2400 BC

Babylonia
300 BC

Abacus: The abacus, the first known calculator, was invented in

Pingala invented the binary number system

1614
John Napier invents a system of moveable rods (Napier's Rods)
based on logarithms which was able to multiply, divide and calculate square and
cube roots
1622
William Oughtred develops slide rules. The slide rule, also known
colloquially in the United States as a slipstick, is a mechanical analog computer.
The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for functions
such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry, but is not normally used for addition or
subtraction.
1623
Calculating Clock: Invented by Wilhelm Schickard. It was about the
size of a typewriter and could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It operated on sixdigit numbers and rang a bell to announce overflow
1642
Blaise Pascal invents the "Pascaline", a mechanical adding machine.
The first business machine. Used in collecting tax
1646
Sir Thomas Browne coined the phrase Computer. His meaning
was Someone who performs the calculations needed to draw up a calendar.
1671

Gottfried Leibniz is known as one of the founding Fathers Of Calculus

1673
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invented Step Reckoner (Digital
Mechanical Calculator). It was the first calculator that could perform all four
arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
1801
Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents an Automatic Loom controlled by
punched cards. The Jacquard Loom is a mechanical loom that uses pasteboard cards
with punched holes, each card corresponding to one row of the design.

1820
The Arithmometer was the first mass-produced calculator invented
by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar. The Arithmometer or Arithmomtre
was the first digital mechanical calculator strong enough and reliable enough to be
used daily in an office environment. This calculator could add and subtract two
numbers directly and could perform long multiplications and divisions effectively by
using a movable accumulator for the result
1822
English mathematician Charles Babbage (Father of Modern
Computer) conceives of a steam-driven calculating machine that would be able to
compute tables of numbers. The project, funded by the English government, is a
failure. More than a century later, however, the worlds first computer was actually
built. ( Arithmetic addition, and removes the need for multiplication and division)
1834
Analytical Engine: The Analytical Engine was invented by Charles
Babbage (fully-fledged general-purpose computation, complex numbers).

1835
Morse code: Samuel Morse invents Morse code. Morse code is a
method of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks
that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special
equipment.
1840
Engine)

Augusta Ada King wrote the first computer program (Analytical

1848

Boolean Algebra is invented by George Boole

1853
Machine

Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard invented the Tabulating

1873
Invention of QWERTY keyboard on typewriters by Christopher
Shole (Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington)
1878
table

Ramon Verea invents a fast calculator with an internal multiplication

1884
The Comptometer is an invention of Dorr E. Felt which is operated
by pressing keys. The comptometer was the first commercially successful keydriven mechanical calculator (sometimes faster to use than electronic
calculators).
1890
Herman Hollerith designs a Punch Card System (Counting Machine
or Tabulating Machine) to calculate the 1880 census, accomplishing the task in
just three years and saving the government $5 million.
1895

Radio Signals were invented by Guglielmo Marconi

1898

Remote Control was invented by Nikola Tesla (radio controlled boat)

1906
Lee De Forest invents the Electronic Tube (Vacuum Tube). It is a
device that controls electric current between electrodes in an evacuated container.
1911
Company

IBM is formed on June 15, 1911 Computing Tabulating Recording

1923

Television Electronic was invented by Philo Farnsworth

1936:
Alan Turing presents the notion of a Universal Machine, capable of
computing anything that is computable. The central concept of the modern
computer was based on his ideas.
1938
Konrad Zuse creates the Z1 (world's first programmable computer)
Computer a binary digital computer using punch tape
1939

William Hewlett and David Packard start Hewlett-Packard (HP)

1939
John Vincent Atanasof and Cliford Berry developed the ABC
(Atanasoft-Berry Computer) prototype

1941:
Atanasof and his graduate student, Cliford Berry, design a
computer that can solve 29 equations simultaneously. This marks the first time a
computer is able to store information on its main memory. (ABC)
1943

Adolf Hitler uses the Enigma encryption machine

Alan Turing
Counteracts Enigma

develops

the

code-breaking

machine

Colossus.

1944
Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the MARK series of
computers at Harvard University (debugging)
1945
John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly developed the ENIAC
( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
John Von Neumann outlined the paper containing stored-program
concept (RAM) Neumann Architecture
Computer Bug: The term computer bug as computer bug was first
used by Grace Hopper
1946
Mauchly and Presper leave the University of Pennsylvania and
receive funding from the Census Bureau to build the UNIVAC, the first commercial
computer for business and government applications.
F.C. Williams develops his cathode-ray tube (CRT) storing device the
forerunner to random-access memory (RAM)
1947
William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell
Laboratories invent the transistor. They discovered how to make an electric switch
with solid materials and no need for a vacuum.
1947
Pilot ACE: Donald Watts Davies joins Alan Turing to build the
fastest digital computer in England at the time, the Pilot ACE
1949
Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, EDSAC is an early
British computer considered to be the first stored program electronic computer.
Maurice Wilkes
1951
UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was introduced - the
first commercial computer made in the United States and designed principally by
John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly
The EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)
begins performing basic tasks. Unlike the ENIAC, it was binary rather than
decimal
1953
Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which
eventually becomes known as COBOL. Thomas Johnson Watson Jr., son of IBM CEO
Thomas Johnson Watson Sr., conceives the IBM 701 EDPM to help the United Nations
keep tabs on Korea during the war.
1954

