android made an entrance; artoo supplied the voice
November 5 brings Android’s announcement anniversary, the organizer behind the Gunpowder Plot, and the surprisingly human half of R2-D2.
A few things worth knowing · November 5, 2026
A mobile platform’s birthday, a conspiracy with misleading top billing, and the human behind a very opinionated robot.
on this day: android made the announcement before the apps
Android™ was announced on November 5, 2007, nineteen years ago today. Google’s Dan Morrill later recalled hearing Andy Rubin and Eric Schmidt introduce it, with the first early-look software development kit still a week away. This anniversary belongs to the platform’s announcement, not the arrival of a finished handset in stores. Even its birthday comes with a version distinction. Source: Android Developers.
on this day: guy fawkes was not the project manager
The Gunpowder Plot targeted the opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605, but Robert Catesby was its central organizer. Guy Fawkes was guarding the explosives beneath the House of Lords when the plot was uncovered the night before. He had been posing as a servant under the name John Johnson. History kept the better stage name, while Catesby’s leadership became the part that needs explaining. Source: UK Parliament’s account of the plot and Fawkes biography.
evergreen: artoo was half synthesizer, half man making noises
Ben Burtt’s first attempts at R2-D2 sounded too electronic to convey much feeling. The solution was a roughly equal blend of synthesizer sounds and Burtt’s own vocal inflections, giving the droid a performance rather than just a collection of beeps. Chewbacca took the opposite route: Burtt assembled animal recordings, including bears, badgers and walruses, into emotionally organized pieces. One character needed a human; the other needed a small zoo. Source: StarWars.com.
Burtt explains the Chewbacca process in the official archive interview:
Image credits: current Android robot artwork, Google, via Android Developers; it is not a 2007 illustration. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. Artwork unmodified. Android is a trademark of Google LLC. Video: Lucasfilm/Star Wars, linked from its official sound-effects feature.
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