epidemic subsides. The search for a new source of raw opium yields Mexico's Sierra Madre. "Mexican Mud" would temporarily replace "China White" heroin until 1978.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1975: Death aged 69 of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, then husband of former first-lady of the US, Jacqueline Kennedy.

5 March 1975: Vietnam: Final NVA offensive begins in central highlands of Vietnam.

21 April 1975: Vietnam: President Thieu resigns.

30 April 1975: NVA troops enter Saigon. South Vietnam in state of unconditional surrender. (Note, SEATO is dissolved on 30 June, 1977.)

30 April 1975, Military end of the Vietnam War. The government of South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally to the North, following the withdrawal of US Allies.

16 October 1975: East Timor: Forensic investigators are now searching for the remains of five Australian-based journalists - "the Balibo five" - killed during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, 16 October 1975. Including reporter Greg Shackleton, soundman Tony Stewart; Malcom Rennie (UK), cameraman Brian Peters, (UK). Cameraman, Gary Cunningham (NZ). (Reported 18 November 2000)

11-12 November 1975: The Australian governor-general Sir John Kerr dismisses the prime minister Gough Whitlam. Great outrage is expressed in Australia, but nil violence.

Computing history: 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft. They dealt with MITS (Ed Roberts, Micro Instrumentations and Telemetry Systems) and talk BASIC programming, operating systems and software licensing, etc. MITS released a floppy disk data storage system, Gates works on a DISK BASIC. Appearance of first software piracy to Gates' annoyance. Computer enthusiasts tend to move to live/work in Silicon Valley, California.

1975: After seeing an article in Popular Electronics magazine, Bill Gates and Paul Allen develop a computer language for the Altair 8800 computer.

1975: UNIX is released to universities world-wide for free. Half-inch reel tapes are supplied as source code for the PDP-11. The University of NSW is the first site in Australia running UNIX (Level 6) for Operating Systems studies with Australia's first UNIX guru, John Lions.

1975: Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft. They dealt with MITS (Ed Roberts, Micro Instrumentations and Telemetry Systems) and talk BASIC programming, operating systems and software licensing, etc. MITS releases a floppy disk data storage system, Gates works on a DISK BASIC. Appearance of first software piracy to Gates? annoyance. Computer enthusiasts tend to move to live/work in Silicon Valley, California. 1977, see p. 111, p. 120, Commodore releases the Pet computer, and Tandy considers the Radio Shack TRS-80. Apple also rises. With their TRS-80 computer, Tandy looked to Microsoft with interest. Silicon Valley spawns the semi-conductor industry - and Apple Computers.

1975: Since 1975, increases in microprocessor speed have doubled every 24 months. (Sun Microsystems chairman Scott McNealy, quoted in The Weekend Australian, 14-15 April 2001)

1975: The first real personal computer to run Microsoft software, the Mits Altair 8800 is released, based on Intel's 8080 processor. In 1975, public release of a conventional Encryption Algorithm (Data Encryption Standard) which becomes the widely-used symmetric encryption algorithm during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1975, the State Bank of Victoria introduces on-line teller systems for savings accounts, the world's first large-scale system.

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1976: Earthquake in Guatemala kills almost 23,000 people.

1976: Japan: Lockheed Scandal: Former prime minister Tanaka Kakuei is prosecuted for taking bribes from Lockheed.

1976-1978: Japan: Fukuda Government

Computing history: 1977: Commodore releases the Pet computer, and Tandy considers the Radio Shack TRS-80. Apple also rises. With their TRS-80 computer, Tandy looked to Microsoft with interest. Silicon Valley spawns the semi-conductor industry - and Apple Computers.

Computing history: 1977: Microsoft considers moving into the Japanese market after Gates meets Japanese Kuzohiko Nishi in 1977.

1977: Largest loan in 30-year history of International Monetary Fund, almost four billion US dollars, - made to UK to bolster its currency.

1977: Menachem Begin becomes prime minister of Israel. His Likud party traditionally advocated a "Greater Israel" including the West Bank and Gaza and perhaps Jordan with unlimited settlement of Jews in Arab-populated areas under Israeli occupation. Anwar Sadat of Egypt goes to Jerusalem to open talks.

June 30, 1977: SEATO is dissolved.

1970s: Series of studies by the US Department of Energy increases concerns about future global warming. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1977: Year the first e-mail is sent.

1977: Wrong! "There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home."
Ken Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
On Alan Turing, founder of computer science:
Website: (broken link) http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/~ahodges/Turing.html

10 September, 1976: Mao Tse Tung dies in China, aged 83.

1977: (See Sinclair, pp. 122-123, Microsoft considers moving into the market after Gates meets Japanese Kuzuhiko Nishi in 1977.

1977: Year the first e-mail is sent.

1978-80: Japan: Ohira Government

1978: In the context of the Enron crash, (by February 2002, see elsewhere in these files) a news item reports: "There is a historical pattern in such things, as recognised by economist Charles P. Kindleberger in his classic 1978 book, Manias, Panics and Crashes. 'The propensity to swindle and be swindled runs parallel to the propensity to speculate during a boom', he wrote. The 1929 US crash led to formation of the US Securities and Exchange Commission."

1978: Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David Accords. Israel invades Lebanon and seizes a 'security zone" up to the Litani River. It sets up the puppet government of the Southern Lebanese Army.

1978: The US and Mexican governments find a means to eliminate the source of raw opium - by spraying poppy fields with Agent Orange. The eradication plan is termed a success as the amount of "Mexican Mud" in the U.S. drug market declines. In response to the decrease in availability of "Mexican Mud", another source of heroin is found in the Golden Crescent area - Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating a dramatic upsurge in the production and trade of illegal heroin.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1978: Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II.

