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Complex Number Calculator is Invented
In 1939, Bell Telephone Laboratories completes this calculator, designed by scientist George Stibitz. -
The First Bombe Is Completed
The Bombe was a computer like system used in early WW2 to decrypt German messages. -
Zonrad Fuse Finished First Z3 Computer
The Z3, an early computer built by German engineer Konrad Zuse working in complete isolation from developments elsewhere, uses 2,300 relays, performs floating point binary arithmetic, and has a 22-bit word length. The Z3 was used for aerodynamic calculations but was destroyed in a bombing raid on Berlin in late 1943. -
The Atanasoff Computer is Completed
After successfully demonstrating a proof-of-concept prototype in 1939, Professor John Vincent Atanasoff receives funds to build a full-scale machine at Iowa State College (now University). The machine was designed and built by Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry between 1939 and 1942. -
First Colossus Operational at Bletchey Park
Designed by British engineer Tommy Flowers, the Colossus is designed to break the complex Lorenz ciphers used by the Nazis during World War II. A total of ten Colossi were delivered, each using as many as 2,500 vacuum tubes. A series of pulleys transported continuous rolls of punched paper tape containing possible solutions to a particular code. -
Harvard Mark 1 is Completed
Conceived by Harvard physics professor Howard Aiken, and designed and built by IBM, the Harvard Mark 1 is a room-sized, relay-based calculator. The machine had a fifty-foot long camshaft running the length of machine that synchronized the machine’s thousands of component parts and used 3,500 relays. The Mark 1 produced mathematical tables but was soon superseded by electronic stored-program computers. -
First Computer Program to Run On a Computer
University of Manchester researchers Frederic Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Toothill develop the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), better known as the Manchester "Baby." The Baby was built to test a new memory technology developed by Williams and Kilburn -- soon known as the Williams Tube – which was the first electronic random access memory for computers. -
Alexander Douglas Writes OXO for EDSAC
Alexander Douglas was a Cambridge University PhD candidate when he designed one of the earliest computer games, a version of Tic-Tac-Toe (known in Britain as 'Naughts and Crosses’), called OXO. Played on Cambridge's EDSAC computer, OXO allowed a player to choose to start or to allow the machine to make the first move. -
Grimsdale and Webb Build Early Transistorized Computer
Working under Tom Kilburn at England’s Manchester University, Richard Grimsdale and Douglas Webb demonstrate a prototype transistorized computer, the "Manchester TC", on November 16, 1953. The 48-bit machine used 92 point-contact transistors and 550 diodes. -
MIT is the First To Use Direct Input Keyboards
At MIT, researchers begin experimenting with direct keyboard input to computers, a precursor to today´s normal mode of operation. Typically, computer users of the time fed their programs into a computer using punched cards or paper tape. Ross contended that a Flexowriter -- an electrically-controlled typewriter -- connected to an MIT computer could function as a keyboard input device due to its low cost and flexibility. -
IBM Introduces 1400 Series
The 1401 mainframe, the first in the series, replaces earlier vacuum tube technology with smaller, more reliable transistors. Demand called for more than 12,000 of the 1401 computers, and the machine´s success made a strong case for using general-purpose computers rather than specialized systems. By the mid-1960s, nearly half of all computers in the world were IBM 1401s. -
Minuteman 1 Missile Guided Computer
Minuteman missiles use transistorized computers to continuously calculate their position in flight. The computer had to be rugged and fast, with advanced circuit design and reliable packaging able to withstand the forces of a missile launch. The military’s high standards for its transistors pushed manufacturers to improve quality control. When the Minuteman I was decommissioned, some universities received these computers for use by students. -
HP Introduces the HP 2116A
The 2116A is HP’s first computer. It was developed as a versatile instrument controller for HP's growing family of programmable test and measurement products. It interfaced with a wide number of standard laboratory instruments, allowing customers to computerize their instrument systems. The 2116A also marked HP's first use of integrated circuits in a commercial product. -
Intel Introduces the World's First Microprocessor
Intel, founded by Robert Noyce, Gordan Moore and Andy Grove, create the world's first microprocessor, and call it the Intel 4004 -
Apple Releases Its First Computer
Apple releases its first computer, the Apple I, the first single circuit board computer. -
IBM Introduces its First Portable Computer
IBM introduces its first portable computer, featuer the Intel 8008 Microprocessor. -
The Apple Macintosh
Apple releases the Macintosh Computer with a GUI. -
The CD
The the first recordable CDs are invented by 1988 -
120 Million PCs Shipped
By 1989, the number of PCs shipped worldwide reaches 120 million. -
Precursor to the World Wide Web
1990, Geneva, Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee develops a new technique to distributing information on the Internet, eventually called the World Wide Web -
NSF Lifts Restrictions of Commercial Use For Internet
After the National Science Foundation (NSF) changes its policy, the Internet is for the first time a publicly accessible network with no commercial restrictions. This removes the last major remaining advantage for competing networking and internetworking standards, from OSI to SNA to CompuServe’s own international network. Four years later the NSF will turn over the Internet’s backbone (main high speed lines and nodes) completely to private industry. -
JavaScript Developed
JavaScript, an object-based scripting language, is developed at Netscape Communications by Brendan Eich. It was used extensively across the Internet on both client and server sides. Although it shared its name with the Java programming language, the two are completely different. -
iMac is Launched
Apple makes a splash with its Bondi Blue iMac, which sells for about $1,300. Customers got a machine with a 233-MHz G3 processor, 4GB hard drive, 32MB of RAM, a CD-ROM drive, and a 15" monitor. The machine was noted for its ease-of-use and included a 'manual' that contained only a few pictures and less than 20 words. -
Apple Releases the Original iPhone
On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving substantial media attention. Jobs announced that the first iPhone would be released later that year. On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released.
