On This Day - 28th January

Chris Curry was born on 28 January 1946. He became an important figure in the development of the British personal-computer industry, initially working with Clive Sinclair at Sinclair Radionics before becoming involved with Science of Cambridge.

Curry was closely involved with the development and marketing of the MK14, the inexpensive single-board computer introduced by Science of Cambridge in 1978. His experience with the MK14 helped convince him of the potential of the emerging personal-computer market. In 1978 he left Sinclair's organisation and, together with Hermann Hauser, founded Acorn Computers in Cambridge.

Acorn would go on to produce the Atom, BBC Micro and Archimedes computers, becoming one of Britain's most significant computer companies. Curry's career therefore provides an important connection between the early Sinclair machines and the development of Acorn and the wider British home-computer industry.

Your Spectrum magazine was relaunched as Your Sinclair with its January 1986 issue. The magazine had originally launched in January 1984 as Your Spectrum and had become a monthly publication later that year. The change of name reflected plans to broaden its coverage to include the Sinclair QL and future Sinclair computers, although the magazine continued to concentrate heavily on the ZX Spectrum. The first Your Sinclair issue was numbered 1, beginning a new numbering sequence separate from the 21 issues of Your Spectrum.