Letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
In August 1939, physicists anxious about the possibility of Nazi Germany’s development of a new and important use of energy urged Albert Einstein to sign a warning letter to President Roosevelt, explaining that a nuclear reaction could be set up in a large mass of uranium. Einstein’s letter did not, however, have much immediate effect. The Office of Scientific Research and Development was not established to develop atomic energy until June 28, 1941. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and World War II began. On December 6, 1941, the day before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt authorized the Manhattan Engineering District, which became the Manhattan Project in August 1942.
Neil Armstrong’s words on stepping on the moon’s surface
No one person was responsible for the space program, but Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong’s words, from the surface of the moon, spoke of the culmination of many scientific and technological achievements.
Speech to IBM Forum, Portoroz, Slovenia, Carol Stafford
Speeches can be a very effective way of inspiring an audience. They are also a performance and need to be powerfully written and utterly engaging. Writing Machine created a script for IBM’s vice president of enterprise servers, Carol Stafford, that enabled her to deliver just such an inspirational presentation in Slovenia. This selection is a section of the transcript of Stafford’s speech, completely written by a machine.
Moon landing photographs
Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon when flight Apollo 11 landed there on July 20, 1969. Photographs from the mission, including these of his crewmate Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, were widely seen around the world.
Nuclear testing photographs: Operation Cue
In August 1945, Americans dropped the first atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, helping to bring about the end of World War II. Ten years later, an atomic bomb was dropped in Nebraska as part of “Operation Cue,” an operation to test civil defense readiness and see how well houses, power lines, metal buildings, and a radio tower would survive a blast twice as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. About 5,800 civilians and military officials witnessed the event.
Techno Euphoria “Circular Cube,” composed by Ron Burns
In 1968, Wendy Carlos released Switched-On Bach when electronic music was genuinely new territory. It became an immediate success, and as a result, the Moog synthesizer was widely accepted and America discovered a new kind of music. Sixteen- and 24-track recorders came to be widely used, then digital synthesizers, hard disk recorders, and computer-based music production systems. Now, the electronic music medium has evolved into a mainstream musical tool, as demonstrated by this “techno” song, “Circular Cube.”