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Charles Babbage
English mathematician, Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven calculating machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. More than a century later, the world's first computer was actually built. -
Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest invents the electric tube. -
IBM
IBM is formed by Herman Holerith and later in 1971, a team invents the "floppy disk," allowing data to be shared among computers. -
Turing Machine
Alan Turing presents the notion of a universal machine, called the Turing machine, capable of computing anything that is computable. The central concept of the modern computer was based on his ideas. -
Atanasoff
Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, designed a computer that can solve 29 equations simultaneously. This marks the first time a computer is able to store information on its main memory. -
LEO
T. Raymond Thompson and John Simmons developed the first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (Leo) at Lyns Co. -
UNIVAC
UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was introduced - the first commercial computer made in the United States and designed principally by John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly. -
EDVAC
The EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) begins performing basic tasks. -
FORTRAN
The FORTRAN programming language is born -
COBOL
The Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) programming language is developed by Grace Hopper. -
Unimate
General Motors puts the first industrial robot, Unimate to work. -
Word Processor
IBM introduces the first word processor -
Seymour Cray
Seymour Cray develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer. -
Gary Starkweather
Gary Starkweather invents the laster printer. -
DRAM
Intel introduces the first available dynamic DRAM (random-access memory) chip and the first microprocessor, the Intel 1103. -
E-mail
Email was invented by Ray Tomlinson -
Pocket Calculator
Pocket calculator was invented by Sharp Coporation -
The January Issue
The January issue of Popular Electronics magazine features the Altair 8080, described as the "world's first minicomputer kid to rival commercial models." 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. -
Personal Computer
The first IBM personal computer, code-named "Acorn," is introduced. It used Microsoft's MS-DOS operation system. It had an Intel chip, two floppy disks, and an optional colour monitor. The first time a computer is available through outside distributors. -
.com
The first .com domain name was registered -
Nintendo
The Nintendo Entertainment System makes its debut -
The Internet
Tim Berners Lee and Robert Cailliau propose a 'hypertext' system starting the modern Internet -
The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is launched public on August 6, 1991 -
The Pentium
The Pentium microprocessor advances the use of graphics and music on computers. -
Java
Java is introduced -
Amazon
Amazon.com is founded by Jeff Bezos -
EBay
EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar -
Google
Google is founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page -
Xbox
Bill Gates introduces the Xbox -
Microsoft
Microsoft launches Windows XP, which has a significantly better redesigned GUI. -
The First 64-bit processor
The first 64-bit processor, AMD's Athlon 64, becomes available to the consumer market. -
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla's Firefox 10 challenges Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the dominant web browsers. Also, Facebook is launched. -
Skype
EBay introduces Skype -
YouTube + Google
YouTube is founded and Google acquires Android. -
Windows 7
Microsoft launches Windows 7 -
Chromebook
Google releases the Chromebook, a laptop that runs the Google Chrome OS. -
Facebook
Facebook gains 1 billion users -
Windows 10
Microsoft releases Windows 10