-
Pascaline Invention
Pascaline was invented by philosopher Blaise Pascal at the age of 18 to to help his
tax-collector father do his sums. The machine had a series of interlocking cogs
(gear wheels with teeth around their outer edges) that could add and subtract
decimal numbers. -
Binary code
Apart from developing one of the world's earliest mechanical calculators, Leibniz is remembered for another important contribution to computing: he was the man who invented binary code, a way of representing any decimal number using only the two digits zero and one. -
Wilhelm Leibiniz Aportations
A more advanced version that instead
of using cogs, had a "stepped
drum" (a cylinder with teeth of increasing length around its edge) was
created by the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, this
machine as well as adding and subtracting, could multiply, divide, and work out
square roots. Another pioneering feature was the first memory store or
"register." -
Texas Anexation
The United States annexes the Mexican state of Texas (fulfilling the doctrine of manifest destiny). -
Boolean algebra invention
Boolean algebra was invented by Englishman George Boole a little over a
century after Leibniz had died used in modern computers along binary code allowing
computers to make simple decisions by comparing long strings of zeros and ones. -
The Tabulator
The tabulator, one of the world's first practical calculating machines
was invented by American statistician Herman Hollerith to help compile census
data. Soon afterward, Hollerith realized his machine had other applications, so
he set up the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896 to manufacture it
commercially. -
IBM origins
Hollerith´s company´s name was changed to the Computing-Tabulating-Recording (C-T-R)
company and then, in 1924, acquired its present name: International Business
Machines (IBM). -
The Analog calculators
The New Recording Product Integraph Multiplier was made by US
government scientist Vannevar Bush at the time when C-T-R was becoming IBM. Later, he built a machine called the Differential
Analyzer, which used gears, belts, levers, and shafts to represent numbers and
carry out calculations in a very physical way, like a gigantic mechanical slide
rule. -
Rockefeller differential analyzer
The Rockefeller Differential Analyzer was made as Bush's ultimate
calculator, an improved machine assembled in 1935 from 320 km (200 miles) of
wire and 150 electric motors. Machines like these were known as analog calculators—analog because they stored numbers in a
physical form. -
Z1, the world's first programmable binary computer
Z1, the world's first programmable binary
computer was built by German engineer Konrad Zuse, in his parents' living room. -
Hispanic Civil War
In the context of the Spanish Civil War, Colonel Domingo Rey D´Haucourt, at the head of the Francoist forces besieged in Teruel, surrendered to the Rebpublican troops. -
Digital computers
The Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC) a more elaborate binary machine was built by
American physicist John Atanasoff and his assistant, electrical engineer Clifford Berry
a great advance—1000 times more accurate than
Bush's Differential Analyzer. These were the first machines that used
electrical switches to store numbers, these machines unlike analog machines, which, stored numbers using the positions of wheels and rods, stored numbers as
digits. -
The Colossus
A computer called Colossus was built by a team of mathematicians based at Bletchley Park
near London, England (including Alan Turing)to help them crack secret German codes. Colossus
was the first fully electronic computer. Instead of relays, it used a
better form of switch known as a vacuum tube. -
Harvard Mark I
Variously known as the Harvard Mark I or the
IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), a giant of a machine, stretching 15m (50ft) in length, like a
huge mechanical calculator built into a wall, the first large-scale digital computer of this
kind appeared at Harvard University, built by mathematician Howard Aiken. -
The Descendant of Dr Bush's machine
As far as most people were concerned, vacuum
tubes were pioneered by a more visible computer that appeared in 1946:
the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator, invented by two scientists from the University of
Pennsylvania, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert inspired by Bush's Differential Analyzer; years
later Eckert recalled that ENIAC was the "descendant of Dr Bush's
machine." -
The Transistor
A new form of amplifier was created in Bell Labs credited to John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, that became known as the point-contact
transistor, originally developed by William Shockley who was enraged and prompted to invent an even better design,
the junction transistor, which has formed the basis of most transistors ever since. -
Eckert Mauchly Computer Corporation´s Legacy
After ENIAC, UNIVAC 1 was deveoped by Eckert and Mauchly. In the late 1940s the Eckert Mauchly Computer Corporation was formed by its two inventors .
