A Chronology of Computer History

3000 BC: Dust abacus is invented, probably in Babylonia.

1800 BC: Babylonian mathematician develops algorithms to resolve numerical

problems.

500 BC: Bead and wire abacus originates in Egypt.

1624: Wilhelm Schickard builds first four-function calculator-clock at the

University of Heidelberg.

1642: Blaise Pascal builds the first numerical calculating machine, in Paris, that
can add, subtract

1673: Gottfried Leibniz builds a mechanical calculating machine that multiplies,

divides, adds and subtracts.

1774 The first telegraph is built

1780: American Benjamin Franklin discovers electricity.

1805: Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents perforated card for use on his loom.

1833: Charles Babbage designs the Analytical Machine that follows instructions
from punched-cards. It is the first general purpose computer.

1842: Lady Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace and daughter of Lord Byron, the poet,
documents Babbage's work and writes programs for Babbage.

1847 Siemens is founded.

1854: Irishman George Boole publishes The Mathematical Analysis of Logic using
the binary system now known as Boolean algebra.

1876: Telephone is invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

1884: Dr. Herman Hollerith applies for patents for automatic punch-card
tabulating machine.

1886: William Burroughs develops the first commercially successful mechanical

adding machine.

1890: Dr. Herman Hollerith constructs an electromechanical machine using

perforated cards for use in the U.S. census.
1896: Hollerith founds the Tabulating Machine Co.

1898 Alcatel is founded.

1901: The first radio message is sent across the Atlantic Ocean in Morse code.

1903: Nikola Tesla, a Yugoslavian who worked for Thomas Edison, patents
electrical logic circuits called gates or switches. This invention helps create and
transmit AC power

1911: Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company is formed through a merger of

the Tabulating Machine Company (founded by Hollerith), the Computing Scale
Company, and the International Time Recording Company.

1921: Czech word robot is used to describe mechanical workers in the play R.U.R.
(Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek.

1924: Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to

International Business Machines.

1927: First public demonstration of television.

1928: A Russian immigrant, Vladimir Zworykin, invents the cathode ray tube
(CRT).

1928: The Galvin Manufacturing Corporation begins, will later be known as

Motorola.

1933: Canon is established.

1937: George Stibitz builds the first binary calculator at Bell Telephone
Laboratories.

1938: Hewlett-Packard Co. is founded to make electronic equipment.

1940: At Bell Labs, George Stibitz demonstrates the Complex Number Calculator,
which may be the first digital computer.

1940: First color TV broadcast.

1945: John von Neumann paper describes stored-program concept for EDVAC, The
Von Neumann Architecture is introduced

1946: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), with 18,000

vacuum tubes, is dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania. It was 8 by 100 feet
and weighed 80 tons. It could do 5,000 additions and 360 multiplications per second.
The first general-purpose electronic digital calculator begins to be constructed.

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This computer by most is considered to be the first electronic computer. It was
created to help with the war efforts against German forces.

1946: Term bit for binary digit is used for first time by John Tukey.

1948: Transistor is invented.

1949: Claude Shannon of MIT builds the first chess playing machine.

1950 Steve Wozniak is born August 11, 1950.

1951 UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was introduced. Utilizes punch

cards and switches for inputting data and punch cards for outputting and storing data

1953: First high-speed printer is developed by Remington-Rand for use on the

Univac.

1953: First magnetic tape device, the IBM 726, is introduced with 100 character-
per-inch density and 75 inches-per-second speed.

1953: IBM ships its first stored-program computer, the 701. It is a vacuum tube,
or first generation, computer.

1953: Paul Allen is born January 21, 1953.

1954: FORTRAN is created by John Backus at IBM. Harlan Herrick runs the first
successful FORTRAN program.

1954: Gene Amdahl develops the first operating system, used on IBM 704.

1955 Steve Jobs is born February 24, 1955

1955 William (Bill) H. Gates is born October 28, 1955

1958: First electronic computers are built in Japan by NEC

1958: LISP is developed on the IBM 704 at MIT under John McCarthy.

1958: Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments makes the first integrated circuit.

1959: COBOL is defined by the Conference on Data System Languages (Codasyl).

1959: IBM ships its first transistorized, or second generation, computers.

1959 Panasonic is founded.

1960: DEC ships the first small computer, the PDP-1.

1960: Removable disks first appear.

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1962: IBM's U.S.-based annual revenues from computer products reach $1
billion and for the first time surpass its other revenue.

1962 Steve Russell creates "SpaceWar!" and releases it in February 1962. This game
is considered the first game intended for computers.

1962 Sharp is founded.

1964: BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code Language) is

created by Tom Kurtz and John Kemeny of Dartmouth.

1965: First computer science Ph.D. is granted to Richard L. Wexelblat at the

University of Pennsylvania.