Computing history: 1978, (Sinclair, p. 1), Electronics companies, mostly Japanese, gather to consider standards for encoding sound digitally, with Sony and Phillips leading, resulting in the CD (Sinclair notes p. 14 that part of the effort was the need to find a way to make video disks as an alternative to video cassettes. The use of the laser beam as suggested by Phillips won the technical battle. An early computer CD disc drive was developed by Mitsumi. The Soundblaster Card later became an industry standard for multimedia computers. 1978, see p. 135, A Microsoft agent with links to NEC in Japan, decide to build a personal computer for Japanese market.

1978, (Sinclair, p. 1), Electronics companies, mostly Japanese, gather to consider standards for encoding sound digitally, with Sony and Phillips leading, resulting in the CD (Sinclair notes p. 14 that part of the effort was the need to find a way to make video disks as an alternative to video cassettes. The use of the laser beam as suggested by Phillips won the technical battle. An early computer CD disc drive was developed by Mitsumi. The Soundblaster Card later became an industry standard for multimedia computers.

1978: (see Sinclair, p. 135), A Microsoft agent with links to NEC in Japan, decide to build a personal computer for Japanese market.

1978: Australian Owen Hill teams with an electronic components company, Applied Technology, to build the Microbee computer. Based on a Zilog Z80, the Microbee sells in hundreds of thousands to export markets and Australian schools before being overtaken by "the PC avalanche" in the late 1980s.

1979: Japan: second increase oil prices by OPEC Tokyo Summit (5th Economic Summit Conference)

1979: Soviets invade Afghanistan and install their puppet (communist) leader, Babrak Kamal. US intelligence operators later try to provoke a jihad (holy war) by Afghanis against the Russians, and arm the Afghanis, who vigourously use guerilla tactics.

1979: Soviets invade Afghanistan and install Babrak Kamal's puppet communist regime.

1979: The Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, loses control of his country and flees, to die of cancer in Egypt, and is succeeded by Ayatollah Khomeini.

1979: Vietnam invades Cambodia.

1979: First World Climate Conference adopts climate change as major issue and calls on governments "to foresee and prevent potential man-made changes in climate" (Greenhouse Timeline)

Computing history: 1979, see p. 139, Gates meets IBM and industry talk is of new Intel 8086 chip. Re a CPU (?).

Computing history: 1979, Appearance of first VISICALC electronic spreadsheet, also WordStar word processor, beginning of "the applications market". PASCAL appears as a programming language.

Computing history: 1979, see p. 154, Appearance of a CP/M DOS.

Computing history: 1979, Appearance of TC/IP protocols. See p. 157, Gates and Allen brainstormed an idea to make a hardware card to fit to Apple computers so they could run Microsoft programs; the Softcard, origins of cross-platforming for the most popular makes of computers.

1979: (see Sinclair, p. 139), Gates meets IBM and industry talk is of new Intel 8086 chip. See p. 143 re a CPU.

1979: Appearance of first VISICALC electronic spreadsheet, also WordStar word processor, beginning of "the applications market". PASCAL appears as a programming language. 1979, see p. 154, Appearance of a CP/M DOS.

1979, Appearance of TC/IP protocols. See p. 157, Gates and Allen brainstormed an idea to make a hardware card to fit to Apple computers so they could run Microsoft programs; the Softcard, origins of cross-platforming for the most popular makes of computers.

1979: Australia scores another technical first with the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument which sells to music makers around the world including Peter Gabriel and Stevie Wonder. The CMI was first featured in Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey".

Later, in 1980, Gates found IBM wanted to use CP/M, so Gates had to contact Kildall. IBM actually tried to visit Kildall, who was unavailable, with the result that Gates got the chance to provide IBM with an operating system (which became known as DOS). Just then, in 1980, Gates found that Tim Paterson at Seattle Computer Products had developed an operating system for a 16-bit Intel chip.

1980: US, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran back Afghanistan Muslim mujahidin against the Soviets.

1980: 5 September, Opening of the longest tunnel in the world, the 16lm St Gotthard road tunnel, Switzerland.

24 September, 1980: Iraqi tanks invade Iran.

29 July, 1980: The former Shah of Iran is dead, of cancer, aged 60, after a seven-year battle with cancer.

28 April, 1980: Disastrous US attempt to rescue hostages in Iran

1980: US, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China back the local Afghanistan mujahidin (holy warriors) against the Soviets.

Computing history: 1980s, Speakers now appear fitted to computers for sound usages.

Computing history: 1980, December, Apple Computers is worth approx $1.8 billion. Appearance of Softcard. Re Gates developing a BASIC program for Atari computers run by Ray Kassar, to assist with developing video games. Atari computers taking advantage of inattention by Fairlight, an Australian company, later became popular with musicians using MIDI, taking much of the market.

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Computing history: 1980, Microsoft explores use of UNIX. Microsoft licences DOS to IBM which now enters the desktop computer market.

Computing history: 1980: Due to a policy rethink by IBM, beginning of "the open architecture revolution" in the use of software applications for the personal computer market.

1981: Year of the first US space shuttle flight.

1981: AIDS is identified; and IBM introduces the personal computer.

1 April 1981: US President Ronald Reagan is shot: assassination attempt.

Space: 13 April 1981, "world's first real spaceship" is launched.

14 May 1981: Pope John Paul II shot. Two bullets hit him.

30 July 1981: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

7 October 1981: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat assassinated in Cairo.

1980: Microsoft explores use of UNIX. Microsoft licences DOS to IBM which now enters the desktop computer market.

1980: (Sinclair, p. 168), Due to a policy rethink by IBM, beginning of "the open architecture revolution" in the use of software applications for the personal computer market.

1980s, Speakers now appear fitted to computers for sound usages, (Sinclair p. 1).

