This Day in History: The Fictional HAL 9000 Computer Becomes Operational

Happy 20th anniversary, HAL; on a related note, see Artificial Intelligence: Think Again (Jerry Kaplan in Communications of the ACM)

"The fictional HAL 9000 computer becomes operational, according to Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the 1968 movie adaptation, the computer's statement, "I am a HAL 9000 computer, Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997," put his birthdate in 1992. Both dates have now passed with no super-intelligent, human-like HAL computer in sight."

This Day in History: January 12 | Computer History Museum