1965: IBM ships the first System 360, its first integrated circuit-based or third
generation, computer.

1967: First issue of Computerworld is published.

1967 IBM creates the first floppy disk.

1967 Nokia is formed.

1968: Integrated Electronics (Intel) Corp. is founded by Gordon Moore and Robert
Noyce.

1969: PASCAL compiler is written by Nicklaus.

1969 Control Data Corporation led by Seymour Cray, release the CDC 7600,
considered by most to be the first supercomputer.

1969 Windows concept is developped at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

1969 AT&T Bell Laboratories develop Unix.

1969 Linus Torvalds is born.

1969 The first login (connection).

1969 Gary Starkweather, while working with Xerox invents the laser printer.

1969 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.

1969 AMD is founded.

1970: IBM ships its first System 370, a fourth generation, computer.

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1970 Centronics introduces the first dot matrix printer.

1971: Intel Corporation announces the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004

1971 The first 8" floppy diskette drive was introduced

1972: First electronic pocket calculator is developed by Texas Instruments.

1972: PL/1, the first programming language for the Intel 4004 microprocessor.

1972 Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs invents the C programming language.

1972: Intel introduces the 8008, an 8 bit microprocessor.

1973 Dr. Martin Cooper makes the first cell phone call at Motorola.

1973: R2E markets Andre Truong Trong Thi’s MICRAL, the first microcomputer
in France.

1973: Winchester disk drives are first introduced by IBM

1974: Intel introduces the 8080, an 8 bit microprocessor that will be used in
numerous personal computers.

1975: Cray-1 supercomputer is introduced.

1975: MITS introduces the Altair personal computer, named after a Star Trek
episode, A Voyage to Altair. The kit cost $397 for a 256 byte computer. The I/O
consisted of switches and lights. It was designed by Ed Roberts and Bill Yates.

1975: Microsoft is founded after Bill Gates and Paul Allen adapt and sell BASIC to
MITS for the Altair PC.

1975: The first computer store opens in Santa Monica, CA.

1975: Xerox withdraws from the mainframe computer industry.

1976 Steve Wozniak designs the first Apple, the Apple I ($666). Apple Computer is
founded with Steve Jobbs.

1976 The first 5.25-inch floppy disk is invented.

1977: Apple Computer becomes Inc. January 4; introduces the Apple II PC; first PC
completely assembled in a plastic case, incorporated sound, graphical capabilities,
first Floppy Disk drive for personal computers ($1.300) – the VW of PC’s.

1977: Datapoint introduces ARC system, the first local area network.

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1978: Dan Bricklin creates, in Apple Basic on an Apple 2, VisiCalc - the first
spreadsheet type program to be developed

1978 The first spam e-mail was sent by Gary Thuerk in 1978 an employee at
Digital who was advertising DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T on
ARPAnet

1978 A worm program (a destructive software program containing code capable of

gaining access to computers or networks) is invented by two researchers at Xerox
PARC

1979 Oracle is founded and introduces the first commercial version of SQL

1980 IBM hires Paul Allen and Bill Gates to create an operating system for a new
PC. The pair buys the rights to a simple operating system (Quick and Dirty OS) and
uses it as a template, selling the DOS for $50.000 to IBM, which allows the two to
keep the marketing rights to the operating system.

1980 IBM hires Microsoft to develop versions of BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, and
Pascal for the PC being developed by IBM.

1980 Microsoft licenses UNIX and starts to develop a PC version, XENIX.

1986 Apple is listed on the New York Stock Exchange selling shares to the public at
$22 each. They were sold in a few minutes.

1980: Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed one million units.

1981 MS-DOS 1.0 was released August, 1981.

1981 IBM joins the computer race by introducing IBM PC, which runs the new MS-
DOS operating system, creating a de facto standard

1981 Xerox introduces the graphical Star workstation. This computer greatly
influences the development of Apple’s future computer models, Lisa and Macintosh,
as well as Microsoft’s Windows.

1981: Osborne Computer introduces the Osborne 1, the first portable computer,
which weighs 25 pounds.

1981 Logitech is founded in Apples, Switzerland.

1982 Peter Norton creates Norton Utilities.

1982 Symantec is founded

1982 Sony releases its first Trinitron monitor

1982: Sun Microsystems is founded, with four employees.

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1982 Lotus Development Corporation is founded and Lotus 1-2-3 is introduced.

1982: Time Magazine names the computer its Man of the Year, the first non-
human ever nominated.

1982 Apple Computer is the first personal computer manufacturer to hit the
$1 billion mark for annual sales

1982 The Intel 80286 processor is announced

1982 Adobe is founded.

1982 Compaq Computer Corp. is founded by Texas Instruments Incorporated

engineers.

