Major Events and People in the History of Computers

Charles Babbage

Nov 12, 1834

*Charles Babbage designed the first automatic calculator called Analytical Engine *It was based on another machine called the Difference Engine

Herman Hollerith

Sep 5, 1890

*Herman Hollerith was working for the U.S Census Bureau when he took Jacquard's punch-card and applied it to his Hollerith Tabulating Machine. *His machine automatically read the data that has been punched on to small cards *He left the Census Bureau in 1896 to start the Tabulating Machine Company then he changed the name to IBM (International Business Machines)

Z1 Computer

Feb 13, 1936

*The Z1 computer was invented by Konrad *Zuse. *It was thought to be the first computer to include certain features intergral to today's systems, such as control units, seperate memory functions.

Netscape

Oct 22, 1944

*Netscape- A web browser that became predominant in browser software. *In 1988 Microsoft put a lot of pressure on them and caused them to stop charging customers for the product code.

Eniac

Nov 4, 1944

*Eniac(Electronic Numerical Intergrator and Computer) was created by John W.Mauchly and J.Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania.
*Started Operation in 1944, used 18,000 vacuum tubes and filled approximately 1,800 square feet of floor space.
*Remained use until 1955

Univac

Apr 18, 1951

*Univac (Universal Automatic Computer) was the first electronic digital computer completed in 1951.
*Operated on magnetic tape and considered a first generation computer and was the last to use vacuum tubes to store data.

Jack Kilby

May 1, 1958

*Jack Kilby invented the first integrated circuit which is a small chip capable of containing thousands of transistors. *this allowed computers to become smaller and lighter

BASIC

Oct 3, 1964

*In 1964 the BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction code) was introduced. FORTRAN, ALGOL, COBOL BASIC was a language that beginning programming students could learn easily.

Birth of the GUI

Aug 2, 1972

*GUI (Graphic User Interface)- allowed users to interact more easily. *Apple was the first company to take full commercial adavantage, but the GUI was not invented by a computer company. *Alto was the first computer to use the GUI

Altair computer

Apr 3, 1975

In 1975 the first personal computer was created: The Altair 8800.
This computer allowed people to create their own programs.

Bill Gates

Apr 4, 1975

*Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft

Apple II Invented in 1977

Apr 1, 1977

Apple II started spreadsheet programs, wordprocessors and a desktop publishing software.

Wordstar

Feb 17, 1978

Wordstar- The first word processing application

Visicalc

Aug 4, 1978

Visicalc- First electronic spreadsheet application

Osbourne computer invented in 1981

Sep 3, 1981

*The Osbourne was the first portable computer. In 1983 *Osbourne closed down due to the purchase of Compaq.
*Sold 10,000 units per month.
*Weighed 24.5lbs and had a 5 inch screen, cost $1,795($4,612 now).

Excel

Jan 3, 1985

Excel- One of the first spreadsheets to use a GUI (Graphic User Interface)

PageMaker

Sep 5, 1985

PageMaker- The first desktop publishing software

Mosaic

Sep 1, 1993

*Mosaic was the First Web Browser introduced in 1993
*Allowed users to view multimedia on the web. Increased traffic by 350%