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John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert develop the ENIAC and began the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation.
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The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation releases the BINAC (BINary Automatic); the first of many rapid improvements to computers.
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Eckert and Mauchly created the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) at the request of the U.S. Census Bureau. Forty-six UNIVACs were created for various government agencies and businesses. Computers | Timeline of Computer History | Computer History Museum. (2017). Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/
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The UNIVAC is used to predict the presidential race and the calculations correctly predict that Eisenhower would win. Despite the news media attempt to discredit the UNIVAC, word spread and the UNIVAC becomes a household name. Computers | Timeline of Computer History | Computer History Museum. (2017). Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/
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The first message is sent from one computer to another over the ARPAnet. This was one of the first attempts of building a network of computers that could communicate with one another.
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While computers were typically used for government, business, or military purposes; the introduction of the microprocessor helped create the first personal computer. What we now refer to as a PC was then called a microcomputer. In the late 1970s computers began to enter mainstream society.
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Swiss computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web, which transformed the Internet from a way to send files between computers to a "web" of information that could be retrieved by its users.This began the rapid evolution of the Internet and its impact on society.
Leiner, B. M., Cerf, V. G., Clark, D., Kahn, R. E., et. al. (2017). Internet Society. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet -
After the creation of Mosaic (Netscape), it became easier for users to search the web and see words and pictures on the same page, the Internet was approved for commercial purposes. Before this time the primary use of Internet was for government, scientific, and military purposes. Commercializing the Internet sped up the rapid evolution of media.
Leiner, B. M. et. al. (2017). Internet Society. http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet -
"Internet" refers to the global information system that is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet Protocol (IP)...is able to support communications using the (TCP/IP) suite...provides, uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered on the communications and related infrastructure described herein."
http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet -
The introduction of broadband revolutionizes Internet access; increasing speed and strength of connection.
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Mark Zuckerberg launches what is to become the most popular SNS worldwide; thefacebook.com.
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By October 2005, Facebook was available to upper secondary school students and universities throughout the U.S. and begins to spread to Universities outside of the U.S. as well.
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By September 2006 Facebook became available to anyone over the age of 13 who had access to the Web.
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It is suggested that Facebook and other popular social media sites sparked a wave of uprisings against corrupt and oppressive governments throughout the Arab world.
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It is suggested by some that Facebook played a major role in the spread of "fake news" which impacted the 2016 presidential election in the U.S.
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Household personal computers begin to develop and are distributed rapidly with the creation of Apple II and the IBM PC. Laptops are also introduced although they were mainly big and bulky considered more "luggable" than "portable".
