Computer History Timeline-Richard Herbert

By rickyh
  • Sep 13, 724

    Liang Ling-Can

    Liang Ling-Can
    Liang Ling-Can invents the first fully mechanical clock
  • Period: Sep 13, 724 to

    Computer History Timeline

  • Sep 13, 1492

    Leonardo da Vinci

    Leonardo da Vinci
    Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci depict inventions such as flying machines, including a helicopter, the first mechanical calculator and one of the first programmable robots
  • John Napier

    John Napier
    John Napier invents a system of moveable rods (Napier's Rods) based on logarithms which was able to multiply, divide and calculate square and cube roots
  • William Oughtred

    William Oughtred
    William Oughtred develops slide rules
  • Calculating Clock:

    Calculating Clock:
    Calculating Clock: Invented by Wilhelm Schickard
  • Blaise Pascal

    Blaise Pascal
    Blaise Pascal invents the the "Pascaline", a mechanical adding machine
  • Gottfried Leibniz

    Gottfried Leibniz
    Gottfried Leibniz is known as one of the founding fathers of calculus
  • Joseph-Marie Jacquard

    Joseph-Marie Jacquard
    Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents an automatic loom controlled by punched cards
  • Arithmometer:

    Arithmometer:
    The Arithmometer was the first mass-produced calculator invented by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar
  • Charles Babbage

    Charles Babbage
    Charles Babbage designs his first mechanical computer
  • Analytical Engine

    Analytical Engine
    The Analytical Engine was invented by Charles Babbage
  • Morse code

    Morse code
    Samuel Morse invents Morse code
  • Boolean algebra

    Boolean algebra
    Boolean algebra is invented by George Boole
  • Tabulating Machine

    Tabulating Machine
    Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard invent the Tabulating Machine
  • William Stanley Jevons

    William Stanley Jevons
    William Stanley Jevons designs a practical logic machine
  • Ramon Verea

    Ramon Verea
    Ramon Verea invents a fast calculator with an internal multiplication table
  • Alexander Graham Bell

    Alexander Graham Bell
    Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone called the Photophone
  • Comptometer

    Comptometer
    The Comptometer is an invention of Dorr E. Felt which is operated by pressing keys
  • Herman Hollerith

    Herman Hollerith
    Herman Hollerith invents a counting machine which increment mechanical counters
  • Guglielmo Marconi

    Guglielmo Marconi
    Radio signals were invented by Guglielmo Marconi
  • Tabulating Machine Company

    Tabulating Machine Company
    Herman Hollerith forms the Tabulating Machine Company which later becomes IBM
  • Nikola Tesla

    Nikola Tesla
    Remote control was invented by Nikola Tesla
  • Lee De Forest

    Lee De Forest
    Lee De Forest invents the electronic tube
  • IBM

    IBM
    IBM is formed on June 15, 1911
  • Philo Farnsworth

    Philo Farnsworth
    Television Electronic was invented by Philo Farnsworth
  • John Logie Baird and Walther Bothe

    Electro Mechanical television system was invented by John Logie Baird and Walther Bothe develops the logic gate
  • Vannevar Bush

    Vannevar Bush
    Vannevar Bush develops a partly electronic Difference Engine
  • Kurt Godel

    Kurt Godel publishes a paper on the use of a universal formal language
  • Alan Turing

    Alan Turing develops the concept of a theoretical computing machine
  • Konrad Zuse

    Konrad Zuse creates the Z1 Computer a binary digital computer using punch tape
  • George Stibitz Hewlett Packard John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry

    George Stibitz: George Stibitz develops the Complex Number Calculator - a foundation for digital computers Hewlett Packard: William Hewlett and David Packard start Hewlett Packard John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry: John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry develop the ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer) prototype
  • Enigma and Colossus

    Adolf Hitler uses the Enigma encryption machine ]Alan Turing develops the the code-breaking machine Colossus
  • Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper

    Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the MARK series of computers at Harvard University
  • ENIAC and Computer Bug

    John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly: John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly develop the ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) The term computer ‘bug’ as computer bug was first used by Grace Hopper
  • F.C. Williams

    F.C. Williams develops his cathode-ray tube (CRT) storing device the forerunner to random-access memory (RAM)
  • Pilot ACE, Douglas Engelbart, and William Shockley

    Donald Watts Davies joins Alan Turing to build the fastest digital computer in England at the time, the Pilot ACE
    William Shockley invents the transistor at Bell Labs Douglas Engelbart theorises on interactive computing with keyboard and screen display instead of on punchcards
  • Andrew Donald Booth and frederic Calland Williams & Tom Kilburn

    Andrew Donald Booth invents magnetic drum memory Frederic Calland Williams & Tom Kilburn develop the SSEM "Small Scale Experimental Machine" digital CRT storage which was soon nicknamed the "Baby"
  • Claude Shannon and Howard Aiken

    Claude Shannon builds the first machine that plays chess Howard Aiken develops the Harvard-MARK III
  • Hideo Yamachito: and Alan Turing:

    The first electronic computer is created in Japan by Hideo Yamachito. Alan Turing publishes his paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence which helps create the Turing Test.
  • EDVAC UNIVAC LEO

    T. Raymond Thompson and John Simmons develop the first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) at Lyons Co. UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was introduced - the first commercial computer made in the United States and designed principally by John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly
    : The EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) begins performing basic tasks. Unlike the ENIAC, it was binary rather than decimal
  • IBM 701

    The IBM 701 becomes available and a total of 19 are sold to the scientific community.
  • John Backus & IBM

    John Backus & IBM develop the FORTRAN Computer Programming Language
  • Bell Labs

