History of Computers

By AmberHand6

  • Joseph Marie Jacquard

    Invents a loom that uses punched wooden cards to automatically weave fabric designs.

  • Charles Babbage

    Invents a steam ran calculating machine.

  • Herman Hollerith

    Designs a punch card system to calculate the 1880 census.

  • Alan Turing

    Turing machine, capable of computing anything that is computable. Modern computers were based off of his original ideas.

  • J.V. Atanasoff

    Attempts to build the first computer without gears, cams, belts or shafts.

  • Atanasoff and Clifford Berry

    Designed a computer that solved 29 equations. Marks history as being the first computer able to store it's information.

  • John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert

    Build the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator.

  • Mauchly and Presper

    Create the first commercial computer for business and government.

  • William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain

    Discovered how to make an electric switch with solid materials and no need for a vacuum.

  • Grace Hopper

    Develops the first computer language.

  • It didn't say...

    The FORTRAN programming language is born.

  • Douglas Engelbart

    Prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse and a graphical user interface, marking the evolution of the computer from a specialized machine for scientists and mathematicians to technology that is more accessible to the general public.

  • A group of developers at Bell Labs

    An operating system that addressed compatibility issues. Written in the C programming language, UNIX was portable across multiple platforms and became the operating system of choice among mainframes at large companies and government entities.

  • It didn't say

    Newly formed Intel unveils the Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Access Memory chip.

  • Alan Shugart

    IBM engineers who invent the “floppy disk,” allowing data to be shared among computers.

  • Robert Metcalfe

    Member of the research staff for Xerox, develops Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware.

  • It doesn't say

    A number of personal computers hit the market.

  • Paul Allen and Bill Gates

    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.

  • Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak

    Start Apple Computers on April Fool’s Day and roll out the Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board.

  • Radio Shack

    Initial production run of the TRS-80 was just 3,000. It sold like crazy. For the first time, non-geeks could write programs and make a computer do what they wished.

  • Accountants

    Rejoice at the introduction of VisiCalc, the first computerized spreadsheet program.

  • Computer Nerds

    Word processing becomes a reality as MicroPro International releases WordStar.

  • IBM

    The first IBM personal computer named "Acorn", is released by Microsoft.

  • Apple

    Apple’s Lisa is the first personal computer with a GUI. It also features a drop-down menu and icons. It flops but eventually evolves into the Macintosh. The Gavilan SC is the first portable computer with the familiar flip form factor and the first to be marketed as a “laptop.”

  • Microsoft

    Announces Windows, its response to Apple’s GUI. Commodore unveils the Amiga 1000, which features advanced audio and video capabilities.

  • Symbolics Computer Company

    The first dot-com domain name is registered on March 15, years before the World Wide Web would mark the formal beginning of Internet history. The computer cmpany forms a whole bunch of dot-coms.

  • Tim Berners-Lee

    The high-energy physics laboratory in Geneva, develops HyperText Markup Language (HTML), giving rise to the World Wide Web.

  • Pentium microprocessor

    Advances the use of graphics and music on PCs.

  • Computer Nerds

    PCs become gaming machines as "Command & Conquer," "Alone in the Dark 2," "Theme Park," "Magic Carpet," "Descent" and "Little Big Adventure" are among the games to hit the market.

  • Sergey Brin and Larry Page

    Develop the Google search engine at Stanford University.

  • Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple

    Which was struggling at the time, ending Apple’s court case against Microsoft in which it alleged that Microsoft copied the “look and feel” of its operating system.

  • Computer Nerds

    The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing language and users begin connecting to the Internet without wires.

  • Apple

    Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system, which provides protected memory architecture and pre-emptive multi-tasking, among other benefits. Not to be outdone, Microsoft rolls out Windows XP, which has a significantly redesigned GUI.

  • It doesn't say...

    The first 64-bit processor, AMD’s Athlon 64, becomes available to the consumer market.

  • Mozilla

    Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the dominant Web browsers. Facebook, a social networking site, launches.

  • YouTube

    A video sharing service, is founded. Google acquires Android, a Linux-based mobile phone operating system.

  • Apple

    MacBook Pro, its first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo’s Wii game console hits the market.

  • Apple

    The iPhone brings many computer functions to the smartphone.

  • Microsoft

    Windows 7, which offers the ability to pin applications to the taskbar and advances in touch and handwriting recognition, among other features.

  • Apple

    Ipad is created and released to the public.

  • Google

    Releases the Chromebook, a laptop that runs the Google Chrome OS.

  • FaceBook

    1 billion users on October 4.

  • Apple

    Creates and release the Apple Watch and Microsoft releases Windows 10.