NeXT was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets. NeXT was founded in 1985 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs after his forced resignation from Apple. NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and the smaller NeXTStation in 1990. Sales of the NeXT computers were relatively limited, with estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. Nevertheless its innovative object-oriented NeXTSTEP operating system and development environment were highly influential. NeXT later released much of the NeXTSTEP system as a programming environment standard called OpenStep. NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 to concentrate on marketing OPENSTEP for several OEMs. NeXT also developed WebObjects, one of the first Enterprise web application frameworks. WebObjects never became very popular because of its initial high price of $50,000 but remains a prominent early example of a web server based on dynamic page generation rather than static content. Apple purchased NeXT on December 20, 1996 for $429 million, and much of the current Mac OS X system is built on the OPENSTEP foundation. WebObjects is now bundled with Mac OS X Server and Xcode.

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_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

312:

Constantine the Great defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in Rome, leading him to end the Tetrarchy and become the only ruler of the Roman Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Milvian_Bridge)

1886:

In New York Harbor, U.S. President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, to commemorate the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty)

1940:

The Balkans Campaign in World War II: Italy invaded Greece after Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas rejected Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's ultimatum demanding the occupation of Greek territory. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Italian_War)

1954:

The Kingdom of the Netherlands was re-founded as a federacy with the proclamation of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Netherlands)

1965:

Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, absolving the Jews of the killing of Jesus, and calling for increased relations with all non-Christian religions. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostra_Aetate)

_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

gregarious: (adj) 1. Describing one who enjoys being in crowds and socializing. 2. (zoology) Of animals that travel in herds or packs. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gregarious)

______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

After bread, education is the first need of the people. --Georges Danton (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georges_Danton)