Working with a brilliant Hungarian mathematician, John von Neumann who was based at Princeton University, EDVAC was then designed, a better machine. In a key piece
of work, von Neumann helped to define how the machine stored and processed its
programs, laying the foundations for how all modern computers operate. -
Silicon Valley
Robert Noyce
and Gordon Moore along eight other brilliant minds left Shockley Transistor to found a company of their own,
Fairchild Semiconductor, just down the road. Thus began the growth of
"Silicon Valley," the part of California centered on Palo Alto, where
many of the world's leading computer and electronics companies have been based
ever since. -
Cali Explosion
In the city of Cali (Colombia), the Cali Explosion occurs: seven army trucks loaded with 42 tons of gelatinous plastic explosive explode, leaving a crater 50 meters in diameter and 25 meters deep. Died at the moment. -
Intel Origins
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore had left Fairchild to establish a new
company of their own. With integration very much in their minds, they called it
Integrated Electronics or Intel for short. Originally planned to make
memory chips, but a couple of their
engineers, Federico Faggin and Marcian Edward Hoff ,
realized that they could make a universal chip that could be programmed to work
in them all. Thus was born the
microprocessor—and that brought about the next phase of the computer revolution. -
Ethernet
A new way of linking computers "through the
ether" (empty space) is developed by electrical engineer Bob Metcalfe that he called Ethernet.
Metcalfe left Xerox to form his own company, 3Com, to help companies
realize "Metcalfe's Law": computers become useful the more closely
connected they are to other people's computers.
As more and more companies
explored the power of local area networks (LANs) -
ETA Terrorist attack
The terrorist gang ETA assassinates Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, President of the Government, with a bomb. -
MITS Altair 8800
Intel had launched a popular microprocessor known as the 8080 and
computer hobbyists were soon building home computers around it. The first was
the MITS Altair 8800, built by Ed Roberts. With its front
panel covered in red LED lights and toggle switches, it was a far cry from
modern PCs and laptops. -
PC´s unification
An operating system (a computer's fundamental
control software) called CP/M that acted as an intermediary between the user's
programs and the machine's hardware was developed by Gary Kildall, a teacher and computer
scientist, and one of the founders of the Homebrew Computer Club -
The First Apples
While the Altair 8800 looked like something out of a science lab, and
the Apple I was little more than a bare circuit board, the Apple ][ created by Steve Wozniak took its
inspiration from such things as Sony televisions and stereos: it had a neat and
friendly looking cream plastic case. Launched in April 1977, it was the
world's first easy-to-use home "microcomputer." -
The beggings of internet
it became clear that there were great benefits to be gained by connecting
computers over even greater distances—into so-called wide area networks (WANs).
Today, the best known WAN is the Internet—a global network of individual
computers and LANs that links up hundreds of millions of people. -
IBM´s comeback
IBM finally realized it had to do something and
launched a highly streamlined project to save its business. One year later, it
released the IBM Personal Computer (PC), based on an Intel 8080 microprocessor,
which rapidly reversed the company's fortunes and stole the market back from
Apple. -
The death of The Tree of the Sad Night
In Mexico, a fire in Mexico City destroys the historic Tree of the Sad Night, under which Hernán Cortés mourned his defeat in 1520 -
Macintosh
With its memorable launch ad for the Macintosh
inspired by George Orwell's novel 1984, and directed by Ridley Scott, Apple took a swipe at IBM's monopoly,
criticizing what it portrayed as the firm's domineering approach:
Big Blue was really Big Brother.
Apple's ad promised a
very different vision: "On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce
Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984'."
The Macintosh