1980: December, Apple Computers is worth approx $1.8 billion. Appearance of Softcard, p. 158. See p. 164, re Gates developing a BASIC program for Atari computers run by Ray Kassar, to assist with developing video games. Atari computers taking advantage of inattention by Fairlight, an Australian company, later became popular with musicians using MIDI, taking much of the market.

Computing history: 1981: Xerox, PARC and GUI, a development Xerox later dropped/ignored.

Computing history: 1981, Microsoft became licensed for $25,000 to use Seattle Computer Products' 86-DOS (for 16-bit work), the first version of "DOS", with their suppliers unaware that Microsoft was programming for IBM, and prepared to sub-licence the use of DOS to IBM for $15,000. Microsoft was still unsure it could get 86-DOS to run on the prototype IBM machines.

Computing history: In 1981, Microsoft paid only $50,000 for all DOS rights from Seattle Computers, which it then relicenced back to Seattle Computers for their use. Gates could soon say DOS will be the foundation of the PC industry, that DOS is now already on 60 million personal computers.

Computing history: 1981, 12 August, IBM released its new personal computer, with no software developed by IBM. The computer market was never the same.

Computing history: 1981, Development of first hard disk, re IBM XT computer, for 1983 release.

Computing history: 1981, p. 251, Development of Apple's Macintosh computer. GUI, Gates by 1982 decides to compete on a GUI basis.

Computing history: 1981, p. 215, Development of technology enabling users to write data to both sides of a floppy disk.

1981: MS-DOS operating system is integrated into the IBM PC.

1981: (see Sinclair after p. 218), Xerox, PARC and GUI, a development Xerox later dropped/ignored.

1981: Microsoft became licensed for $25,000 to use Seattle Computer Products? 86-DOS (for 16-bit work), the first version of "DOS", with their suppliers unaware that Microsoft was programming for IBM, and prepared to sub-licence the use of DOS to IBM for $15,000. Microsoft was still unsure it could get 86-DOS to run on the prototype IBM machines. See p. 195. See p 202, in 1981, Microsoft paid only $50,000 for all DOS rights from Seattle Computers, which it then relicenced back to Seattle Computers for their use. Gates could soon say DOS will be the foundation of the PC industry, that DOS is now already on 60 million personal computers.

1981: Development of first hard disk, re IBM XT computer, for 1983 release.

1981: (Sinclair, p. 251), Development of Apple?s Macintosh computer. GUI, Gates by 1982 decides to compete on a GUI basis.

1981: (Sinclair, p. 215), Development of technology enabling users to write data to both sides of a floppy disk.

1982-1983: The Internet becomes a reality when the ARPANET is split into military and civilian sections.

1982: The first laptop computer, the Tandy TRS-80 Model 100, is produced in the US.

12 August 1981: 12 August, IBM releases its new personal computer (PC), with no software developed by IBM. The computer market is never the same. In 1981, the first portable computer is released by Osborne.

1982-1987: Japan: Nakasone Government 80's - highest rates of longevity

1982: International Whaling Commission votes for a total ban on commercial whaling to take effect in 1985.

1982: Israel invades Lebanon and occupies much of the country up to Beirut, which is subjected to prolonged siege. The US brokers a withdrawal of PLO fighters and Arafat's staff to Tunis. After the massacre of unarmed Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, US troops return as part of a peace-keeping force but soon begin to favor some Lebanese groups and attack others. Lebanese resistance groups in the Shi'ite community attack Israeli, US and Western forces and organizations.

16 June 1982: Falklands War is over.

Computing history 1982, November 1982, Lotus introduces spreadsheet, 1-2-3.

1982: November 1982, Lotus introduces spreadsheet, 1-2-3.

1982: The development of GSM begins when the Conference of European Posts and Telegraphs (CEPT) forms a study group called Groupe Special Mobile (the initial meaning of GSM). Their charter is to develop a pan-European public cellular system in the range 900 MHz.

1983: Microsoft establishes Microsoft Press. Journalists cynical about Gates? non-appearing products coin term, "vaporware". Appearance of Lisa computer. First IBM "clones" begin to appear. Concept of "IBM compatibility" a triumph for the applications industry. Some views on the concept of the laptop computer.

1983: (Sinclair, p. 238), Microsoft releases multi-screen Microsoft Word, which has cross-platform GUI features, developed by Charles Simyoni, who also developed the mouse. Simyoni had earlier worked at Xerox PARC, the operation which developed GUI, then ignored it, and left it to Apple to work on. Simyoni?s work helped usher in the next-generation of software, in a pre-Windows environment. Appearance of laser printer technology, then Microsoft moves to Windows, two years? work. Windows will have a promotional budget of $3.5 million.

1983: Richard Stallman creates the General Public License. (GPL). (Part of the Linux story)

1983: 1 July: President Nixon creates the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) under the Justice Dept. to consolidate virtually all federal powers of drug enforcement in a single agency.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

Computing history: 1983, Microsoft establishes Microsoft Press. Journalists cynical about Gates' non-appearing products coin term, "vaporware". Appearance of Lisa computer. First IBM "clones" begin to appear. Concept of "IBM compatibility" a triumph for the applications industry. Some views on the concept of the laptop computer.

Computing history: 1983, Microsoft releases multi-screen Microsoft Word, which has cross-platform GUI features, developed by Charles Simyoni, who also developed the mouse. Simyoni had earlier worked at Xerox PARC, the operation which developed GUI, then ignored it, and left it to Apple to work on. Simyoni's work helped usher in the next-generation of software, in a pre-Windows environment. Appearance of laser printer technology, then Microsoft moves to Windows, two years' work. Windows will have a promotional budget of $3.5 million.

1984: US troops leave Lebanon after a bomb kills 24l Marines.

