Programming History Timeline

By KSHayes
  • Steam driven calculating machine

    "English mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven calculating machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. The project, funded by the English government, is a failure." (month and day does not specify)
  • Electronic switch

    "Lee De Frost files patent #879,532 on January 29, 1907 for the vacuum tube triode. This is later used as an electronic switch in the first electronic computer."
  • First intergrated circuit

    "The first integrated circuit is first developed by Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments."
  • First lazer

    "Physicist Theodore Maiman creates the first laser"
  • First IBM Selectric Typewriter

    "The first IBM Selectric typewriter is released"
  • SpaceWar!

    "Steve Russell creates "SpaceWar!" This game is considered the first game intended for computers." Date not specified.
  • BASIC

    "Dartmouth College John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Language"
  • Project Capricorn

    "Hewlett Packard introduces its HP-85 (codename Project Capricorn). A microcomputer with 16kB of RAM, a 32kB ROM, a 5-inch CRT display, a built-in printer, tape drive, and keyboard for $3,250.00."
  • Heart attack on Berzerk

    "Jeff Dailey, a 19-year old becomes the first person to die from computer gaming after dying from a heart attack after posting a score of 16,660 on Berzerk." Day and month not specified.
  • First known computer virus

    "Rich Skrenta a 15-year old high school student creates the first known computer virus known as The Elk Cloner." Date and month not specified.
  • Bitcoin

    "A person under the fake name of Satoshi Nakamoto introduces the Internet currency Bitcoin"
  • Planet Calypso

    "Planet Calypso, a virtual planet in the game Entropia, becomes the most valuable virtual item selling for $635,000.00 USD"
  • Aaron Swartz is arrested

    "Aaron Swartz is arrested by federal authorities in connection with systematic downloading of academic journal articles from JSTOR."
  • Strange Cyber Attack

    "employees of Saudi Aramco begin to notice their computers were acting strange. They would later find out that they've been hit by the largest cyber attack that would result in around 35,000 computers being partially or totally wiped out including all data contained on those computers. The companies network did not come back online until five months later."
  • Sony releases the PS4

    "Sony chose AMD's x86-64 Accelerated Processing Unit to serve as both central processing unit and graphics processing unit, built together onto on a single chip.a cloud-based gaming service that could stream video from the internet, and a controller featuring a share button, allowing players to view each others’ game play." Date and month not specified.
  • Google splits into 2 companies

    "Google splits into two companies. The new company known as Alphabet is now responsible for Google, Nest, Google Capital, Fiber, Calico, Google X, Sidewalk Labs, and Google Ventures."