On the fourth of July 1971 – Independence Day in the US – Michael Hart typed the text of the American Declaration
of Independence into the computer. He was told however that he couldn’t mail the text to various persons, because then the system would 
crash (in 1971, this technology was still in its infancy). To avoid this, he decided to make the text available for download. Thus the first e-book was born. And with it came Project Gutenberg, the oldest digital library, where you can download books for free. The digital pioneer who came up with all of this, has recently passed away. His project is still going strong and there’s no doubt that the e-book will survive its creator.
More info on Project Gutenberg can be found here. On the site, there is also an obituary for Michael Hart.