1984: 13 September: US State Department officials conclude, after more than a decade of crop substitution programs for Third World growers of marijuana, coca or opium poppies, that the tactic cannot work without eradication of the plants and criminal enforcement. Poor results are reported from eradication programs in Burma, Pakistan, Mexico and Peru.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1 November 1984: Indira Ghandi assassinated by her Sikh guard

6 December 1984: Bhopal: Indian fury over killer gas problem from a factory.

Computing history: 1984, p. 257, Macintosh computer released, pp. 257-268, with some features, eg., a calculator actually developed by Microsoft.

Computing history: 1984, Gates is seen as "the new Steve Jobs", Jobs being one of the garage-creators of Apple. Appearance of Turbo-Pascal.

Computing history: By mid-1984, Apple/Macintosh works on ideas for more "seamless" forms of application, "the integrated software package".

1984: (Sinclair, p. 257), Macintosh computer released, pp. 257-268, with some features, eg., a calculator actually developed by Microsoft.

1984: Bill Gates of Microsfot s seen as "the new Steve Jobs", Jobs being one of the garage-creators of Apple. Appearance of Turbo-Pascal. By mid-1984, Apple/Macintosh works on ideas for more "seamless" forms of application, "the integrated software package".

1985: Spain re-opens the border with Gibraltar, ending a 16-year siege imposed by General Franco.

1985: Hussein-Arafat Accords and UN speech by Israeli Foreign Minister Peres endorse an international conference to negotiate a settlement.

1985: First major international conference on the greenhouse effect at Villach, Austria, warns that greenhouse gases will "in the first half of the next century, cause a rise of global mean temperature which is greater than any in man's history". This could cause sea levels to rise by up to a metre, researchers say. Conference also reports that gases other than CO2, such as methane, ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide, will also contribute to warming. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1985: Discovery of the global hole-in-the-ozone-layer problem, particularly over Antarctica.

16 November 1985: Italy: Women in Naples sick of The Mob, ie The Mafia, begin to take things into their own hands.

Computing history: 1985, 21 November, 1985, Microsoft releases Windows and receives The Golden Vaporware Award from journalists. The software is not good until Windows 3.0. There are claims that Windows had unfairly utilised some Macintosh ideas. Legal action follows, the claims are true enough.

1985: Microsoft's first release of the Windows graphical user interface.

1985: 21 November, 1985: Microsoft releases Windows and receives The Golden Vaporware Award from journalists. The software is not good until Windows 3.0. There are claims that Windows had unfairly utilised some Macintosh ideas. Legal action follows, the claims are true enough.

1986: Space shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing its seven crew members.

1986 - Tokyo Summit (12th Economic Summit Conference)

30 April 1986: Meltdown at Chernobyl in Soviet Union.

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26 February 1986: President Ferdinand Marcos flees Philippines, Cory Aquino in power.

Computing history: 1986, March. Microsoft goes public on New York Stock Exchange. Gates becomes youngest-ever US billionaire.

Computing history: Late 1986, Development of OS/2, which the industry later does not like.

1986: March. Microsoft goes public on New York Stock Exchange. Gates becomes youngest-ever US billionaire. Late 1986, Development of OS/2, which the industry later does not like.

1987: USSR: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev calls for sweeping changes in Russian economy before year's end.

1987: The Palestinian Intifada (uprising) against Israeli control begins in the Occupied Territories.

October 1987: Amazing stock exchange crashes in the Western World.

1987: Apple sets up Claris Corporation. Autumn, Microsoft releases OS/2 to mixed reviews. 1988, OS/2 is shipped by Microsoft, seen as too expensive, DOS retains user loyalty.

1987: Warmest year on record. The 1980s turn out to be the warmest decade, with seven of the eight warmest years recorded up to 1990. Even the coldest years in the 1980s were warmer than the warmest years of the 1880s. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1987: By 1987 the geochemist Wallace Broecker, of Columbia University, was piecing together the paleoclimatic flip-flops with the salt-circulation story and warning that small nudges to our climate might produce "unpleasant surprises in the greenhouse." (Greenhouse Timeline)
William H. Calvin, The Great Climate Flip-Flop, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1998, Volume 281, No. 1, pp. 47-64.

Computing history: 1987, Apple sets up Claris Corporation. Autumn, Microsoft releases OS/2 to mixed reviews.

1988: Global warming attracts worldwide headlines after scientists at Congressional hearings in Washington DC blame major US drought on its influence. Meeting of climate scientists in Toronto subsequently calls for 20 per cent cuts in global CO2 emissions by the year 2005. UN sets up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to analyse and report on scientific findings. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1988: Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev pulls troops out of Afghanistan. More than one million Afghanis and 50,000 Russians have died during the nine years of Russian occupation.

1988 and later - International money market trader, George Soros, is on trial in Paris, France accused of insider trading. It is alleged that in 1988, he bought and sold in the French Bank, Societe Generale at a time when a financial scandal was in play.

1988: Jordan repudiates its claim to the West Bank; Abu Jihad (PLO's Number 2 leader) is assassinated by an Israeli hit team; the PLO recognizes Israel, proclaims a Palestinian state, renounces terrorism, and calls for negotiations; as a result of the Israeli election Yitzhak Shamir returns as prime minister.

1988: Opium production in Burma increases under the rule of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the Burmese junta regime. The single largest heroin seizure is made in Bangkok. The U.S. suspects that the 2,400-pound shipment of heroin, en route to New York City, originated from the Golden Triangle region, controlled by drug warlord, Khun Sa.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1988: USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev pulls his troops out of Afghanistan. Estimated casualties: 1 million Afghanis and 50,000 Russians.

1988 March: Apple sues Microsoft, p. 352. Apple about now is, p. 353, the world?s second largest computer company. Leader of Apple is Sculley, who took over from Steve Jobs.

1988: AS3563, the world's first Software Quality Management Standard, is developed in Australia and adopted by the IEEE.

1987-89: Japan: Takeshita Government

Computing history: 1988, OS/2 is shipped by Microsoft, seen as too expensive, DOS retains user loyalty.

