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Joseph Jacquard invents a loom
Invented a loom that uses punched wooden cards to automatically weave fabric designs. Early computers would use similar punch cards. -
Alan Turning
Presented the notion of a universal machine, later called the Turing machine, capable of computing anything that is computable. The central concept of the modern computer was based on his ideas. -
J.V. Atanasoff, physics professor at Iowa State
Attempted to build the first computer without gears, cams, belts or shafts. -
John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert
Built the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). Considered the grandfather of digital computers, it fills a 20-foot by 40-foot room and has 18,000 vacuum tubes. -
William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain
Invented the transistor. They discovered how to make an electric switch with solid materials and no need for a vacuum. -
Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce
Unveil the integrated circuit, known as the computer chip. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his work. -
Douglas Engelbart
Shows a prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). -
Bell Labs produce UNIX
An operating system that addressed compatibility issues. Written in the C programming language, UNIX was portable across multiple platforms and became the operating system of choice among mainframes at large companies and government entities. Due to the slow nature of the system, it never quite gained traction among home PC users. -
Robert Metcalfe
Develops Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware. -
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computers
On April Fool’s Day and roll out the Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board. -
Radio Shack's initial production run of the TRS-80 was just 3,000.
It sold like crazy. For the first time, non-geeks could write programs and make a computer do what they wished. -
The first IBM personal computer, code-named “Acorn,” is introduced.
It uses Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system. It has an Intel chip, two floppy disks and an optional color monitor. -
The first dot-com domain name is registered on March 15
Years before the World Wide Web would mark the formal beginning of Internet history. The Symbolics Computer Company, a small Massachusetts computer manufacturer, registers Symbolics.com. More than two years later, only 100 dot-coms had been registered. -
PCs become gaming machines
"Command & Conquer," "Alone in the Dark 2," "Theme Park," "Magic Carpet," "Descent" and "Little Big Adventure" are among the games to hit the market. -
Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple
Which was struggling at the time, ending Apple’s court case against Microsoft in which it alleged that Microsoft copied the “look and feel” of its operating system. -
Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system
Which provides protected memory architecture and pre-emptive multi-tasking, among other benefits. Not to be outdone, Microsoft rolls out Windows XP, which has a significantly redesigned GUI. -
The first 64-bit processor
AMD’s Athlon 64, becomes available to the consumer market. -
Mozilla’s Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft’s Internet Explorer
The dominant Web browsers. Facebook, a social networking site, launches. -
YouTube
A video sharing service, is founded. Google acquires Android, a Linux-based mobile phone operating system. -
Apple introduces the MacBook Pro
Its first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo’s Wii game console hits the market. -
Iphone brings many computer functions to the Smartphone
They added a lot of different things that a computer can do as well as a phone. -
Microsoft Launches Windows 7
Which offers the ability to pin applications to the taskbar and advances in touch and handwriting recognition, among other features. -
Apple unveils the Ipad
Changing the way consumers view media and jumpstarting the dormant tablet computer segment. -
Google releases Chromebook
A laptop that runs with Chrome OS -
Facebook
Facebook gets up to 1 million users -
Apple Releases Apple Watch
Apple released the watch that will do everything that a phone can do
