Would you pay for Microsoft Spell?

This Week in History (Repurposed from the Microsoft Daily!)

In the world:

September 26, 1936 — General Francisco Franco becomes head of the rebel Nationalist government of Spain. Still in the midst of civil war, Franco would not come to full power for two more years, but then remained head of state till his death in 1975.

September 30, 1955 — 24-year-old actor James Dean is killed when his Porsche 550 Spyder is involved in a head-on collision on a California highway. Despite his truncated acting career, he remains a Hollywood legend with two Academy Award nominations.

At Microsoft:

October 1, 1984 — Microsoft announces copies of Microsoft Spell and Learning Microsoft Word will be included with each copy of Microsoft Word sold through the end of the year. Those who purchased Word before September of that year were out of luck and had to pay the $50 retail price for Spell.

In the end, Spell, with its expandable 45,000 word dictionary and ability to "even help solve anagrams," would continue to be included with Word. Jon Shirley is shown with the Word 2.0 splash screen in this 1985 photo.

We sure have come a long way!

-Mithun Dhar

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