Computer History Timeline



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|Computer History Timeline |

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|This History Timeline has been developed to provide a 'snapshot' of the famous people and |

|events during this historical time period. Important dates in a fast, comprehensive, |

|chronological, or date order providing an actual sequence of important |

|past events which were of considerable significance to the |

|famous people involved in this time period. |

|A full History Timeline... |

|Read on! |

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| |2400 BC |

| |Abacus: The abacus, the first known calculator, was invented in Babylonia |

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| |500 BC |

| |Panini: Introduced the forerunner to modern formal language theory |

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| |300 BC |

| |Pingala: Pingala invented the binary number system |

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| |87 BC |

| |Antikythera Mechanism: Built in Rhodes to track movement of the stars |

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| |60 AD |

| |Heron of Alexandria: Heron of Alexandria invents machines which follow a series of instructions |

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| |724 |

| |Liang Ling-Can: Liang Ling-Can invents the first fully mechanical clock |

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| |1492 |

| |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 |

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| |1614 |

| |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 |

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| |1622 |

| |William Oughtred: William Oughtred develops slide rules |

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| |1623 |

| |Calculating Clock: Invented by Wilhelm Schickard |

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| |1642 |

| |Blaise Pascal: Blaise Pascal invents the the "Pascaline", a mechanical adding machine |

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| |1671 |

| |Gottfried Leibniz: Gottfried Leibniz is known as one of the founding fathers of calculus |

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| |1801 |

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

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| |1820 |

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

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| |1822 |

| |Charles Babbage: Charles Babbage designs his first mechanical computer |

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| |1834 |

| |Analytical Engine: The Analytical Engine was invented by Charles Babbage |

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| |1835 |

| |Morse code: Samuel Morse invents Morse code |

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| |1848 |

| |Boolean algebra: Boolean algebra is invented by George Boole |

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| |1853 |

| |Tabulating Machine: Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard invent the Tabulating Machine |

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| |1869 |

| |William Stanley Jevons: William Stanley Jevons designs a practical logic machine |

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| |1878 |

| |Ramon Verea: Ramon Verea invents a fast calculator with an internal multiplication table |

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| |1880 |

| |Alexander Graham Bell: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone called the Photophone |

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| |1884 |

| |Comptometer: The Comptometer is an invention of Dorr E. Felt which is operated by pressing keys |

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| |1890 |

| |Herman Hollerith: Herman Hollerith invents a counting machine which  increment mechanical counters |

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| |1895 |

| |Guglielmo Marconi: Radio signals were invented by Guglielmo Marconi |

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| |1896 |

| |Tabulating Machine Company:  Herman Hollerith forms the Tabulating Machine Company which later becomes IBM |

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| |1898 |

| |Nikola Tesla: Remote control was invented by  Nikola Tesla |

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| |1906 |

| |Lee De Forest: Lee De Forest invents the electronic tube |

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| |1911 |

| |IBM: IBM is formed on June 15, 1911 |

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| |1923 |

| |Philo Farnsworth: Television Electronic was invented by  Philo Farnsworth |

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| |1924 |

| |John Logie Baird:  Electro Mechanical television system was invented by John Logie Baird |

| |Walther Bothe: Walther Bothe develops the logic gate |

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| |1930 |

| |Vannevar Bush: Vannevar Bush develops a partly electronic Difference Engine |

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| |1931 |

| |Kurt Godel:  Kurt Godel publishes a paper on the use of a universal formal language |

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| |1937 |

| |Alan Turing: Alan Turing develops the concept of a theoretical computing machine |

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| |1938 |

| |Konrad Zuse: Konrad Zuse creates the Z1 Computer a binary digital computer using punch tape |

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| |1939 |

| |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 |

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| |1943 |

| |Enigma: Adolf Hitler uses the Enigma encryption machine |

| |Colossus: Alan Turing develops the the code-breaking machine Colossus |

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| |1944 |

| |Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper: Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the MARK series of computers at Harvard University |

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| |1945 |

| |ENIAC: John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly: John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly develop the ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) |

| |Computer Bug: The term computer ‘bug’ as computer bug was first used by Grace Hopper |

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| |1946 |

| |F.C. Williams: F.C. Williams develops his cathode-ray tube (CRT) storing device the forerunner to  random-access memory (RAM) |

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| |1947 |

| |Pilot ACE: Donald Watts Davies joins Alan Turing to build the fastest digital computer in England at the time, the Pilot ACE |

| |William Shockley: William Shockley invents the transistor at Bell Labs |

| |Douglas Engelbart: Douglas Engelbart theorises on interactive computing with keyboard and screen display instead of on punchcards |

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| |1948 |

| |Andrew Donald Booth: Andrew Donald Booth invents magnetic drum memory |

| |Frederic Calland Williams  & Tom Kilburn: Frederic Calland Williams  & Tom Kilburn develop the SSEM "Small Scale Experimental Machine" digital CRT storage which|

| |was soon nicknamed the "Baby" |

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| |1949 |

| |Claude Shannon: Claude Shannon builds the first machine that plays chess |

| |Howard Aiken: Howard Aiken develops the Harvard-MARK III |

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| |1950 |

| |Hideo Yamachito: The first electronic computer is created in Japan by Hideo Yamachito. |

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| |Alan Turing: Alan Turing publishes his paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence which helps create the Turing Test. |

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| |1951 |

| |LEO:  T. Raymond Thompson and  John Simmons develop the first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) at Lyons Co. |