The FORTRAN programming language is born. John backus

1955

Dr. An Wang. Magnetic Core Memory

1957
Sputnik I and Sputnik II are launched by the Russians (sputnik 2- the
first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika.)
Ken Olsen Founded DEC - was a major American company in the
computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. It was a leading vendor of
computer systems, including computers, software, and peripherals, and its PDP and
successor VAX products were the most successful of all minicomputers in terms of
sales.
1958

ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and NASA is formed

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce of Texas Instruments unveil the

Integrated Circuit, known as the Computer Chip (Silicon Chip). Kilby was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his work. Jack Kilby invented thermal
printer and digital calculator
1960
The
Common
Business-Oriented
Language
(COBOL)
programming language is invented by Grace Brewster Murray Hopper
1961
General Motors puts the first industrial robot, Unimate, to work in a
New Jersey factory.
1962
The first computer game Spacewar Computer Game invented by
Steve Russell & MIT
1963
The Computer Mouse: Douglas Engelbart invents and patents the
first computer mouse (nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end)
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange
(ASCII) is developed to standardize data exchange among computers.
1964
Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with
a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). This marks the evolution of the
computer from a specialized machine for scientists and mathematicians to
technology that is more accessible to the general public.
IBM series 360 S/360 Mainframe Computers was developed by
Amdahl
1964

IBM introduces the first word processor (IBM Lotus Word)

1965

Andries van Dam and Ted Nelson coin the term "hypertext"

BASIC
John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop Beginners All-purpose
Symbolic Instruction Language (BASIC)
1967

IBM creates the first Floppy Disk

1969
A group of developers at Bell Labs produce UNIX, 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. Due to the
slow nature of the system, it never quite gained traction among home PC users.
ARPANET launch the world's first successful packet-switched wide
area computer network
1969

Seymour Cray develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer

Gary Starkweather invents the Laser Printer whilst working with
Xerox

The U.S. Department of Defense sets up the Advanced Research

Projects Agency Network (ARPANET ) this network was the first building blocks to
what the internet is today but originally with the intention of creating a computer
network that could withstand any type of disaster.
1971

E-mail was invented by Ray Tomlinson

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) was invented by James Fergason

1972

The Compact Disc is invented in the United States. Philips

1973
Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research staff for Xerox, develops
Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware.
1974
IBM develops SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language) now
known as SQL
1975
The January issue of Popular Electronics magazine features the Altair
8080, described as the "world's first minicomputer kit 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.
Ed Roberts (father of minicomputers)
The Microsoft Corporation was founded April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates
and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800
(Microcomputer Software)
1976

Apple Computers was founded Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs

1977
Ward Christensen writes the programme "MODEM" allowing two
microcomputers to exchange files with each other over a phone line
1978

The first Magnetic Tape is developed in the US

1978
Accountants rejoice at the introduction of VisiCalc, the
computerized spreadsheet program. Daniel Bricklin and Bob Frankston

first

1979
Word processing becomes a reality as MicroPro International releases
WordStar.

1980
IBM hires Paul Allen and Bill Gates to create an operating system for a
new PC. They buy the rights to a simple operating system manufactured by Seattle
Computer Products and use it as a template to develop DOS.
1984
William Gibson coins the word Cyberspace when he publishes
Neuromancer
1988

Robert Morris launched the first Internet Worm

1990
Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high-energy physics
laboratory in Geneva, develops Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), giving rise
to the World Wide Web.
1991

The World Wide Web is launched to the public on August 6,

1994

YAHOO is created in April, 1994.

1996
Sergey Brin and Larry Page develop the Google Search Engine at
Stanford University.
IBM Deep Blue was a chess-playing computer developed by IBM. It is
known for being the first piece of artificial intelligence to win both a chess game and
a chess match against a reigning world champion under regular time controls.
Deep Blue won its first game against a world champion on February 10,
1996, when it defeated Garry Kasparov in game one of a six-game match. However,
Kasparov won three and drew two of the following five games, defeating Deep Blue
by a score of 42. Deep Blue was then heavily upgraded, and played Kasparov again
in May 1997. Deep Blue won game six, therefore winning the six-game rematch 3
2 and becoming the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in
a match under standard chess tournament time controls.[1] Kasparov accused IBM
of cheating and demanded a rematch. IBM refused and retired Deep Blue
1999
The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing language and users
begin connecting to the Internet without wires.