January 16, 1787

Founding father Thomas Jefferson writes a letter to Edward Carrington, expressing his feeling about the power of the press.

The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

January 4, 1996

A Serious Miscalculation

“…an Internet browser is a trivial piece of software. There are at least 30 companies that have written very credible Internet browsers, so that’s nothing… ”

- Bill Gates as quoted in
"The world according to Gates" by Don Tennant
InfoWorld Electric, January 4, 1996

January 3, 1954

A Shocking Letter

January 3, 1954 - Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the philosopher Eric Gutkind on this date describing belief in God as "childish superstition" and saying Jews were not the chosen people.

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These [...] interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.

The letter is of particular note, as Einstein's exact religious beliefs have been in contention since he first came into the public eye. As a child, Einstein attended a Catholic school while receiving private tutelage in Judaism, but neither of his parents were particularly religious. He later wrote that, "The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression."

And yet, throughout his career, Einstein was a force for spiritualism in science, often championing faith and speaking about the mysteries of God.

In 2008, the letter was auctioned for US$404,000.