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| |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 & John W. Mauchly |

| |EDVAC: The EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) begins performing basic tasks. Unlike the ENIAC, it was binary rather than decimal |

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| |1953 |

| |The IBM 701 becomes available and a total of 19 are sold to the scientific community. |

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| |1954 |

| |John Backus & IBM: John Backus & IBM develop the FORTRAN Computer Programming Language |

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| |1955 |

| |Bell Labs introduces its first transistor computer. |

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| |1956 |

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

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| |1957 |

| |Sputnik I and Sputnik II: Sputnik I and Sputnik II are launched by the Russians |

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| |1958 |

| |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 |

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| |1959 |

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

| |machines |

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| |1960 |

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

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| |1961 |

| |Unimate: General Motors puts the first industrial robot, Unimate, to work in a New Jersey factory. |

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| |1962 |

| |The first computer game:  The first computer game Spacewar Computer Game invented BY Steve Russell & MIT |

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| |1963 |

| |The Computer Mouse: Douglas Engelbart invents and patents the first computer mouse (nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end) |

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| |The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is developed to standardize data exchange among computers. |

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| |1964 |

| |Word processor: IBM introduces the first word processor |

| |BASIC:  John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Language (BASIC) |

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| |1965 |

| |Hypertext:  Andries van Dam and Ted Nelson coin the term "hypertext" |

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| |1967 |

| |Floppy Disk: IBM creates the first floppy disk |

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| |1969 |

| |Seymour Cray: Seymour Cray develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer |

| |Gary Starkweather: Gary Starkweather invents the laser printer whilst working with Xerox |

| |ARPANET:  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. |

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| |1970 |

| |RAM: Intel  introduces the world's first available dynamic RAM ( random-access memory) chip and the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. |

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| |1971 |

| |E-mail: E-mail was invented by  Ray Tomlinson |

| |Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD ): Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD ) was invented by  James Fergason |

| |Pocket calculator: Pocket calculator was invented by Sharp Corporation |

| |Floppy Disk: Floppy Disk was invented by  David Noble with IBM - Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility. |

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| |1972 |

| |First Video Game: Atari releases Pong, the first commercial video game |

| |The CD:  The compact disc is invented in the United States. |

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| |1973 |

| |Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs: Robert Metcalfe creates the Ethernet, a local-area network (LAN) protocol |

| |Personal computer: The minicomputer Xerox Alto (1973) was a landmark step in the development of personal computers |

| |Gateways: Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop gateway routing computers to negotiate between the various national networks |

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| |1974 |

| |SQL: IBM develops SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language ) now known as SQL |

| |WYSIWYG:  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 |

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| |1975 |

| |Portable computers: Altair produces the first portable computer |

| |Microsoft Corporation: The Microsoft Corporation was founded April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair |

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| |1976 |

| |Apple: Apple Computers was founded Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs |

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| |1977 |

| |Apple Computer’s Apple II, the first personal computer with color graphics, is demonstrated |

| |MODEM: Ward Christensen writes the programme "MODEM" allowing two microcomputers to exchange files with each other over a phone line |

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| |1978 |

| |Magnetic tape: The first magnetic tape is developed in the US |

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| |1979 |

| |Over half a million computers are in use in the United States. |

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| |1980 |

| |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. |

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| |1981 |

| |Microsoft: MS-DOS Computer Operating System increases its success |

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| |1982 |

| |WordPerfect: WordPerfect Corporation introduces WordPerfect 1.0 a word processing program |

| |Commodore 64:  The Commodore 64 becomes the best-selling computer of all time. |

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| |SMTP: SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is introduced |

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| |1983 |

| |More than 10 million computers are in use in the United States |

| |Domain Name System (DNS): 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. |

| |Windows: 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 |

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| |1984 |

| |Apple Macintosh: Apple introduces the Macintosh with mouse and window interface |

| |Cyberspace: William Gibson coins the word cyberspace when he publishes Neuromancer |

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| |1985 |

| |Paul Brainard: Paul Brainard introduces Pagemaker for the Macintosh creating the desktop publishing field. |

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| |Nintendo: The Nintendo Entertainment System makes its debut. |

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| |1986 |

| |More than 30 million computers are in use in the United States. |

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| |1987 |

| |Microsoft introduces Microsoft Works |

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| |Perl: Larry Wall introduces Perl 1.0 |

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| |1988 |

| |Over 45 million PCs are in use in the United States. |

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| |1990 |

| |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 |

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| |1991 |

| |The World Wide Web: The World Wide Web is launched to the public on August 6, 1991 |

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| |1993 |

| |At the beginning of the year only 50 World Wide Web servers are known to exist |

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| |1994 |

| |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: YAHOO is created in April, 1994. |

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| |1995 |

| |Java: Java is introduced |

| |Amazon: is founded by Jeff Bezos |

| |EBay: EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar |

| |Hotmail: Hotmail is started by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia. |

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| |1996 |

| |WebTV: WebTV is introduced |

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| |1997 |

| |Altavista introduces its free online translator Babel Fish |

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| |Microsoft acquires Hotmail |

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| |1998 |

| |Google: Google is founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page on September 7, 1998 |

| |PayPal is founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin |

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| |2001 |

| |Xbox: Bill Gates introduces the Xbox on January 7th 2001. |

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| |2002 |

| |Approximately 1 billion PCs been sold |

| |PayPal is acquired by eBay |

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| |2005 |

| |September 12: eBay acquires Skype |

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| |2006 |

| |Skype announces that it has over 100 million registered users. |

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