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Mechanical calculators are manufactured for sale
Records exist of earlier machines, but Blaise Pascal invents the first commercial calculator, a hand powered adding machine. -
Punch cards used for programming a machine
Frenchman, Joseph-Marie Jacquard builds a loom that weaves by reading punched holes stored on small sheets of hardwood. These plates are then inserted into the loom which reads (retrieves) the pattern and creates(process) the weave. Powered by water, this "machine" came 140 years before the development of the modern computer. -
Charles Babbage starts his reseach
Shortly after the first mass-produced calculator, Charles Babbage begins his lifelong quest for a programmable machine. -
Babbage's Difference Machine
Difference Machine was an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. -
Ada Lovelace
Although Babbage was a poor communicator and record-keeper, his difference engine is sufficiently developed by 1842 that Ada Lovelace uses it to mechanically translate a short written work. She is generally regarded as the first programmer. -
George Boole - father of computer science
George Boole, while professor of Mathematics at Cork University, writes An Investigation of the Laws of Thought(1854), and is generally recognized as the father of computer science. -
Punch cards used in 1890 Census
The 1890 census is tabulated on punch cards similar to the ones used 90 years earlier to create weaves. Developed by Herman Hollerith of MIT, the system uses electric power(non-mechanical). The Hollerith Tabulating Company is a forerunner of today's IBM. -
Printing Claculator
William Burroughs introduces a commercially successful printing calculator. It is hand-powered but Burroughs quickly introduces an electronic model. -
Enigma Machine Invented
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of
World War I This machine was used by the germans with great success in world war II, but we had Bletchly Park Code Breakers! -
Vannevar Bush of MIT builds his differential analyzer
The differential analyser was a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration, using wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. It was one of the first advanced computing devices to be used operationally. Using a set of gears and shafts, much like Babbage, the machine can handle simple calculus problems, but accuracy is a problem. -
Konrad Zuse builds a mechanical calculator to handle the math involved in his profession
Konrad Zuse was a German engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world's first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, the Z3, in 1941 (the program was stored on a punched tape). -
The Havard Mark I is introduced
The IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), called the Mark I by Harvard University,[1] was the first large-scale automatic digital computer in the USA. It is considered by some to be the first universal calculator. It uses a paper tape to store instructions. -
Computer De-Bugging Invented
Early in 1945, with the Mark I stopped for repairs, Hopper notices a moth in one of the relays, possibly causing the problem. From this day on, Hopper refers to fixing the system as "debugging". -
Working towards store programmes
Teams around the world work on a "stored program" machine. The first, nicknamed "Baby", is a prototype of a much larger machine under construction in Britain and is shown in June 1948. The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), nicknamed Baby, was the world's first stored-program computer. It was built at the Victoria University of Manchester by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program on 21 June 1948. -
IBM's first commercial scientific computer
The IBM 701, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was announced to the public on April 29, 1952, and was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer -
IBM introduces the System/360
While a technical marvel, the main feature of this machine is business oriented...IBM guarantees the "upward compatibility" of the system, reducing the risk that a business would invest in outdated technology. -
Internet Invented
Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time). On the October 29, 1969, computers at Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time. In effect, they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet. -
Harvard, MIT & BBN Logon
An Arpanet network was established between Harvard, MIT, and BBN (the company that created the "interface message processor" computers used to connect to the network) in 1970. -
Books & Documents Appear in the Public Domain - Internet
Project Gutenberg is when they tried to create and store books and documents in the public domain available electronically, for free, in various eBook and electronic formats.
