Fergie's Tech Blog

8 June 1949: Nineteen Eighty-Four is Published

Via Wikipedia.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a political novel which George Orwell wrote in opposition to totalitarianism. It tells a story set in a nightmarish dystopia in which an omnipresent state wields total control.

It has remained one of the most influential books, and possibly the most influential work of science fiction, of the 20th century.

Along with Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most famous and most cited works of dystopian fiction in literature. The book has been translated into many languages. Nineteen Eighty-Four and its terminology have become a byword in discussions of privacy issues. The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations that are thought to be reminiscent of the society depicted in the novel.

Originally, Orwell titled the book The Last Man in Europe, but his publisher, Frederic Warburg, suggested the change. (Crick, Bernard. "Introduction," to George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984)). First published on June 8, 1949, the bulk of the novel was written by Orwell on the island of Jura, Scotland in 1948, although Orwell had been writing small parts of it since 1945. The book begins approximately on April 4, 1984 at 13:00 ("It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen...").

More here.

Honorable mention: 8 June 1789 -- James Madison introduces a proposed Bill of Rights in the U.S. House of Representatives.

posted by Fergie @ 6/07/2006 10:01:00 PM