Produced by Al Haines
?Project Gutenberg 4 July 1971 - 4 July 2011: Album
4 July 1971 - 4 July 2011 >An album to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Project Gutenberg
This album is dedicated to all Project Gutenberg and Distributed
Proofreaders volunteers worldwide.
The first ebook was available on 4 July 1971, as eText #1 of ProjectGutenberg, a visionary project launched by Michael Hart to create freeelectronic versions of literary works and disseminate them worldwide.In the 16th century, Gutenberg allowed anyone to have print books for asmall cost. In the 21st century, Project Gutenberg would allow anyoneto have a digital library at no cost. Project Gutenberg got its firstboost with the invention of the web in 1990, and its second boost withthe creation of Distributed Proofreaders in 2000.
4 July 1971 > eText #1 > The United States Declaration of Independence
On 4 July 1971, Michael Hart keyed in The United States Declaration ofIndependence (signed on 4 July 1776) to the mainframe he was using, inupper case, because there was no lower case yet. The file was 5 K.Michael mentioned to the 100 users of the pre-internet of the timewhere the etext was stored—though without a hypertext link, becausethe web was still 20 years ahead. It was downloaded by six users.
4 July 1971 > As recalled by Michael Hart
As recalled by Michael Hart in January 2009: "On July 4, 1971, whilestill a freshman at the University of Illinois (UI), I decided to spendthe night at the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the UI Materials ResearchLab, rather than walk miles home in the summer heat, only to come backhours later to start another day of school. I stopped on the way to doa little grocery shopping to get through the night, and day, and alongwith the groceries they put in the faux parchment copy of The U.S.Declaration of Independence that became quite literally the cornerstoneof Project Gutenberg. That night, as it turned out, I received my firstcomputer account—I had been hitchhiking on my brother's bestfriend's name, who ran the computer on the night shift. When I got afirst look at the huge amount of computer money I was given, I decidedI had to do something extremely worthwhile to do justice to what I hadbeen given. (…) As I emptied out groceries, the faux parchmentDeclaration of Independence fell out, and the light literally went onover my head like in the cartoons and comics… I knew what the futureof computing, and the internet, was going to be… 'The InformationAge.' The rest, as they say, is history." (NEF Interview)
July 1971 > Project Gutenberg's mission
Michael decided to use the huge amount of computer time he had beengiven to search the literary works that were stored in libraries, andto digitize these works. A book would become a continuous text fileinstead of a set of pages. Project Gutenberg's mission would be to putat everyone's disposal, in electronic versions, as many literary worksas possible for free.
1972 > The United States Bill of Rights
After keying in The United States Declaration of Independence in 1971,Michael typed in a longer text, The United States Bill of Rights, in1972, i.e. the first ten amendments added in 1789 to the Constitution(dated 1787) and defining the individual rights of the citizens and thedistinct powers of the Federal Government and the States.
1973 > The United States Constitution
A volunteer typed in The United States Constitution in 1973.
1974-1988 > The Bible
From one year