Computing history: 1988 March, Apple sues Microsoft, p. 352. Apple about now is, p. 353, the world's second largest computer company. Leader of Apple is Sculley, who took over from Steve Jobs.

1989: European Union bans growth hormones as widely used by American farmers.

1989: Japan: Emperor Hirohito dies in January; Heisei Period starts, Emperor Heisei (Akihito)

1989: Japan: Uno Sosuke Government resigns over sex scandal.

1989: Iran-Iraq War ends.

1989: Muslim separatists launch struggle against Indian rule in Kashmir.

1989-1991: Japan: Kaifu Toshiki Government

May 1989: The Internet reaches Australia via a 56K satellite link. From the University of Hawaii to University of Melbourne. Other universities and the CSIRO were soon linked. The Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) was set up in early 1990. In 1999, "The Internet" turned 30. Instrumental in its birth in 1990 was Tim-Berners-Lee: See book by Robert H. Reid, Architects of the Web. Check Website: www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee

Computing history: 1989, October, p. 385, LAN Manager (for local area networks) is introduced by 3COM, to compete with Netware.

1990: A MacDonald's restaurant opens in Moscow, Russia.

1989: October, (Sinclair, p. 385), LAN Manager (for local area networks) is introduced by 3COM, to compete with Netware.

1989: Australia enters the information age with the nation's first Internet connection through MUNARRI at Melbourne University.

May 1989: The Internet reaches Australia via a 56K satellite link. From the University of Hawaii to University of Melbourne. Other universities and the CSIRO were soon linked. The Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) was set up in early 1990. In 1999, "The Internet" turned 30. Instrumental in its birth in 1990 was Tim-Berners-Lee: See book by Robert H. Reid, Architects of the Web. Check Website: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee

Computing history: 1990, 22 May 1990, Microsoft multimedia production leadership re release of Windows 3.0, the most expensive software introduction budget ever and now, the industry is driven by software, not hardware.

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Computing history: By 1990, Gates has implicitly committed Microsoft to developing multimedia. (Sinclair preface, the minimum needed for multimedia is a 25 MHz 80386X machine, with enough memory to run Windows 3.1. with SVGA monitor for Win3.1.) Preferably using DOS6.2 to run the Smartdrive software providing memory cache for CD-ROM usage.

Computing history: 1990, US FTC examines claims that Microsoft is monopolistic in its industry. 1990, Microsoft releases personal finance product, Quicken. Also, Microsoft Money.

Computing history: 1990-1991, Microsoft deliberately tries to damage Adobe.

Computing history: 1990s, the term multimedia appears (although long-known in a variety of artistic circles) Multimedia required the "bundling" of the software and of course when the Internet Revolution hit, an Internet browser tended to become bundled with other software. (I am unaware of dates for the rise of Netscape products).

1990: Russia: Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev addresses the party plenum and says the Communist Party must abandon its monopoly on political power.

1991: Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence from the federation as Balkans tensions rise. The last Soviet troops stationed in Czechoslovakia leave the country, 23 years after the Warsaw Pact invasion.

Computing history: 1991, p. 407, Microsoft releases MS-DOS 5.0, Novell beats Microsoft regarding networking capability.

Computing history: 1991 IBM releases its use of OS/2, a disaster followed by first ever IBM deficit. Apple and IBM discuss possibility of joining forces to create a new operating system and also a multimedia computer to compete with Microsoft. There are other ideas for major industry re-alliances to move against Microsoft. Microsoft launches MS-DOS 5.0. Gates is aged 35, already second richest man in USA. By 1991, Gates is buying rights to use contents of major art collections for use in his forthcoming multimedia packages, eg., Encarta.

1991: Creation of the World Wide Web. In 1993, there were 130 websites. In 1999, almost five million.

1991: US politician/president Jimmy Carter establishes the International Network Council for former heads of state.

By 28 August 1991: Fragmentation of the Russian Soviet empire - following the week-before abortive coup de tat. Boris Yeltsin versus Gorbachev.

1991: In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee, a young man working at CERN in Switzerland posts the first computer code of the World Wide Web in a relatively innocuous newsgroup, "alt.hypertext". The ability to combine words, pictures and sounds on Web pages excites many programmers who see a potential for publishing information on the Internet in a way that can be as easy as using a word processor. This post was the first release of HTML to the public.
Around the same time, Marc Andreesen and a group of student programmers at NCSA (The National Centre for Supercomputing Applications located on the campus of The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) will eventually develop a graphical browser for the World Wide Web called Mosaic. Which became available in 1993, around which time, traffic on the Internet expands at 341,634 per cent, annual growth rate. The rest is history...
Source for the above was: http://www.pbs.org/internet/timeline/timeline-txt.htm/

1990: 2 July: East and West Germany agree on this date for economic union, as a prelude to full political unification.

1990: Osama bin-Laden, a Saudi citizen who had joined forces with the mujahidin in the struggle, begins putting together a coalition of Arab fighters to set up a Muslim state.

1990: Annexation of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein.

1990: A US Court indicts Khun Sa, leader of the Shan United Army and reputed drug warlord, on heroin trafficking charges. The U.S. Attorney General's office charges Khun Sa with importing 3,500 pounds of heroin into New York City over the course of eighteen months, as well as holding him responsible for the source of the heroin seized in Bangkok.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1990: Wealthy Saudi Arabian, Osama bin-Laden forms network called al-Qa'ida (The Base), mujahidin to unite Arabs who have fought against the Soviets to "re-establish the Muslim state".

1990: The first report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds that Earth has warmed by 0.5 °C in the past century. IPCC warns that only strong measures to halt rising greenhouse gas emissions will prevent serious global warming. Provides scientific clout for UN negotiations for a climate convention. Negotiations begin after the UN General Assembly in December. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1990s: The term multimedia appears (although long-known in a variety of artistic circles) Multimedia required the "bundling" of the software and of course when the Internet Revolution hit, an Internet browser tended to become bundled with other software. (We do not yet have dates for the rise of Netscape products).

