The History of Computing

By mariamathew

  • Analytical Engine

    Charles Babbage designs the first programmable computer called the "Analytical Engine". This was designed to use punch cards of the type used in Jacquard looms. Ada Lovelace wrote a program for the machine.

  • Boolean algebra

    George Boole develops Boolean algebra which is the foundation of the hardware design of all modern digital computers.

  • Enigma Machine

    The German Enigma machine, an electromechanical rotor machine is widely used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages. Although this was not a computer, being more like an advanced adding machine, its role in World War II stimulated computer design for decryption machines.

  • On Computable Numbers

    "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" by Alonzo Church and Alan Turing

  • Hewlett-Packard founded

    Hewlett-Packard (HP) founded by William Hewlett and David Packard although they didn't make any computers until 1966.

  • First electronic programmable: Z3

    German engineer Konrad Zuse invents and builds the first electronic programmable computer. It was called the Z3 and gave rise to the Z4 in 1950.

  • Colossus

    First programmable digital electronic computer is built by the British to decode German messages.

  • UNIVAC

    First commercially successful electronic computer, UNIVAC was built.

  • Alphabetical Accounting Machine

    First magnetic core memory in an IBM 405 Alphabetical Accounting Machine is tested successfully.

  • Whirlwind

    Whirlwind, the first real-time computer is built at MIT for the US Air Defence System

  • Sage Computer

    World's Largest Computer ever built consisting of 200,000 vacuum tubes requiring 1,000,000 Watts

  • Integrated Circuit

    Scientist Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an Integrated Circuit

  • Unitary Circuit

    Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor was awarded a patent for "unitary circuit" made of silicon

  • Augmentation Research Center at SRI

    Douglas Engelbart starts work on the NLS system at the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute

  • The Computer Mouse

    Douglas Engelbart invents the computer mouse. Bill English of Xerox Parc develops the mouse ball, replacing the original set of wheels.

  • Invention of Hypertext

    Ted Nelson publishes his first article about his invention, hypertext.

  • Moore's Law

    Gordon Moore makes his famous "law" which is not a law at all, in any form, but quickly becomes an accepted myth supported by very scientific-looking charts.

  • Packet Switched Network

    Larry Roberts heads the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's project to create the first ever packet switched network, largely considered unworkable by experts.

  • Personal Computer

    Doug Engelbart presents his team's work in a 90-minute live public demonstration of a personal (super) computer. This demonstration is now known as The Mother Of All Demos. Among other things, the NLS system has hypertext and distributed collaboration.

  • Intel founded

    Intel formed by Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, & Andy Grove.

  • UNIX

    Unix created at AT&T's Bell Telephone Labs by Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie.

  • ARPANET

    UCLA and Stanford Research Institute become the second nodes on the ARPANET

  • Xerox establishes PARC

    Xerox establishes PARC, the Palo Alto Research Center, which will go on to create the modern personal computer, including GUI, laser printer and networking.

  • PARC

    Alan Kay[2] joins PARC where he will develop Smalltalk for the Dynabook project which aims to create a useful user-programmable laptop computer ... for kids. Despite early successes with children, Alan Kay will decide that this is a more or less impossible goal and fall back on reimplementing Smalltalk.