Computer History Timeline

This Computer History Timeline is meant to provide a general overview of the famous people, inventions, discoveries and events involved in the development of the computer.

2400 BC Abacus: The abacus, the first known calculator, was invented in Babylonia

500 BC Panini: Introduced the forerunner to modern formal language theory

300 BC Pingala: Pingala invented the binary number system

87 BC Antikythera Mechanism: Built in Rhodes to track movement of the stars

60 AD Heron of Alexandria: Heron of Alexandria invents machines which follow a series of instructions

724 Liang Ling-Can: Liang Ling-Can invents the first fully mechanical clock

1492 Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci depict inventions such as flying machines, including a helicopter, the first mechanical calculator and one of the first programmable robots


1614 John Napier: 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: William Oughtred develops slide rules

1623 Calculating Clock: Invented by Wilhelm Schickard

1642 Blaise Pascal: Blaise Pascal invents the the "Pascaline", a mechanical adding machine

1671 Gottfried Leibniz: Gottfried Leibniz is known as one of the founding fathers of calculus

1801 Joseph-Marie Jacquard: Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents an automatic loom controlled by punched cards


1820 Arithmometer: The Arithmometer was the first mass-produced calculator invented by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar


1822 Charles Babbage: Charles Babbage designs his first mechanical computer

1834 Analytical Engine: The Analytical Engine was invented by Charles Babbage

1835 Morse code: Samuel Morse invents Morse code

1848 Boolean algebra: Boolean algebra is invented by George Boole

1853 Tabulating Machine: Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard invent the Tabulating Machine

1869 William Stanley Jevons: William Stanley Jevons designs a practical logic machine

1878 Ramon Verea: Ramon Verea invents a fast calculator with an internal multiplication table

1880 Alexander Graham Bell: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone called the Photophone

1884 Comptometer: The Comptometer is an invention of Dorr E. Felt which is operated by pressing keys

1890 Herman Hollerith: Herman Hollerith invents a counting machine which increment mechanical counters

1895 Guglielmo Marconi: Radio signals were invented by Guglielmo Marconi

1896 Tabulating Machine Company: Herman Hollerith forms the Tabulating Machine Company which later becomes IBM

1898 Nikola Tesla: Remote control was invented by Nikola Tesla

1906 Lee De Forest: Lee De Forest invents the electronic tube

1911 IBM: IBM is formed on June 15, 1911

1923 Philo Farnsworth: Television Electronic was invented by Philo Farnsworth

1924 John Logie Baird: Electro Mechanical television system was invented by John Logie Baird

Walther Bothe: Walther Bothe develops the logic gate

1930 Vannevar Bush: Vannevar Bush develops a partly electronic Difference Engine

1931 Kurt Godel: Kurt Godel publishes a paper on the use of a universal formal language

1937 Alan Turing: Alan Turing develops the concept of a theoretical computing machine

1938 Konrad Zuse: Konrad Zuse creates the Z1 Computer a binary digital computer using punch tape

1939 George Stibitz: George Stibitz develops the Complex Number Calculator - a foundation for digital computers

Hewlett Packard: William Hewlett and David Packard start Hewlett Packard

John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry: John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry develop the ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer) prototype

1943 Enigma: Adolf Hitler uses the Enigma encryption machine

Colossus: Alan Turing develops the the code-breaking machine Colossus

1944 Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper: Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the MARK series of computers at Harvard University

1945 ENIAC: John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly: John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly develop the ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)

Computer Bug: The term computer 'bug' as computer bug was first used by Grace Hopper


1946 F.C. Williams: F.C. Williams develops his cathode-ray tube (CRT) storing device the forerunner to random-access memory (RAM)

1947 Pilot ACE: Donald Watts Davies joins Alan Turing to build the fastest digital computer in England at the time, the Pilot ACE

William Shockley: William Shockley invents the transistor at Bell Labs

Douglas Engelbart: Douglas Engelbart theorises on interactive computing with keyboard and screen display instead of on punchcards

1948 Andrew Donald Booth: Andrew Donald Booth invents magnetic drum memory

Frederic Calland Williams & Tom Kilburn: Frederic Calland Williams & Tom Kilburn develop the SSEM "Small Scale Experimental Machine" digital CRT storage which was soon nicknamed the "Baby"

1949 Claude Shannon: Claude Shannon builds the first machine that plays chess

Howard Aiken: Howard Aiken develops the Harvard-MARK III

1950 Hideo Yamachito: The first electronic computer is created in Japan by Hideo Yamachito.

Alan Turing: Alan Turing publishes his paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence which helps create the Turing Test.