1990: Microsoft's Windows 3.0 released to the market.

1990: Tim Berners-Lee designs the World Wide Web (www) with URLs, HTTP and HTML &c.

1990: US FTC examines claims that Microsoft is monopolistic in its industry.

1990: Microsoft releases personal finance product, Quicken. Also, Microsoft Money. 1990-1991, Microsoft deliberately tries to damage Adobe.

1990: 22 May 1990: Microsoft multimedia production leadership re release of Windows 3.0, the most expensive software introduction budget ever and now, the industry is driven by software, not hardware.

By 1990, Gates has implicitly committed Microsoft to developing multimedia. (Sinclair preface, the minimum needed for multimedia is a 25 MHz 80386X machine, with enough memory to run Windows 3.1. with SVGA monitor for Win3.1.) Preferably using DOS6.2 to run the Smartdrive software providing memory cache for CD-ROM usage.

By 28-8-1991: Fragmentation of the Russian Soviet empire - following the week-before abortive coup de tat. Boris Yeltsin versus Gorbachev.

1991-1993: Japan: Miyazawa Government

1991: The Gulf War: Coalition of US-led forces restores Kuwait and ousts forces of Iraq/Saddam Hussein.

1991: Gulf War. Abu Iyad (the new Number 2 man in PLO after Arafat) is assassinated, probably by Iraq. Negotiations open in Madrid under US and Russian auspices. Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Syrians, and Lebanese participate. The talks have two parts: bilateral talks between Israel and Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinians and multilateral talks on five functional issues: water, refugees, environment, economic development, and security.

1991: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of Communist Party in Russia, and urges the party is disbanded. In 1989, "Fall of the Berlin Wall", signifying the end for World Communism except in China, Vietnam and Cuba.

1991: Creation of the World Wide Web. In 1993, there were 130 websites. In 1999, almost five million.

1991: Commercial operation of the first GSM networks started in European countries. By early , over 60 countries have an operational or a planned GSM network, including Australia.

By 1991: Gates is buying rights to use contents of major art collections for use in his forthcoming multimedia packages, eg., Encarta Encyclopedia.

1991: Microsoft releases MS-DOS 5.0, Novell beats Microsoft regarding networking capability.

1991: In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee, a young man working at CERN in Switzerland posts the first computer code of the World Wide Web in a relatively innocuous newsgroup, "alt.hypertext". The ability to combine words, pictures and sounds on Web pages excites many programmers who see a potential for publishing information on the Internet in a way that can be as easy as using a word processor. This post was the first release of HTML (Hypertext Mark-Up Language) to the public.

Around the same time, Marc Andreesen and a group of student programmers at NCSA (The National Centre for Supercomputing Applications located on the campus of The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) will eventually develop a graphical browser for the World Wide Web called Mosaic. Which became available in 1993, around which time, traffic on the Internet expands at 341,634 per cent, annual growth rate. The rest is history ...
Source: http://www.pbs.org/internet/timeline/timeline-txt.htm

1991: IBM releases OS/2, a disaster followed by first-ever IBM deficit. Apple and IBM discuss possibility of joining forces to create a new operating system and also a multimedia computer to compete with Microsoft. There are other ideas for major industry re-alliances to move against Microsoft. Microsoft launches MS-DOS 5.0. Bill Gates by now is aged 35, already second-richest man in USA.

August 1991: Linus Torvalds announces Linux has arrived. (Part of the Linux story, and the word is pronounced Lynne-ux, as with the woman's name, Lynne. not Line-ux.)

Jonar C. Nader, Prentice-Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing. Sydney, Prentice-Hall, 1992.

1992: A copy of the world's first web page (by WWW-hypertext inventor Tim Berners Lee) is at: www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

1992: Afghanistan: Mujahidin led by Ahmed Shah Massoud seize the capital, Kabul. Other factions however fight for control of the country.

1992: UN declines deployment of 10,0000-man UN peacekeeping force in Yugoslavia.

1992: Colombia's drug lords are said to be introducing a high-grade form of heroin into the United States.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1992: Yitzhak Rabin becomes prime minister of Israel.

1992: President George Bush announces that the United States will no longer produce plutonium and highly-enriched uranium for weapons.

1992: Climate Change Convention, signed by 154 nations in Rio, agrees to prevent "dangerous" warming from greenhouse gases and sets initial target of reducing emissions from industrialised countries to 1990 levels by the year 2000. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1992: Ahmad Shah Masood and his Jamiat-e-Islami mujahidin faction take control of the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, while motley groups fight over other parts of the country.

1993: Use of the Internet begins to take off, taking internet use out of the university sector, spreading world-wide.

1993: Microsoft releases Windows NT.

1993: Gates/Microsoft move to 32.bit technology/applications. Release of Windows NT. Microsoft releases MS-DOS 6.0. Windows is now the biggest-selling application of all time. IBM by now has lost about $77 billion.

1993: Development of the Intel Pentium processor marks a new era in PC power, while the first Web browser, NCSA Mosaic, is developed and released in 1993.

1993-1995: First release of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Protocol for Web browsers. An updated version of SSL is later used to secure transactions over the Internet.

James Wallace and Jim Erickson, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire. (Updated edition). Chichester, England, John Wiley, 1992-1993. P/back.

June 1993: First commercial release of Linux, called Slackware. (Part of the Linux story)

John Ralston Saul is particularly critical of economists and econometricians in his major work critiquing the present-day world: John Ralston Saul, Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West. Camberwell, Victoria, Penguin, 1993. (Highly recommended reading - Ed)

1993: Failed Australian pseudo-tycoon Christopher Skase is free after a Spanish appeal court overturns an earlier extradition order to send him back to justice in Australia.

