INVENTOR

Michael S. Hart

1947 - 2011

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Michael Stern Hart (March 8, 1947 – September 6, 2011) was an American author, best known as the inventor of the e-book and the founder of Project Gutenberg (PG), the first project to make e-books freely available via the Internet. He published e-books via ARPANET years before the Internet existed, and later on BBS networks and Gopher servers. Hart devoted his life after founding PG in 1971 to digitizing and distributing literature from works in the public domain with free and expired copyrights. The first e-books were typed in plain text format and published as text files; other formats were made available later. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Michael S. Hart is the 261st most popular inventor (up from 277th in 2019), the 5,038th most popular biography from United States (down from 4,881st in 2019) and the 67th most popular American Inventor.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Michael S. Hart ranks 261 out of 426Before him are George Pullman, Eugen Langen, Glenn Curtiss, Hary Gunarto, Adolf Martens, and Arthur Wynne. After him are Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Angelo Moriondo, Walter Zapp, Gerald Bull, Ray Dolby, and Henri Fabre.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1947, Michael S. Hart ranks 359Before him are Hans-Jürgen Kreische, Olavo de Carvalho, Sylvia Nasar, Aziz Dweik, Luis Ángel González Macchi, and Valery Afanassiev. After him are Albert Brooks, Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein, Herbert Mullin, Jerry Nadler, Alan Lee, and Svetlana Toma. Among people deceased in 2011, Michael S. Hart ranks 194Before him are Saad el-Shazly, Elaine Stewart, James L. Elliot, Hind Rostom, David Wilkerson, and John Wood. After him are Dennis Oppenheim, Paulette Dubost, Inge Sørensen, Yevhen Rudakov, Sam Rivers, and Jeff Conaway.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Michael S. Hart ranks 5,038 out of 20,380Before him are Dorothy Gibson (1889), Ashley Johnson (1983), Arnold Palmer (1929), David Silverman (1957), Steve Zahn (1967), and Peter Lynch (1944). After him are Cat Power (1972), Albert Brooks (1947), Alexander H. Stephens (1812), Margaret Sullavan (1909), Peggy Whitson (1960), and Susan Brownmiller (1935).

Among INVENTORS In United States

Among inventors born in United States, Michael S. Hart ranks 67Before him are John Wesley Hyatt (1837), Philo Farnsworth (1906), Charles Martin Hall (1863), Marcian Hoff (1937), George Pullman (1831), and Glenn Curtiss (1878). After him are Ray Dolby (1933), Robert Cornelius (1809), Lester Allan Pelton (1829), Valerie Thomas (1943), Beulah Louise Henry (1888), and Cyrus McCormick (1809).