A home entertainment revolution began on this date in 1975, when the videocassette recorder was introduced. It was Sony’s Betamax format recorder, which in a very few years was superseded by the rival VHS format. At its peak, some 9-out-of-10 households across the country had a VCR. Then, the DVD was introduced in 1997, and quickly eclipsed videocassettes. Now, the rising format is the Blu-ray system, allowing video quality to match high-definition television sets. Renting out discs and what’s left of videocassettes is a nearly $9.5 billion a year business in the U.S. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.