November 4, 1982

Compaq announces their Compaq Portable PC, one of the early portable computer designs and, more significantly, the first successful IBM-compatible PC clone. Compaq eventually succeeded where other similar companies failed because they took considerable care in creating their product on two fronts. First, they created the first 100% IBM-compatible BIOS, the only proprietary component of the IBM PC. Spending $1 million to reverse engineer the IBM BIOS using clean-room techniques, this also allowed them to avoid copyright infringement charges. Finally, they were legally and financially prepared for the inevitable lawsuit IBM would bring against then, which was dismissed as expected.

By proving that a clean room, reverse-engineered BIOS could create 100% IBM-compatible computers and withstand legal challenges from IBM, Compaq paved the way for the flood of IBM-compatible clones that would begin in the mid-1980’s. This was the opening of the Pandora’s Box that led to IBM losing control of the platform, and the emergence of Microsoft and Intel as the dominant technology companies of the PC era. Even though IBM lost control of the platform they created, the weight of the IBM name combined with the eventual low cost of the IBM-compatible platform crushed nearly all other competing personal computing platforms of the era.

November 4, 1952

As part of a publicity stunt to help boost sales, Remington Rand collaborates with CBS to have its UNIVAC computer predict the results of the 1952 US presidential election between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson live on air. Because the pre-election polls had the election very close, the publicity surrounding a computer predicting the winner generated a lot of popular interest.

UNIVAC correctly predicted a landslide victory by Eisenhower early in the evening after only 3 million votes had been returned and entered into the system. However, because it was so different than the expected result, the decision was made to hold back the computerized prediction. It appears that both Remington Rand and CBS feared the computer was incorrect so they didn’t want to take the risk. It was only late in the broadcast when continuing returns seemed to indicate that UNIVAC was in fact correct, did CBS announce the landslide prediction from the computer and the fact it had done so hours earlier. In the end, UNIVAC had come within 3.5% of the popular vote, within 4 electoral votes, and predicted 100-1 odds of the Eisenhower victory.

The publicity stunt worked as UNIVAC became relatively famous. For a time people started calling all computers “UNIVACs”, it was featured on the cover of a Superman comic book, and in a Looney Toons cartoon. By the next presidential election 4 years later, all 3 major networks were using computers to predict the results.