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Grace Murray Hopper was born
Grace Murray Hopper was born on December 9, 1906, in New York City. She was the eldest of three children. Her parents, Walter Fletcher Murray and Mary Campbell Van Horne, were of Scottish and Dutch descent, and attended West End Collegiate Church. Photo: https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/10/grace-murray-hopper-1906-1992-legacy-innovation-and-service -
Grace Murrary Hopper earned her Bachelor's degree
She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar in 1928 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics. Photo: http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/alumni/grace-murray-hopper.html -
Grace Murrary Hopper earned her Master's degree
She earned her Master's degree in Math and Physics at Yale University. Photo: https://www.i-programmer.info/history/people/294-the-mother-of-cobol.html -
Grace Murrary Hopper earned her Ph.D.
She earned her Ph.D. in Math and Physics at Yale University Photo: https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/11/yale-change-calhoun-college-s-name-honor-grace-murray-hopper-0 -
Grace Murrary Hopper joined Naval Reserve
Hopper began teaching mathematics at Vassar in 1931, and was promoted to associate professor in 1941. She joined Naval Reserve in 1943. Photo: https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Software/FirstCompiler.html -
Started working on Mark I
She became a lieutenant and was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance’s Computation Project at Harvard University (1944), where she worked on Mark I, the first large-scale automatic calculator and a precursor of electronic computers. Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper -
Term "bug" and "debugging" coined
While she was working on a Mark II Computer at Harvard University in 1947, her associates discovered a moth that was stuck in a relay; the moth impeded the operation of the relay. While neither Hopper nor her crew mentioned the phrase "debugging" in their logs, the case was held as an instance of literal "debugging." For many years, the term bug had been in use in engineering. Photo: https://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg70/Pages/namesake.aspx -
Started to developing UNIVAC I
In 1949, Hopper became an employee of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician and joined the team developing the UNIVAC I. Photo: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-younger-years-of-grace-murray-hopper-4077488 -
Published her first paper on compliers
She published her first paper on the subject, compilers, in 1952. The program was known as the A compiler and its first version was A-0. Photo: https://www.thoughtco.com/grace-hopper-quotes-3530092 -
Release of MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC
In 1954 Hopper was named the company's first director of automatic programming, and her department released some of the first compiler-based programming languages, including MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC. Photo: https://stories.vassar.edu/2017/170706-legacy-of-grace-hopper.html -
Invention of COBOL
In the spring of 1959, computer experts from industry and government were brought together in a two-day conference known as the Conference on Data Systems Languages. Hopper served as a technical consultant to the committee, and many of her former employees served on the short-term committee that defined the new language COBOL. Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper -
Developing FORTRAN and COBOL
In the 1970s, Hopper advocated for the Defense Department to replace large, centralized systems with networks of small, distributed computers. Any user on any computer node could access common databases located on the network. She developed the implementation of standards for testing computer systems and components, most significantly for early programming languages such as FORTRAN and COBOL. Photo: https://invention.si.edu/grace-hopper-and-invention-information-age -
Retirement from the Navy
Following a career that spanned more than 42 years, Admiral Hopper took retirement from the Navy on August 14, 1986. At the time of her retirement, she was the oldest active-duty commissioned officer in the United States Navy (79 years, eight months and five days), and had her retirement ceremony aboard the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. Photo: http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/alumni/grace-murray-hopper.html -
Grace Hopper Passes Away
On New Year's Day 1992, Hopper died in her sleep of natural causes at her home in Arlington, Virginia; she was 85 years of age. She was interred with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Photo: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/09/iwd_grace_hopper/ -
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
On November 22, 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. Photo: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/11/top-apollo-era-navy-computer-scientists-receive-presidential-medal-of-freedom/
