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Joseph Jacquard
Joseph Marie Jacquard of France invents a loom that uses punched wooden cards to automatically weave fabric designs. Early computers would use the same type of technology. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage has an idea of making a steam-driven machine that could calculate tables of numbers. It ended up being a failure but it gave an idea to others about creating a machine that could calculate by itself. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
Herman Hollerith
Hollerith invents a machine to calculate a USA census and does it in only 3 years which ends up saving the United States government $5 million. He ends up being the creator of the company IBM. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
J.V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry
Atanasoff and Clifford Berry design a computer that can calculate 29 equations at the same time. This marks the 1st time a computer is able to store information on its main memory. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
John Mauchly and J. Preseper Eckert
Two professors, Mauchly and Eckert create the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator or ENIAC. It is considered the first digital computer and takes up a 20-foot by 40-foot room and has 18,000 vacuum tubes. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
Frederic Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Toothill
The first computer program to run on a computer was invented by Williams, Kilburn, and Geoff Toothill. It consisted of only 17 instructions but paved the way for the future of programming. http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/ -
Grace Hopper
Hopper develops the first computer language, which ends up becoming known as COBOL. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
John Backus
A new computer program called FORTRAN is created by Backus. It is a high level program, but very user friendly. http://visual.ly/history-computer-programming -
Steve Russell
Space Wars is invented and becomes the first compute game ever, but didn't get Steve Russell, the inventor, any profit. http://visual.ly/history-computer-programming -
Douglas Engelbart
Engelbart shows off a prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse and a graphical user interface. This marks the beginning of computers becoming accessible to normal people. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
HP's first computer
HP creates its first computer known as the 2116A. It is the first use of integrated circuits in a product sold to everyone not just scientists. http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/ -
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
Jobs and Wozniak start Apple Computers on April Fool’s Day and come out with the Apple I which is the first computer with a single-circuit board. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
IBM
The first IBM personal computer which is code-named “Acorn,” It is introduced and it uses Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system. It has an Intel chip, two floppy disks and an optional color monitor. It popularized the term PC. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
Microsoft
Microsoft announces its creation Windows, as a response to Apple’s growing popularity. Commodore unveils the Amiga 1000, which features advanced audio and video capabilities. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html -
Internet Society
The Internet Society is created and the World Wide Web made its debut. http://visual.ly/history-computer-programming -
Japan
The Japanese government makes a super-computer that costed $600 million to make. It was made to track earthquake patterns and was the fastest super-computer from 2002-2004. http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/ -
IBM super computer
IBM introduced a super computer that was the first to reach 1 petaflop. It could produce 3D images and was the main processor for the PlayStation 3 http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/