1982 Rich Skrenta a 15-year old high school student creates the first known
computer virus which spread to other computers by monitoring the floppy drive and
copying itself to any floppy diskette that was inserted into the computer

1983 The IBM XT is first introduced on March 8, 1983.

1983: Compaq is the first company to introduce a clone of the IBM PC (the first
100% IBM compatible computer) and become IBM’s biggest challenger in the
corporate market. Compaq ships its first computer in January and sells $111M, the
greatest first-year sales in the history of American business.

1983: Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed ten million units.

1983: Apple introduces Mac predecessor, Lisa. Great fiasco due to his price
(10.000$)

1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh computer 128Kb RAM, first 3.5-inch floppy
diskette and mouse (2.495$), a computer with graphical user interface instead of
needing to type in commands. In six months sales of the computer reach 100,000.
“Cult of Mac” surges.

1984: IBM introduces the PC AT (Advanced Technology).

1984 Bill Gates is featured on the cover of Time magazine.

1984 The 3.5-inch floppy diskette is introduced and later becomes an industry standard.

1984 Dell Computer is founded in Austin Texas.

1985: Aldus introduces PageMaker for the Macintosh, a program that lets users mix
text and graphics on the same page. The combination of this software and the new
Apple LaserWriter printer starts the desktop publishing era.

1985 The computer company Gateway 2000 is founded in Sioux City, Iowa.

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1985 Intel introduces the 80386, a 16 MHz processor that incorporates 275,000
transistor and capable of accessing up to four megabytes of memory. The processor
sells for $299.

1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 is introduced in November and is sold for $100.

1985 Steve Wozniak leaves Apple. Jobs leaves, founding NeXT Computing.

1985 Corel is founded.

1986 Pixar is co-founded by Steve Jobs.

1986 The AT or 101 key keyboard is introduced by IBM

1986: The number of computers in the U.S. exceeds 30 million.

1986 Microsoft is listed on the New York Stock Exchange selling shares to the
public at $21 each, making Bill Gates (owning 43% of total shares) the world’s
youngest billionaire.

1987: Microsoft purchases the company that developed the presentation software
PowerPoint.

1987: Microsoft introduces Windows 2.0 in December 9.

1987: Sun Microsystems introduces its first workstation based on a RISC

microprocessor.

1987: Microsoft Shares hits $100 per share.

1988: Creative Labs introduces the SoundBlaster, a sound card for the PC

1989: Intel announces the 80486 microprocessor with over one million transistors.

1989: The worldwide number of computers in use surpasses 100M units.

1989: Grid introduces a laptop computer with a touch sensitive pad that recognizes
handwriting – the GridPad, the first pen-based computer.

1990: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.0 a completely new version of Microsoft

Windows. The version will sell more than 3 million copies in one year.

1990: Microsoft's fiscal year revenue ending 6/30/90 exceeds $1B and becomes
the first company to do so.

1990 Norton sells his software business to Symantec

1990 GSM standard is defined

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1990 Archie, the first search engine is introduced on September 10

1991 Linux is introduced by Linus Torvald in 1991.

1991: Notebook PCs are introduced by most PC vendors.

1991: The Federal Trade Commission launches an investigation into Microsoft's

business practices.

1991 The World Wide Web is launched to the public August 6, 1991. Tim Berners-
Lee, a scientist at the European Partial Physics Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva

1992: Intel says its next microprocessor will be called Pentium instead of 586.

1992 Microsoft acquires Fox Software in June, maker of FoxPro

1992 GeCAD is founded.

1993: Lotus announces Notes 3.0.

1993: Motorola start shipping the first PowerPC microprocessor.

1993: Fifty World Wide Web servers are known to exist as of January.

1993 President Bill Clinton puts the United States White House online with a
World Wide Web page and E-mail address for the President, Vice President and first
lady.

1993 Mosaic is released, the first widely used graphical World Wide Web browser.

1993: Intel releases the Pentium Processor. The processor is a 60 MHz processor,
incorporates 3.2 million transistors and sells for $878.00.

1993 Developed by IBM, Motorola and Apple the PowerPC processor for the Apple
Power Mac is introduced and later included in the Power Mac.

1993 The PC game DOOM by IdSoftware was released in December. Today

DOOM is thought of as a turning point for first person shooters and for games in
general.

1994 Netscape is found by Marc Andreesen and James H. Clark.

1994 YAHOO (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle) is created by two

University Ph.D. candidates David Filo and Jerry Yang

1995 Apple allows other computer companies to clone its computer.

1995 Microsoft Releases Windows 95, within four days the software sells more than
1 million copies.

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1995 Amazon.com, one of the largest and well known e-commerce sites today
officially opens its website for the first time.