1993: Japan: Coalition government (non-LDP government) All parties except LDP and Japan Communist Party

Computing history: 1993, Gates moves to 32.bit technology/applications. Release of Windows NT. Microsoft releases MS-DOS 6.0. Windows is now the biggest-selling application of all time. IBM by now has lost about $77 billion.

1993, New York, World Trade Centre bombings kill six and injure 1000 people. Bombings said to be linked to Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who preaches an Islamic-group war against the US, who in 1996 was convicted in US of "seditious conspiracy". It is said that Osama bin Laden is a student of Abdel-Rahman.

1993: September. Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat meet in Washington, D.C. to sign documents that promise to end their conflict.

1993: The Thai army with support from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) launches its operation to destroy thousands of acres of opium poppies from the fields of the Golden Triangle region.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1993: Use of the Internet begins to take off.

1994: Afghanistan: The Taliban, a militia of Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist students, first appears. (Later views is that psychologically, they are the children of Russia's invasion of Afghanistan.

1994 June - Japan Socialist Party, LDP, Sakigake coalition government.

1994: Maralinga: 1994: In April 1994 it was announced that Britain would contribute $20 million for a clean-up of the atomic-bomb radiated area, Maralinga, South Australia, on the condition that Australia makes no further claims.

1994: US: Death of former president Richard Nixon.

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1994: The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are killed in a plane crash in Rwanda. This helps to set off the killing of 500,0000 Rwandans, mostly from the minority Tutsis in following months.

June 1994: Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) funds 64-bit Linux project. (Part of the Linux story)

1994: January: Efforts to eradicate opium at its source remains unsuccessful. The Clinton Administration orders a shift in policy away from the anti- drug campaigns of previous administrations. Instead the focus includes "institution building" with the hope that by "strengthening democratic governments abroad, [it] will foster law-abiding behavior and promote legitimate economic opportunity."
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1994: The Taliban surfaces in Afghanistan. It is a grouping of Islamic fundamentalist student activists from the Pashtun cultural area.

1995: The Dayton Peace Accords helps end a four-year war in Bosnia between Moslems, Croatians and Serbs.

1995: Egypt; In the bloodiest day so far in Egypt's Islamic insurgency, police shoot dead 14 suspected militants while extremists kill two policemen and two civilians.

1995, 5 September, France conducts and underground nuclear test on Muroroa Atoll (Pacific), causing world-wide condemnation.

By 26 February, 1995: News that Baring Bros are in the red for over 800 million, in derivatives in Tokyo. The Bank of England has spent a weekend trying to organise a rescue, situation being that if no rescue is possible, when trading opens on Monday, disaster will have struck.

1995: Hottest year yet. In March, the Berlin Mandate is agreed by signatories at the first full meeting of the Climate Change Convention in Berlin. Industrialised nations agree on the need to negotiate real cuts in their emissions, to be concluded by the end of 1997. (Greenhouse Timeline)
1995: In November, IPCC casts caution to the winds and agrees that current warming "is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin" and that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate". Report predicts that, under a "business-as-usual" scenario, global warming by the year 2100 will be between 1 °C and 3.5 °C. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1995: Finance markets, Mexico suffers "peso meltdown" and the so-called Tequila Crisis.

1995: The Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia is now the leader in opium production, yielding 2,500 tons annually. According to US drug experts, there are new drug trafficking routes from Burma through Laos, to southern China, Cambodia and Vietnam.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

Computing history: 1995, Further use of Pentium chip to enhance speed of IBM clones. Eg., Pentium 133. It becomes possible for users to download software straight from the Internet. This also made the distribution of shareware and freeware easier. World-wide, the Internet is becoming available to low-budget computers users/website developers.

Computing history: 1995, With the most expensive product launch budget in history, $3 billion, Microsoft launches Windows 95, which is a revolution assisting the Internet Revolution. Associated software such as Microsoft Office 95 fulfils the dream of integrated software packages for use in IBM-clone machines.

1995: A 1995 survey by a Middlesex University professor found that of all the words searched for at a particular search engine, eight of the top ten were related to pornography.
Reported in The Australian, 12 February 1999.

1995, With the most expensive product launch budget in history, $3 billion, Microsoft launches Windows 95, which is a revolution assisting the Internet Revolution. Associated software such as Microsoft Office 95 fulfils the dream of integrated software packages for use in IBM-clone machines.

1995, Further use of Pentium chip to enhance speed of IBM clones. Eg., Pentium 133. It becomes possible for users to download software straight from the Internet. This also makes the distribution of shareware and freeware easier. World-wide, the Internet is becoming available to low-budget computers users/website developers.

1995: Microsoft's Windows 95 is released and sells a million copies in four days. The promotional budget used for the marketing exercise is quite staggering.

Simon Collin, The Way Microsoft Windows 95 Works: The Ultimate How-to-Guide for Beginners. Microsoft Press, 1995.

Richard W. Wiggins, The Internet for Everyone: A Guide for Users and Providers. Sydney, McGraw-Hill, 1995.

Computing history: 1996, The Internet Revolution picks up great speed, prompting new magazines, products, a ferment of ideas, notions such as push-pull technology for driving information to consumers. In Australia, the rise of Sausage Software, provider of a web authoring kit; one product among many for the purpose. Hype develops over the ability of smaller transactors to use e-commerce packages.

1996 - 1/17: Japan: Great Hanshin Earthquake - several Aum sect incidents

1996: November: International drug trafficking organizations, including China, Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico are said to be "aggressively marketing heroin in the United States and Europe."
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1996: Tokyo Court orders cult guru Shoko Asahana and two top assistants to pay almost US$7.5 million to victims of 1995 sarin (nerve gas) attack on city's subway system.

