Major Events in the History of Computing & the Internet

By Jiraoi
  • Alan Turing (Bombe)

    Alan Turing was working for britain during WW2. His mission was to break the Enigma code created by the germans, considered to be unbreakable. Turing created the bombe. It worked by looking at a tape of symbols and either erasing or adding new symbols and then moving on to the next symbol. It did this with a set of rules and logbooks. The Enigma code was made by the germans to communicate plans and by breaking the code, the bombe saved 14 million lives. It also shot us into the computing age.
  • Windows is released

    In 1985, Windows was released by Microsoft, founded by Bill Gates. It was the first graphical operating system. It became so successful because IBM used it when it came out. It replaced the old typewriter for a much more efficient interface. Later on, because large companies used the operating system, naturally, it filtered to household computers because people were comfortable using it from work. Today, Windows is the biggest operating system, coming preloaded into the majority of computers.
  • Tim Berners-Lee (World Wide Web)

    In the 80s, Time Berners-Lee was working for a swiss company, using computers. However, he found that to access different information, he had to log onto different computers. Therefore, using a new technology called hypertext he created the world wide web, a way of browsing the new internet by assigning addresses to each web page for certain information. This was initially only used in the company, however, today it is used across the entire world allowing anyone to create a web page for free.
  • Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin

    in 1998 Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google, their search engine. The reason it was so successful was because it provided the best user interface: with no ads too. It worked by having the user enter a term and then using complex algorithms, the search engine would generate a list of related URLs in order of importance. Today, Google is one of the biggest companies in the world they've branched out into many areas like media streaming, Mail, and even computers and phones.
  • IPhone is released

    The first IPhone was released in 2007 by Apple. It wasn't the first smartphone but at the time it was by far the most advanced smartphone. It had a large touchscreen and you were able to access the internet using it. Something that was very rare at the time. It also had a camera which is what made people taking majority of their photos on their phone. Lastly apple introduced the app store which allowed people to download apps which has allowed countless companies to thrive today.