Timeline Project

By cap10
  • Birth of Richard Stallman

    Birth of Richard Stallman

    Richard Stallman celebrated his first birthday!
  • Start of education.

    Start of education.

    Stallman started his freshman year in Harvard University, and began working in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (later called the Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Lab.)
  • Stallman's BA graduation

    Stallman's BA graduation

  • Published the "Dependency directed backtracking" technique

    Published the "Dependency directed backtracking" technique

    Developed the Dependency directed backtracking technique with Gerald Jay Sussman which is a search strategy that helps find solutions by identifying and undoing the choices that led to failure.
  • Stallman begins working on the GNU Project.

    Stallman begins working on the GNU Project.

    Stallman works and creates the GNU operating system (GNU's Not Unix). It is a free software containing no UNIX code. The song "The GNU" was also inspiration for the name. It was intended to be a free version of ATTs UNIX
  • Stallman resignes from MIT

    Stallman resignes from MIT

    Stallman resigns to focus 100% on his projects after conflict with the increasing commercialization of software.
  • Released the GNU Manifesto and created the nonprofit "Free Software Foundation"

    Released the GNU Manifesto and created the nonprofit "Free Software Foundation"

    Non-profit foundation created initially for supporting the GNU Project after release of the GNU Manifesto.
  • Stallman writes the General Public License(GPL)

    Stallman writes the General Public License(GPL)

    The GPL, a document attached to a computer code that legally requires anyone distributing the code to make any of their modifications and distributed works available to others. Stallman calls this copyleft.
  • Awarded the MacAuthur Fellowship

    Awarded the MacAuthur Fellowship

    He was awarded the MacArthur fellowship, coined the "genius award." This award grants the receiver a financial stipend with no strings attached. This is important as it helped free Stallman to write utilities for the GNU project.
  • Stallman received the "Association for Computing's Grace Murray Hopper Award."

    Stallman received the "Association for Computing's Grace Murray Hopper Award."

    He received The Association for Computing's Grace Murray Hopper Award "For pioneering work in the development of the extensible editor EMACS (Editing Macros)."
  • Stallman receives "Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award"

    Stallman receives "Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award"

    Stallman receives "Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award"
  • Published "The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource"

    Published "The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource"

    A paper calling for the making of open-source encyclopedias.
  • Received the United States National Academy of Engineering membership.

    Received the United States National Academy of Engineering membership.

    Received the United States National Academy of Engineering membership.
  • Received Honorary Doctorate of Science from Lakehead University of Canada.

    Received Honorary Doctorate of Science from Lakehead University of Canada.

    Received Honorary Doctorate of Science from Lakehead University of Canada.
  • Inducted into the "Internet Hall of Fame"

    Inducted into the "Internet Hall of Fame"

    Inducted into the Internethalloffame.org. An awards program established by the internet society to recognize individuals who made significant contribution to the the development and advancement of the global internet.