1996, 19 July: Tamil rebels begin an attack on a 1,200-strong army camp in northern Sri Lanka. Only 30 army soldiers survive, the worst government loss in this civil war.

1996: January: Khun Sa, one of Shan state's most powerful drug warlords, "surrenders" to SLORC. The U.S. is suspicious and fears that this agreement between the ruling junta regime and Khun Sa includes a deal allowing "the opium king" to retain control of his opium trade but in exchange end his 30-year-old revolutionary war against the government.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1996: At second meeting of the Climate Change Convention, US agrees for the first time to legally binding emissions targets and sides with the IPCC against influential "sceptical" scientists. After a four-year pause, global emissions of CO2 resume steep climb, and scientists warn that most industrialised countries will not meet Rio agreement to stabilise emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000. (Greenhouse Timeline)

Computing history: 1997, Microsoft releases Microsoft Office 97.

1996: From early in the year, the popularisation of the Internet world-wide as the use of Net facilities spreads out from universities. By about August, 1997, it could be said that internationally, the number of websites available was doubling every six weeks.

1996, The Internet Revolution picks up great speed, prompting new print magazines, products, a ferment of ideas, notions such as push-pull technology for driving information to consumers. In Australia is the rise of Sausage Software, provider of a web authoring kit (HotDog); one product among many for the purpose. Hype develops over the ability of smaller transactors to use e-commerce packages.

"As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection from governmental intrusion." Judge Stewart Dalzell, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania - 12 June 1996.

October 1996: Ovum researchers said by the year 2000 there would probably be 50 telephone service providers as a result of deregulation planned for 1997, instead of just Telstra and Optus.

November 1996: Australian Internet users formed a local chapter of the US-based Internet Society, known as the Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU).

11 November 1996: ISP OzEmail and Rupert Murdoch's pay TV giant British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB) teamed up in an online advertising venture called Web Wide Media.

2 December 1996: Users of Melbourne IT's commercial domain name registration service, which had been previously performed for free, called for competition to be introduced as soon as possible.

1996: December: Long before the extraordinary dot.com burnouts of 2000, US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned of "irrational exuberance" in the telecommunications and technology stock markets. He was more than correct.

Steven Alter, Information Systems: A Management Perspective. (Edition Two.) New York, Benjamin Cummings Publishing Co., 1996.

Crystal Waters, Web Concept and Design: A Comprehensive Guide for Creating Effective Websites. Indianapolis, New Riders Publishing, 1996.

Stephen O'Brien, Life After Connection: Internet Australia: Beyond the Basics. Sydney, Prentice Hall, 1996.

Alan Ford, The Really Easy Guide to the Internet for Australia and New Zealand. Rydalmere, Sydney, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996.

On 1 January 1997, CS First Boston and Credit Suisse consolidated businesses into Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and the parent company was renamed Credit Suisse Group. Today, CSFP is a leading global investment banking firm and provides a comprehensive range of financial advisory, capital-raising, sales and trading and financial products for users and suppliers of capital around the world. In 1998, CSFB had over 12,000 employees in over 50 offices and over 30 countries. Credit Suisse First Boston is one of the world's largest securities firms in terms of financial resources, with approximately $7.1 billion in revenues in 1997, $7.3 billion in equity capital and $310 billion in assets as of December 31, 1997.

1997: Kyoto Protocol agrees on legally-binding emissions cuts for industrialised nations, averaging 5.4 per cent, to be met by 2010. The meeting also adopts a series of flexibility measures, allowing countries to meet their targets partly by trading emissions permits, establishing carbon sinks such as forests to soak up emissions, and by investing in other countries. Precise rules are left for further negotiations. Meanwhile, the US government says it will not ratify the agreement unless it sees evidence of "meaningful participation" in reducing emissions from developing countries. (Greenhouse Timeline)

1997: The World: Signing of the Kyoto Treaty (abridged in 2001 by US President George W. Bush), hoped to help combat world climate change.

Article by Jeremy Horey, IT departments shouldn't run Web sites. With particular reference to a website hooked to a database for any reason. The Australian, IT Pages, 21 October 1997.

November 1997: OzEmail, then Australia's largest Internet service provider, completed the acquisition of Access One, previously Australia's number three ISP, from Solution 6 Holdings.

November 1997: MSN's Sydney Sidewalk directory site hits the Web, with predictions it would be two to three years before it becomes profitable.

Large sections of the World Wide Web "disappeared" and millions of e-mails bounced back to senders last Thursday because of a mistake by the US company (Network Solutions) which maintains a registry of Internet addresses. Many sites ending in .com or .net ceased to exist as far as root servers were concerned. The original problem was more human than technical in origin. (Reported in The Weekend Australian, 19 July 1997)

1997: Australian Internet commentator (and print author) Dale Spender by August 1997 coins the word "printist" for someone excessively devoted to print media technology and disapproving of The Net.

1997: Microsoft releases Microsoft Office 97.

Laura Lemay, Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 14 Days. Second Professional Reference Edition. Indianapolis, Indiana, Sams.net, 1997. (From the author of Teach Yourself Web Publishing in a Week, and Teach Yourself Java in a Week)

Marc Phillips, Behind Australia's Most Successful Web Sites. Distributed by Bookman Press, 1997.

Andrew Bonime and Kent C. Phlmann, Writing For New Media: The Essential Guide to Writing for Interactive Media, CD-ROMs, and the Web. New York, Wiley, 1998. (An excellent book. With chapters on Interactivity. Books/eBooks. Intrinsic Interactivity: Some Media are Already Interactive. Linear Writing vs Interactive Writing. How to Think Interactively. How to Plan and Present an Interactive Title Idea. Planning for Interactivity in a Linear Title. Interactive Grammar. Interactive Sentences - Designing the Perfect Data Chunk. Here, chapter 14 recommends using Sidebars, how to integrate footno