Michael Hart gained access to a large block of computing time and envisigaed that the future of computers wasn’t in computing itself, but in the storage, retrieval and searching of information. -
Texas Instruments introduces the first "pocket calculator
It weighs 2.5 pounds, just a bit more than a bag of sugar!! Big pockets then? It was called the TI-58. -
Email Invented
Email was developed by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the "@" symbol to separate the user name from the computer name (which later on became the domain name). -
Xerox introduces the mouse
Bill English, builder of Engelbart's original mouse, invented the ball mouse in 1972 while working for Xerox PARC -
The First Email Client - Internet
With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California. The biggest technological advance this program was the addition of "Reply" and "Forward" functionality. -
The first personal computer is marketed in kit form
The Altair features 256 bytes of memory. Bill Gates, with others, writes a BASIC compiler for the machine. The next year Apple begins to market PC's, also in kit form. It includes a monitor and keyboard. -
Firts Laptop
The IBM SCAMP project (Special Computer APL Machine Portable), was demonstrated in 1973. This prototype was based on the PALM processor (Put All Logic In Microcode). The IBM 5100, the first commercially available portable computer, appeared in September 1975, and was based on the SCAMP prototype -
The First Royal Email is Sent
We know that the email announced that the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Malvern was on the Arpanet system, and was made from that base, but nothing about the actual wording. -
Stores begin to sell PC's
But they are very very expensive! Companies strive to reduce the size and price of PC's while increasing capacity. Entering the fray, IBM introduces it's PC in 1981(it's actually IBM's second attempt, but the first failed miserably). Time selects the computer as its Man of the Year in 1982. Tron, a computer-generated special effects extravaganza is released the same year. -
The First PC Modem - Internet
1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet as we know it today. It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer geeks! -
SPAM Emailed - Internet
1978 is also the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk. -
BBC Computer
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Designed with an emphasis on education it was notable for its ruggedness, expandability and the quality of its operating system. We had these computer at Denby Free in the Reception Classroom in 2000. -
The Domain Name System was Created
Along with the first Domain Name Servers (DNS). The domain name system was important in that it made addresses on the Internet more human-friendly compared to its numerical IP address counterparts. DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easy-to-remember domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically. -
The Internet Grows
By 1987, there were nearly 30,000 hosts on the Internet. The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible. -
First Major Internet Virus
One of the first major Internet worms was released in 1988. Referred to as "The Morris Worm", it was written by Robert Tappan Morris and caused major interruptions across large parts of the Internet. -
Proposal for the World Wide Web
written by Tim Berners-Lee. It was originally published in the March issue of MacWorld, and then redistributed in May 1990. It was originally called "Mesh"; the term "World Wide Web" was coined while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990. -
First Commercial Dial-Up Internet Access
1990 also brought about the first commercial dial-up Internet provider, The World. -
First Web Page - Internet
The first web page was created and, much like the first email explained what email was, its purpose was to explain what the World Wide Web was. -
First Webcam - Internet
One of the more interesting developments of this era, though, was the first webcam. It was deployed at a Cambridge University computer lab, and its sole purpose was to monitor a particular coffee maker so that lab users could avoid wasted trips to an empty coffee pot. -
Internet Shopping - Yeah!
First, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption was developed by Netscape, making it safer to conduct financial transactions (like credit card payments) online.
In addition, two major online businesses got their start the same year. In addition, two major online businesses got their start the same year. The first sale on "Echo Bay" was made that year. Echo Bay later became eBay. Amazon.com also started in 1995, though it didn’t turn a profit for six years, until 2001. -
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SETI@home project - Internet
1999 is the year when one of the more interesting projects ever brought online: the SETI@home project, launched. The project has created the equivalent of a giant supercomputer by harnessing the computing power of more than 3 million computers worldwide, using their processors whenever the screensaver comes on, indicating that the computer is idle. The program analyzes radio telescope data to look for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. -
Wikipedia Launched
Wikipedia launched in 2001, one of the websites that paved the way for collective web content generation/social media. -
Web 2.0 Arrives - Internet
Coined by Darcy DiNucci, the term "Web 2.0", referring to taking part in the internet, blogging, chatting and social networking, as opposed to just looking at websites. -
Social Networking - Internet
The term "social media", believed to be first used by Chris Sharpley, was coined in the same year that "Web 2.0" became a mainstream concept. Social media–sites and web applications that allow its users to create and share content and to connect with one another–started around this period. -
YouTube Launched - Internet
YouTube launched in 2005, bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses. -
Mobile Internet Access
The biggest innovation of 2007 was almost certainly the iPhone, which was almost wholly responsible for renewed interest in mobile web applications and design.
