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Earliest machines
In 1821, British scientist Michael Faraday demonstrated the ability to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. -
A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits
A mathemetician and electrical engineer named Claude Shannon uses Boolean algebra in his master's thesis called "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" to create a working model for digital circuits. With Shannon's research, telecommunications would be expanded upon and computers would come into play. Claude Shannon would later be called "Father of the Information Age." -
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"A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits"
In the year 1936, elctrical engineer Claude Shannon establishes a working model for digital circuits through the use Boolean algebra. This would be a milestone for telelcommunications and soon-to-be computers in the 1940s. -
Stored Program Computer
The first electronic computer was created and by two students in Iowa State College. The students' names are John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. The computer was called the Atanaasoff-Berry Computer, named after both of the students' last names. The compuiter was fully functional and utilized the use of binary arithmetic and electronic switching. -
PDP-1 is introduced
The PDP-1 is a simple computer that displayed cathode ray tubes and a light pen. The system at the time was $125,000 and didn't run on air conditioning like computers we have today. -
BASIC
Two Darthmouth College professors, John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop a programming language called BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). The system was designed for any students that were involved in science but didn't use computers. Later on, programmers would incloude BASIC language and ways to translate it into later computers. -
Creation of the mouse
In San Francisco at a computer conference, the mouse made its debut. The inventor, Douglas Englebart would receive a patent for the mouse two years later. -
Inception of the first home computer
The very first home computer called the Altair 8800 hits the market. The computer had a kit which allowed you to build the computer to your liking. After requesting to write a version of BASIC on the computer, the two joined together and formed what is now known as Microsoft. -
Macintosh
An accessible and easy-to use computer, the Macintosh became popular amongst educators or those who bought the computer to play games on it. Despite this, there's really almost no bussiness applications available on the Macintosh. -
Windows 1.0
Microsoft later released Windows. Despite being a diffeent operating system, Windows 1.0 beared many similarities to the Macintosh. The most notable being the graphical user interface. The downside to Windows 1.0 is that it ran slowly and it took a long time to load applications. Because of these drawbacks, users stuck to MS-DOS. Later on, Windows 3.0 would be released to a much more positive reception. In the year 1995, the most successful launch of Windows was Windows 95. -
The New Age of the Internet
The year 1991 was a "Golden Age" amongst technology users. At this time, the world would be forever changed... the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web could transfer and receive information at any given time and all types information could be searched for at the click of a button. -
PDAs
John Sculley, chairman of Apple, coins the term "personal digital assistant." One of the first PDAs is Apple's Newton. It had a liquid crystal display and came with a stylus. A company known as Palm would eventually release a successful PDA known as the Palm Pilot. -
Windows XP
The year 2001 would be a huge change for Windows computers. Windows XP contained a more smooth and attractive looking graphical user interface. Everything was made more accessible. Windows XP would later spawn Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