1951 LEO: T. Raymond Thompson and John Simmons develop the first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) at Lyons 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 & John W. Mauchly

EDVAC: The EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) begins performing basic tasks. Unlike the ENIAC, it was binary rather than decimal

1953 The IBM 701 becomes available and a total of 19 are sold to the scientific community.

1954 John Backus & IBM: John Backus & IBM develop the FORTRAN Computer Programming Language

1955 Bell Labs introduces its first transistor computer.

1956 Optical fiber was invented by Basil Hirschowitz, C. Wilbur Peters, and Lawrence E. Curtiss

1957 Sputnik I and Sputnik II: Sputnik I and Sputnik II are launched by the Russians

1958 ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and NASA is formed

Silicon chip: The first integrated circuit, or silicon chip, is produced by the US Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce

1959 Paul Baran: Paul Baran theorises on the "survivability of communication systems under nuclear attack", digital technology and symbiosis between humans and machines

1960 COBOL: The Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) programming language is invented.

1961 Unimate: General Motors puts the first industrial robot, Unimate, to work in a New Jersey factory.

1962 The first computer game: 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 Word processor: IBM introduces the first word processor

BASIC: John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Language (BASIC)

1965 Hypertext: Andries van Dam and Ted Nelson coin the term "hypertext"

1967 Floppy Disk: IBM creates the first floppy disk 1969 Seymour Cray: Seymour Cray develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer

Gary Starkweather: Gary Starkweather invents the laser printer whilst working with Xerox

ARPANET: 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.


1970 RAM: Intel introduces the world's first available dynamic RAM ( random-access memory) chip and the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004.

1971 E-mail: E-mail was invented by Ray Tomlinson

Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD ): Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD ) was invented by James Fergason

Pocket calculator: Pocket calculator was invented by Sharp Corporation

Floppy Disk: Floppy Disk was invented by David Noble with IBM - Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility.

1972 First Video Game: Atari releases Pong, the first commercial video game

The CD: The compact disc is invented in the United States.

1973 Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs: Robert Metcalfe creates the Ethernet, a local-area network (LAN) protocol

Personal computer: The minicomputer Xerox Alto (1973) was a landmark step in the development of personal computers

Gateways: Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop gateway routing computers to negotiate between the various national networks

1974 SQL: IBM develops SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language ) now known as SQL

WYSIWYG: Charles Simonyi coins the term WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) to describe the ability of being able to display a file or document exactly how it is going to be printed or viewed

1975 Portable computers: Altair produces the first portable computer

Microsoft Corporation: The Microsoft Corporation was founded April 4, 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800

1976 Apple: Apple Computers was founded Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs 1977 Apple Computer's Apple II, the first personal computer with color graphics, is demonstrated

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

1978 Magnetic tape: The first magnetic tape is developed in the US

1979 Over half a million computers are in use in the United States.

1980 Paul Allen and Bill Gates: 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.

1981 Microsoft: MS-DOS Computer Operating System increases its success
1982 WordPerfect: WordPerfect Corporation introduces WordPerfect 1.0 a word processing program

Commodore 64: The Commodore 64 becomes the best-selling computer of all time.

SMTP: SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is introduced

1983 More than 10 million computers are in use in the United States

Domain Name System (DNS): Domain Name System (DNS) pioneered by Jon Postel, Paul Mockapetris and Craig Partridge. Seven 'top-level' domain names are initially introduced: edu, com, gov, mil, net, org and int.

Windows: Microsoft Windows introduced eliminating the need for a user to have to type each command, like MS-DOS, by using a mouse to navigate through drop-down menus, tabs and icons

1984 Apple Macintosh: Apple introduces the Macintosh with mouse and window interface

Cyberspace: William Gibson coins the word cyberspace when he publishes Neuromancer

1985 Paul Brainard: Paul Brainard introduces Pagemaker for the Macintosh creating the desktop publishing field.

Nintendo: The Nintendo Entertainment System makes its debut.

1986 More than 30 million computers are in use in the United States. 1987 Microsoft introduces Microsoft Works

Perl: Larry Wall introduces Perl 1.0

1988 Over 45 million PCs are in use in the United States.

1990 The Internet, World Wide Web & Tim Berners-Lee: Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau propose a 'hypertext' system starting the modern Internet

Microsoft and IBM stop working together to develop operating systems

1991 The World Wide Web: The World Wide Web is launched to the public on August 6, 1991

1993 At the beginning of the year only 50 World Wide Web servers are known to exist

1994 The World Wide Web Consortium is founded by Tim Berners-Lee to help with the development of common protocols for the evolution of the World Wide Web

YAHOO: YAHOO is created in April, 1994.

1995 Java: Java is introduced

Amazon: Amazon.com is founded by Jeff Bezos

EBay: EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar

Hotmail: Hotmail is started by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia.

1996 WebTV: WebTV is introduced

1997 Altavista introduces its free online translator Babel Fish

Microsoft acquires Hotmail

1998 Google: Google is founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page on September 7, 1998

PayPal is founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin

2001 Xbox: Bill Gates introduces the Xbox on January 7th 2001.

2002 Approximately 1 billion PCs been sold

PayPal is acquired by eBay

2005 September 12: eBay acquires Skype 2006 Skype announces that it has over 100 million registered users.

Computer History Timeline

What Is The Importance of Application Development?

