Technology Timeline

  • Charles Babbage - Analytical Engine

    Charles Babbage - Analytical Engine
    The Analytical Engine was supposed to be a general-purpose, fully program controlled, automatic mechanical digital computer. It used punch cards. It was never finished.
  • Hollerith Punch card Machine

    Hollerith Punch card Machine
    Selected to process the 1890 census data after beating two other designs. Sorted info on punched cards.
  • The Turing Machine

    The Turing Machine
    Invented by Alan Turing in 1936. It is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine. Proved the fundamental limitations of mechanical computation.
  • HP (Hewlett-Packard)

    HP (Hewlett-Packard)
    The Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) was founded on the first of January 1939. Started by making sophisticated equipment often for the military. Now makes things like computers and printers.
  • COBOL

    COBOL
    COBOL is a computer language developed by Grace Hopper. Shown at the Conference on Data Systems Languages.
  • Engelbart GUI

    Engelbart GUI
    Developed by Douglas Engelbart in 1968. Similar to the file explorer on modern computers. First to use a computer mouse.
  • Apple Inc.

    Apple Inc.
    Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1st, 1976, originally named Apple Computer Co.
  • Microsoft Windows

    Microsoft Windows
    The first version of Windows was released on November 20, 1985 as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS. It is an operating system for computers. It is the most popular desktop operating system in the world, by far.
  • Tim Berners-Lee

    Tim Berners-Lee
    Creator of the World Wide Web, URL system, and the HTML markup language. Proposed the idea of what would become the World Wide Web on March 12, 1989
  • Wi-Fi

    Wi-Fi
    Introduced September 21, 1997. It is a wireless networking protocol that devices use to communicate wirelessly. Based on the IEEE 802.11 group of standards. Often used for local area networking of devices or Internet access.
  • iPhone

    iPhone
    Line of smartphones produced by Apple Inc. First of what is considered a smartphone today. Originally only sold and compatible with AT&T, which caused controversy at the time. Development started in 2004.
  • Chromebook

    Chromebook
    Line of laptop and tablet computers with ChromeOS, made and developed by Google.
  • Apple Watch

    Apple Watch
    Created under the leadership of Jony Ive and Kevin Lynch. Quickly became the best-selling wearable device of the time.