On August 23rd, 1997, I sent out the very first „Up To Date“ email newsletter, which was roughly modeled on Danny O‘Brien‘s much more clever and much more knowledgeable (and sadly missed) Need to Know newsletter (for what it‘s worth, Danny discovered my mimicry a few months later, and has always been quite kind about it). The very first newsletter was sent to — I believe — three people, and was really an alpha test of the concept.