    Bell Labs introduces its first transistor computer.
  • Basil Hirschowitz, C. Wilbur Peters, and Lawrence E. Curtiss

    Optical fiber was invented by Basil Hirschowitz, C. Wilbur Peters, and Lawrence E. Curtiss
  • sputnik

    Sputnik I and Sputnik II: Sputnik I and Sputnik II are launched by the Russians
  • ARPA and Silicon chip

    ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and NASA is formed
    Silicon chip: The first integrated circuit, or silicon chip, is produced by the US Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce
  • Paul Baran

    Paul Baran theorises on the "survivability of communication systems under nuclear attack", digital technology and symbiosis between humans and machines
  • COBOL

    The Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) programming language is invented.
  • Unimate:

    General Motors puts the first industrial robot, Unimate, to work in a New Jersey factory.
  • The first computer game

    The first computer game Spacewar Computer Game invented BY Steve Russell & MIT
  • the computer mouse:

    Douglas Engelbart invents and patents the first computer mouse (nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end) The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is developed to standardize data exchange among computers
  • word processor and basic

    IBM introduces the first word processor John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Language (BASIC)
  • Hypertext:

    Andries van Dam and Ted Nelson coin the term "hypertext
  • Floppy Disk:

    IBM creates the first floppy disk
  • Seymour Cray: Gary Starkweather: ARPANET:

    Seymour Cray develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer Gary Starkweather invents the laser printer whilst working with Xerox The U.S. Department of Defense sets up the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET ) this network was the first building blocks to what the internet is today but originally with the intention of creating a computer network that could withstand any type of disaster.
  • RAM:

    Intel introduces the world's first available dynamic RAM ( random-access memory) chip and the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004
  • E-mail: Pocket calculator: Floppy Disk:

    E-mail was invented by Ray Tomlinson
    Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD ): Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD ) was invented by James Fergason Pocket calculator was invented by Sharp Corporation Floppy Disk was invented by David Noble with IBM - Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility.
  • First Video Game: The CD:

    Atari releases Pong, the first commercial video game The compact disc is invented in the United States.
  • Gateways: Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs: Personal computer:

    Robert Metcalfe creates the Ethernet, a local-area network (LAN) protocol The minicomputer Xerox Alto (1973) was a landmark step in the development of personal computers : Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop gateway routing computers to negotiate between the various national networks
  • SQL: WYSIWYG:

    : IBM develops SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language ) now known as SQL Charles Simonyi coins the term WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) to describe the ability of being able to display a file or document exactly how it is going to be printed or viewed
  • Portable computers: Microsoft Corporation:

    Altair produces the first portable computer The Microsoft Corporation was founded April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800
  • Apple:

    Apple Computers was founded Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
  • MODEM:

    Apple Computer’s Apple II, the first personal computer with color graphics, is demonstrated Ward Christensen writes the programme "MODEM" allowing two microcomputers to exchange files with each other over a phone line
  • Magnetic tape:

    The first magnetic tape is developed in the US
  • millions of computers

    Over half a million computers are in use in the United States.
  • Paul Allen and Bill Gates:

    IBM hires Paul Allen and Bill Gates to create an operating system for a new PC. They buy the rights to a simple operating system manufactured by Seattle Computer Products and use it as a template to develop DOS
  • Microsoft:

    MS-DOS Computer Operating System increases its success
  • SMTP Commodore 64: WordPerfect:

    WordPerfect Corporation introduces WordPerfect 1.0 a word processing program The Commodore 64 becomes the best-selling computer of all time. : SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is introduced
  • Domain Name System (DNS): Windows:

    More than 10 million computers are in use in the United States Domain Name System (DNS) pioneered by Jon Postel, Paul Mockapetris and Craig Partridge. Seven 'top-level' domain names are initially introduced: edu, com, gov, mil, net, org and int. Microsoft Windows introduced eliminating the need for a user to have to type each command, like MS-DOS, by using a mouse to navigate through drop-down menus, tabs and icons
  • Apple Macintosh: Cyberspace:

    Apple introduces the Macintosh with mouse and window interface William Gibson coins the word cyberspace when he publishes Neuromancer
  • Paul Brainard: Nintendo:

    Paul Brainard introduces Pagemaker for the Macintosh creating the desktop publishing field. The Nintendo Entertainment System makes its debut
  • millions of computers

    More than 30 million computers are in use in the United States.
  • Perl:

    Microsoft introduces Microsoft Works Larry Wall introduces Perl 1.0
  • pc's

    Over 45 million PCs are in use in the United States.
  • The Internet, World Wide Web & Tim Berners-Lee:

    Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau propose a 'hypertext' system starting the modern Internet
    Microsoft and IBM stop working together to develop operating systems
  • The World Wide Web:

    The World Wide Web is launched to the public on August 6, 1991
  • world wide web servers

    At the beginning of the year only 50 World Wide Web servers are known to exist
  • YAHOO:

    The World Wide Web Consortium is founded by Tim Berners-Lee to help with the development of common protocols for the evolution of the World Wide Web YAHOO is created in April, 1994
  • Java: Amazon: EBay: Hotmail:

    Java is introduced Amazon.com is founded by Jeff Bezos EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar Hotmail is started by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia.
  • WebTV

    : WebTV is introduced
  • Altavista

    Altavista introduces its free online translator Babel Fish Microsoft acquires Hotmail
  • Google and PayPal

    Google: Google is founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page on September 7, 1998
    PayPal is founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin
  • Xbox:

    Bill Gates introduces the Xbox on January 7th 2001.
  • paypal by ebay and pc's

    Approximately 1 billion PCs been sold PayPal is acquired by eBay
  • ebay and skype

    September 12: eBay acquires Skype
  • skype

    Skype announces that it has over 100 million registered users.