1995 EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar.

1995 Hotmail is started by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia.

1995 Lotus becomes a part of IBM.

1995 USB standard is released.

1996 Google is first developed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

1996 IBM computer Deep Blue beats chess master Garry Kasparov in two chess
matches.

1996 Sony enters the PC market with the release of VAIO.

1996 Apple Stock sinks to a 10-year low of less than $18.00 a share.

1996 Microsoft introduces the IntelliMouse also known as a wheel mouse.

1996 Apple buys NeXT Software Inc. for $400 million and acquires Steve Jobs,
Apple’s cofounder, as a consultant.

1997 IBM’s Deep Blue computer defeats world champion chess player Garry
Kasparov in their second six-game showdown, winning the tie-breaking game in
only 62 minutes.

1997 Bill Gates is now the world’s richest businessman.

1997 Microsoft releases Microsoft Office 97.

1997 Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple Computers Inc. and agrees to continue
creating software for Apple computers; in agreement Apple makes Microsoft
Internet Explorer its browser of choice for Macintosh computers.

1997 The Li-Ion battery begins being used for commercial uses.

1997 Microsoft acquires Hotmail a free e-mail service in December 1997

1998 Intel releases the Celeron processor.

1998 Bill Gates, is hit in the face with a cream pie.

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1998 During the demonstration of a pre-release copy of Windows 98 at Comdex Bill
Gates and an assistant demonstrate how to install a scanner. During the
demonstration Windows 98 caused an error message.

1998 Microsoft Windows 98 is officially released on June 25.

1998 Google is founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page September 7.

1998 Amazon purchases IMDb.

1998 Apple introduces the iMac; the iMac helps bring Apple back on the computer
maps as a very easy and friendly computer, the best sold computers in the first
year. ‘I’ prefix appears.

1999 The Intel Pentium III 500 MHz is released.

1999 On December 1, 1999 the most expensive Internet domain was sold by Marc
Ostrofsky for $7.5 Million.

2000 Microsoft Bill Gates relinquishes his title as CEO to MS President Steve
Ballmer on January 13.

2000 Microsoft Windows 2000 is released February.

2000 On March 10, 2000 NASDAQ hits its record high and marks the turning
point of the dot-com boom.

2000 Microsoft releases Windows ME June 19.

2001 The man who practically invented the Silicon Valley success story, Hewlett-
Packard Co. co-founder William Hewlett, dies at his home, he was 87.

2001 April 20, Dell computers becomes the largest PC maker.

2001 Airlines begin to implement methods of gaining Internet access while flying.

2001 Hewlett Packard announces plans to buy Compaq on September sixth.

2001 Apple introduces the Mac OS X and iPod (10 models till now).

2001 Microsoft Windows XP home and professional editions are released October
25.

2002 Approximately 1 billion PCs have been shipped worldwide since the
mid-'70s, according to a study released by consulting firm Gartner.

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2003 Mozilla Foundation is founded in July 2003.

2003 Apple launches Power MacIntosh G5, first PC on 64 bits processing; silent
cooler, silver case, 8GB RAM.

2003 iTunes, Apple’s online music store (5 mil. Songs, 400 movies, 350 shows). Sold over
2,5B songs, over 1.3M movies.
2004 Google announces Gmail on April 1.
2004 IBM sells its computing division to Lenovo Group for $1.75 billion.
2005 YouTube is founded.
2005 eBay acquired Skype for approximately $2.6billion.
2006 Mac offers capability of installing Windows on Mac.
2006 On January 5, 2006 Intel introduces the Core Duo.
2006 On July 27, 2006 Intel introduces the Core 2 Duo processors.
2006 The Intel Core 2 Extreme is first released on July 29, 2006.
2006 On November 14, 2006 Microsoft released its portable Zune media player.
2007 Apple announces in January 1, 2007 that it will drop computer from its name as it
becomes a company who deals with more than computers.
2007 Apple introduces the iPhone to the public at the January Macworld Conference &
Expo (released to the public, June 29).
2007 Microsoft releases Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 to the general public
January 30.
2007 Amazon.com releases the first Kindle in the United States November 19.
2007 Google releases Android in November.
2007 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.5 code named Leopard, October 26.
2007 The HD player war comes to an end when HD DVD calls it quit, making Blu-ray the
victor.
2008 Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.6 code named Snow Leopard on June 9.

2008 Apple introduces its latest line of Apple iMac computers on August 28.
2009 Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E7600 (3M Cache, 3.06 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)
May 31.
2009 Microsoft releases Windows 7 on October 22.
2009 Microsoft releases MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials), a free antivirus and
malware protection utility, on September 30, 2009
2010 Apple introduces the iPad on January 27.

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2010 Apple introduces the iPhone 4 on June 24.
2010 RIM introduces PlayBook - the BlackBerry tablet on 27 September.

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