World's First Computer Was Actually Built

1801 1822 1890
1801: In France, Joseph Marie 1822: English mathematician Charles 1890: Herman Hollerith designs a
Jacquard invents a loom that uses Babbage conceives of a steam-driven punch card system to calculate the
punched wooden cards to calculating machine that would be able 1880 census, accomplishing the task
automatically weave fabric designs. to compute tables of numbers. The in just three years and saving the
Early computers would use similar project, funded by the English government $5 million. He
punch cards. government, is a failure. More than a establishes a company that would
century later, however, the ultimately become IBM.
world's first computer was actually built
.
1939 1937 1936
1939: Hewlett-Packard is founded by 1937: J.V. Atanasoff, a professor of 1936: Alan Turing presents the notion of
David Packard and Bill Hewlett in a physics and mathematics at Iowa a universal machine, later called the
Palo Alto, California, garage, State University, attempts to build Turing machine, capable of computing
according to the the first computer without gears, anything that is computable. The central
Computer History Museum. cams, belts or shafts. concept of the modern computer was
based on his ideas.
FORTRAN programming language, computer language, which eventually Bardeen and Walter Brattain of
an acronym for FORmula becomes known as COBOL. Thomas Bell Laboratories invent the
TRANslation, is developed by a team Johnson Watson Jr., son of IBM CEO transistor. They discovered how
of programmers at IBM led by John Thomas Johnson Watson Sr., conceives to make an electric switch with
Backus, according to the University the IBM 701 EDPM to help the United solid materials and no need for a
of Michigan. Nations keep tabs on Korea during the vacuum.
war.
1958 1964 1969
1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce 1964: Douglas Engelbart shows a 1969: A group of developers at Bell Labs
unveil the integrated circuit, prototype of the modern computer, with produce UNIX, an operating system that
known as the computer chip. Kilby a mouse and a graphical user interface addressed compatibility issues. Written in the
C programming language, UNIX was portable
was awarded the (GUI). This marks the evolution of the
across multiple platforms and became the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for computer from a specialized machine for
operating system of choice among
his work. scientists and mathematicians to mainframes at large companies and
technology that is more accessible to the government entities. Due to the slow nature
general public. of the system, it never quite gained traction
among home PC users.
1973 1971 1970

1978: Accountants rejoice at the 1977: Jobs and Wozniak incorporate 1977: Radio Shack's initial production
introduction of VisiCalc, the first Apple and show the Apple II at the first run of the TRS-80 was just 3,000. It sold
computerized spreadsheet program. West Coast Computer Faire. It offers like crazy. For the first time, non-geeks
color graphics and incorporates an audio could write programs and make a
cassette drive for storage. computer do what they wished.
1979 1981 1983
1979: Word processing becomes a 1981: The first IBM personal 1983: Apple's Lisa is the first personal
reality as MicroPro International computer, code-named "Acorn," is computer with a GUI. It also features a
releases WordStar. "The defining introduced. It uses Microsoft's MS- drop-down menu and icons. It flops but
change was to add margins and word DOS operating system. It has an Intel eventually evolves into the Macintosh. The
wrap," said chip, two floppy disks and an optional Gavilan SC is the first portable computer
creator Rob Barnaby in email to Mike P color monitor. Sears & Roebuck and with the familiar flip form factor and the
etrie in 2000
Computerland sell the machines, first to be marketed as a "laptop."
. "Additional changes included getting
marking the first time a computer is
rid of command mode and adding a
available through outside distributors.
print function. I was the technical
It also popularizes the term PC.
brains — I figured out how to do it, and
did it, and documented it. "
1986 1985 1985

1999: The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the 1997: Microsoft invests $150 million in 1996: Sergey Brin and Larry Page
computing language and users begin Apple, which was struggling at the time, develop the Google search engine at
connecting to the Internet without wires. ending Apple's court case against Stanford University.
Microsoft in which it alleged that
Microsoft copied the "look and feel" of its
operating system.
2001 2003 2004
2001: Apple unveils the Mac OS X 2003: The first 64-bit processor, 2004: Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 challenges
operating system, which provides AMD's Athlon 64, becomes available Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the
protected memory architecture and to the consumer market. dominant Web browser. Facebook, a
pre-emptive multi-tasking, among social networking site, launches.
other benefits. Not to be outdone,
Microsoft rolls out Windows XP,
which has a significantly redesigned
GUI.
2007 2006 2005

2016: The 2015: Apple releases the Apple Watch. 2012: Facebook gains 1 billion
first reprogrammable quantum comput Microsoft releases Windows 10. users on October 4.
er
was created. "Until now, there hasn't
been any quantum-computing platform
that had the capability to program new
algorithms into their system. They're
usually each tailored to attack a
particular algorithm," said study lead
author Shantanu Debnath, a quantum
physicist and optical engineer at the
University of Maryland, College Park.
2016
2017: The Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a
new "Molecular Informatics" program that
uses molecules as computers. "Chemistry
offers a rich set of properties that we may
be able to harness for rapid, scalable
information storage and processing," Anne
Fischer, program manager in DARPA's
Defense Sciences Office, said in a
statement. "Millions of molecules exist, and

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1801 1822 1890

1939 1937 1936

1958 1964 1969

1973 1971 1970

1979 1981 1983

1986 1985 1985

2001 2003 2004

2007 2006 2005

2017: The Defense Advanced Research

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