The pioneering Altair 8800 microcomputer was first put on sale in the U.S. as a do-it-yourself computer kit, for $397. It used switches for input and flashing lights as a display. Ed Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) to market his product that used the 8800 microprocessor. The demand for the $395.00 machine exceeded the manufacturer's wildest expectations. The Altair 8800 was featured on the cover of the Jan 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. The first commercially successful personal computer, the Commodore PET, which integrated a keyboard and monitor in its case, came out in early 1977. The Apple II followed later that year.

Thieves in Poland have stolen the infamous wrought iron sign that announced "work sets you free" over the main gate at Auschwitz. The sign saying "Arbeit macht frei" was erected by the Nazis soon after the old Auschwitz barracks were converted into a labour and extermination centre in 1940. It was used to suggest that hard work would allow inmates to walk free. As Auschwitz was turned into a major hub for the Holocaust and murdered over a million people the sign has come to represent a cynical commentary. 'It seems that a gang of perhaps three people unscrewed the sign between three o'clock and five o'clock on Friday morning,' said the Polish police. 'They must have used a ladder and had a car waiting for them.' ( The men who stole the sign are arrested the next day and the sign is found cut into three pieces, each containing one of the words Arbeit Macht Frei )