Timeline: Programming History Timeline

Oct 13, 1822

Charles Babbage

English mathematician, Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven calculating machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. More than a century later, the world's first computer was actually built.

Oct 26, 1906

Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest invents the electric tube.

Jun 15, 1911

IBM

IBM is formed by Herman Holerith and later in 1971, a team invents the "floppy disk," allowing data to be shared among computers.

Oct 13, 1936

Turing Machine

Alan Turing presents the notion of a universal machine, called the Turing machine, capable of computing anything that is computable. The central concept of the modern computer was based on his ideas.

Oct 13, 1941

Atanasoff

Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, designed a computer that can solve 29 equations simultaneously. This marks the first time a computer is able to store information on its main memory.

Mar 22, 1951

LEO

T. Raymond Thompson and John Simmons developed the first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (Leo) at Lyns Co.

Mar 31, 1951

UNIVAC

UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was introduced - the first commercial computer made in the United States and designed principally by John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly.

Oct 9, 1951

EDVAC

The EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) begins performing basic tasks.

Oct 13, 1954

FORTRAN

The FORTRAN programming language is born

Oct 13, 1960

COBOL

The Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) programming language is developed by Grace Hopper.

Oct 13, 1961

Unimate

General Motors puts the first industrial robot, Unimate to work.

Oct 13, 1964

Word Processor

IBM introduces the first word processor

Oct 13, 1969

Seymour Cray

Seymour Cray develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer.

Oct 13, 1969

Gary Starkweather

Gary Starkweather invents the laster printer.

Oct 13, 1970

DRAM

Intel introduces the first available dynamic DRAM (random-access memory) chip and the first microprocessor, the Intel 1103.

Oct 13, 1971

E-mail

Email was invented by Ray Tomlinson

Oct 13, 1971

Pocket Calculator

Pocket calculator was invented by Sharp Coporation

Apr 4, 1975

The January Issue

The January issue of Popular Electronics magazine features the Altair 8080, described as the "world's first minicomputer kid to rival commercial models." Two "computer geeks,"Paul Allen and Bill Gates, offer to write software for the Altair, using the new BASIC language. On April 4, after the success of this first endeavor, the two childhood friends form their own software company, Microsoft.

Oct 13, 1981

Personal Computer

The first IBM personal computer, code-named "Acorn," is introduced. It used Microsoft's MS-DOS operation system. It had an Intel chip, two floppy disks, and an optional colour monitor. The first time a computer is available through outside distributors.

Mar 15, 1985