Application development is not as important to computer users as it once was, however, no business of any size can ignore the need to program its own applications. A business that programs its own applications knows it will get exactly the software package it needs. Of course, it also requires the business to hire programmers and do developing in house.
Application development is also important because it allows the business to keep up with changes in technology and sometimes changes in the law. Although COBOL is sneered at by programmers around the globe, many banks and governments still keep COBOL programmers on their payroll. They do so not because they expect new applications in the language, but because they need to make changes to existing code that works well for them.
While a private business will probably not try to write its own version of Microsoft Office or the OpenOffice suites, there is still a wide need for the specialized programmer. One of the fastest areas of programming today is website development. Website development allows a business to reach across multiple platforms and not worry much about what operating system is on the user's computer.
Application development allows a business to provide the tools the business needs for its operations. It can also allow a user to do things like calculate his mortgage payments or play games that might serve as advertising for the businessmen. The possibilities are limited only by the imaginations of the programmers, the people who supervise them, and in some cases, the users. Often the best ideas will come from paying attention to the users and what they say they want. Any good manager or programmer knows to treat what users say with mistrust, however.
Application development is not as important to computer users as it once was, however, no business of any size can ignore the need to program its own applications. A business that programs its own applications knows it will get exactly the software package it needs. Of course, it also requires the business to hire programmers and do developing in house.

The COBOL Legacy Language

COmmon Business-Oriented Language, commonly-known as COBOL, has been around for almost 50 years. But, the utilization and support for the programming language still remains.

COBOL is a product of the shared initiatives of several government offices and computer manufacturers of its day, in the hope of developing a sophisticated language for business, finance and administrative systems and to utilize the technological hardware and software designs available during the time COBOL's use was at its peak.

COBOL, through the years, has developed a massive fan base of computer manufacturers, programmers and users, and is still being considered as one of the most widely used computer languages by:

* government agencies
* military offices
* commercial enterprises
* educational institutions
* Operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, IBM, as well as Unix and Linux.

There are many reasons why people coming from various sectors of private and government institutions prefer using COBOL over other computer languages, even today.

1. COBOL has been a language-of-choice for business, financial and administrative systems worldwide.

2. COBOL is capable of dealing with a diverse set of processing procedures.

3. COBOL is one of the most widely used computer languages for computer interaction or client-server communication.

4. Throughout the years COBOL has developed a very large user base and hundreds and thousands of programmers have been immersed in the COBOL language. A number of programmers are capable of providing support and maintenance for systems developed using the COBOL language.

5. A lot of mission-critical business systems around the world have been developed using the COBOL language.

6. COBOL is very easy to learn, to maintain and to document. COBOL is a self-documenting language system and has been always been praised for its readability.

7. COBOL is very portable, and is cross-platform efficient. It can be moved around different standard hardware and software systems with little or no risk of losing valuable data.

8. COBOL is a scalable language, and it can be developed using modern compilers and can even be modified into newer business applications using proper legacy modernization procedures.

As the features and advantages of using the COBOL language have been highlighted above, there are also few factors raised by modern-day programmers and users against the use of the COBOL language.

a. A typical file or data-oriented business application for a government agency may contain more than one million / 1,000,000 lines of code. This signifies that a COBOL application is not only bulky but also very time-consuming to develop.
b. Due to its very rigid format, COBOL is not preferred for scientific applications.
c. As newer technologies are introduced a lot of expectations are being raised on the COBOL language to deliver a more user-friendly approach, as well as faster and more enhanced capabilities for calculations and data organization. It will take a lot of time, effort and money to be able to develop or meet those requirements using the COBOL language.

The Legacy Modernization solution

Building around the disadvantages of the COBOL language while enhancing its stable features to meet the demands of a more efficient, speedy, and quality-driven technological revolution, a lot of users are looking towards modern languages like JSP, HTML and Java to answer the questions and resolve disappointments of users regarding the limited functionality of the COBOL language to adapt to this rapidly evolving computer age.

There are several reasons why IT managers and programmers embrace the legacy modernization choice when dealing with a legacy language system such as COBOL:

a. Opportunities for more rapid and quality-driven architectures force users to seek more flexible languages that can easily adapt to more modern hardware, while at the same time maintain compatibility with older hardware systems.
b. Legacy modernization provides an opportunity to utilize and expand the life of COBOL applications, while ensuring that business functions and structures are not only retained but also optimized for use with more modern business architectures.
c. Legacy modernization or migration is a preferred step for companies that are going into mergers or are willing to enforce measures to easily adapt to modern systems and language environments, with the hope of minimizing expenses, improving application performance, while limiting risks and ensure a more competitive advantage in the global market.

ResQSoft, Inc. is one of the top companies focused on rapidly and efficiently creating and re-developing software code and applications. ResQSoft uses a systematic approach to view functionality in different languages as generic items, that recur over and over from one system to the next.

ResQSoft is capable of handling old and new applications and languages. Legacy modernization and legacy migration are some of the services handled by ResQSoft.

For fast and high-quality legacy modernization service, please visit the ResQSoft website at http://www.ResQSoft.com