1892 – The first successful automatic telephone system was introduced in Laporte, IN. Almond Strowger, the inventor, came up with the idea because the non-automatic system made it possible for his customers calls to be intercepted by his competitor. Strowger ran a funeral parlor.
1895 – Scientist Wilhelm Roentgen (Röntgen) took the first X-ray pictures on this day. He had been experimenting with electricity but failed to turn off the machine. The device he was working with overheated and emitted rays. After a number of hours, Roentgen came upon the scientific principle that would allow him to take X-ray pictures. Other X-rays had been observed before this; but Roentgen was the only one to have performed repeated experiments — proving that his machine 
worked. Roentgen may have been a clever scientist; but he had no business savvy. He never patented his X-ray machine and never received any money for it.
1993 – Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was released. The operating system boasted improved support for NetWare and Windows NT, and slipped in numerous architectural changes to improve performance and stability
And this week in 1999 – U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, in a ‘finding of fact’, declared Microsoft Corporation a monopoly. Jackson wrote, “Microsoft enjoys so much power in the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems that if it wished to exercise this power solely in terms of price, it could charge a price for Windows substantially above that which could be charged in a competitive market.”