COMPUTER DEVELOPMENT
HISTORIC TIMELINE

2400 BC

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

500 BC

Panini: the Indian Mathematician introduces the forerunner to modern formal language theory
 

300 BC

Pingala: invents the binary number system
 

87 BC

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

60 AD

Heron of Alexandria: invents machines which are able to follow a series of instructions
 

724

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: invents a system of moveable rods (Napier's Rods) based on logarithms which were able to multiply, divide and calculate square and cube roots
 

1622

William Oughtred: develops the slide rule (it was circular in shape)
 

1623

Calculating Clock:  is invented by Wilhelm Schickard
 

1642

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

1671

Gottfried Leibniz: becomes known as one of the founding fathers of calculus
 

1801

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: designs his first mechanical computer
 

1834

Analytical Engine: The Analytical Engine was invented by Charles Babbage
 

1835

Morse code: is invented by Samuel Morse
 

1848

Boolean algebra: is devised by George Boole
 

1853

Tabulating Machine: is invented by Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard
 

Internet
Timeline

1869

William Stanley Jevons: designs a practical logic machine
 

1878

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

1880

Alexander Graham Bell: invents the telephone called the Photophone
 

1884

Comptometer: The Comptometer which is operated by pressing keys is developed by Dorr E. Felt
 

1890

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

1895

Guglielmo Marconi: develops radio signals
 

1896

Tabulating Machine Company:  is formed by Herman Hollerith which later becomes IBM
 

1898

Nikola Tesla: invents the remote control
 

1906

Lee De Forest: devises the first electronic tube
 

1911

IBM: IBM is formed on June 15, 1911
 

Computing
Gadget
Timeline

1923

Philo Farnsworth: devises the first fuly electronic television
 

1924

John Logie Baird:  invents the Electro Mechanical television system

Walther Bothe: develops the logic gate

1930

Vannevar Bush: develops a partly electronic Difference Engine (the precursor to the digital computer)
 

1931

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

1937

Alan Turing: develops the concept of a theoretical computing machine
 

1938

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

1939

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

Hewlett Packard:  William Hewlett and David Packard start their computer company

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 code-breaking machine Colossus

1944

Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper: design the MARK series of computers at Harvard University
 

1945

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

Computer Bug: the term computer ‘bug’ is first used by Grace Hopper

Internet
Development
Timeline

1946

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: invents the transistor at Bell Labs

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

1948

Andrew Donald Booth: invents magnetic drum memory

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

1949

Claude Shannon: builds the first machine that plays chess

Howard Aiken: develops the Harvard-MARK III

1950

Hideo Yamachito: creates the  first electronic computer in Japan

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) is 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: develop the FORTRAN Computer Programming Language
 

1955

Bell Labs: introduces its first transistor computer

1956

Optical fibre is invented by  Basil Hirschowitz, C. Wilbur Peters, and Lawrence E. Curtiss

11 Years
Of
Gadgets

1957

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 Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce

1959

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

Web
Technology
Timeline

1961

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

1962

The first computer game:  the Spacewar Computer Game is created 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"

Influential
Technology
Timeline

1967

Floppy Disk: IBM creates the first floppy disk

1969

Seymour Cray: develops the CDC 7600, the first supercomputer

Gary Starkweather: invents the laser printer whilst working with Xerox

ARPANET:  The U.S. Department of Defence sets up the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) with the intention of creating a computer network that can withstand any type of disaster. It becomes the first building block for what the internet is has become today

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: is invented by  Ray Tomlinson

Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD ):is developed by  James Fergason

Pocket calculator: is invented by Sharp Corporation

Floppy Disk: is created 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.

US Computer
History
Timeline

1973

Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs: 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: The Altair 8800 is developed by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) and the first personal home computer is released on 23 Jan, 1975

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

1976

Apple: Apple Computers is founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs on 1 Apr 1976 (April Fools Day)

1977

Apple Computer’s Apple II, the first personal computer with colour graphics, is demonstrated

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

Video
Game
Timeline

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: the WordPerfect Corporation introduces WordPerfect 1.0 a word processing program

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

SMTP: SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is introduced for the first time

1983

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

Domain Name System (DNS): is 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.

Microsoft Windows: is 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 on 24 Jan, 1984

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

Dell Computer is founded in Austin Texas on 3 May, 1984

1985

Paul Brainard introduces Pagemaker for the Macintosh creating the desktop publishing field

Nintendo: The Nintendo Entertainment System makes its debut.

Microsoft Windows 1.0 is introduced on 19 Nov, 1985 and is initially sold for $100.00

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

The World: the first commercial Internet dial-up access provider comes online on 20 Sep, 1990

1991

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

Microsoft releases Windows 3.0 on 20 Sep, 1990

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 is created in April, 1994.

1995

Java is introduced

Amazon: Amazon.com is founded by Jeff Bezos on 20 Sep, 1995

EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar on 20 Sep,1995

Hotmail is started by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia on 20 Sep, 1995

1996

WebTV: s introduced for the first time

The DVD Video format is  first introduced by Toshiba in Japan in November, 1996
 

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

Apple Power Book G3 is released on 20 Sep, 1998

2001

Xbox: Bill Gates introduces the Xbox on 7 Jan, 2001

Windows XP: is launched on 20 Sep, 2001

2002

Approximately 1 billion PCs have been sold

PayPal is acquired by eBay

2003

iTunes is launched on 9 Jan, 2003

Skype is launched on 20 Aug, 2003

2004

Facebook is first launched on 20 Sep, 2004

Firefox 1.0 is released on 9 Nov, 2004

Blizzard's World of Warcraft game, the most popular and successful MMORPG is released 23 Nov, 2004

2005

The blu-ray is first announced and introduced on 4 Jan, 2006.

YouTube begins on 14 Feb, 2005

Xbox360 is released on 20 Feb, 2005

eBay acquires Skpe on September 12, 2005

2006

iPhone: the first iPhone is released on 29 Jun, 2006

SCE releases Play Station 3 on 11 Nov, 2006

Nintendo releases Wii on 19 Nov, 2006

2007

Windows Vista is released 30 Jan, 2007

Netbook: Asus released first Eee PC (netbook) on 16 Oct, 2007

2008

First Android OS and Android Smartphone is released on 21 Oct, 2008

2009

Windows 7 is released on 22 Oct, 2009

2010

The iPad is released on 3 Apr, 2010

2011

Microsoft exceeds $1 billion in sales and becomes the first company to do so

2012

 
Apple introduces the iPhone 5
 

Microsoft Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface is released October 26, 2012

Apple introduces the iPad mini October 23, 2012

The number of smart phones worldwide reaches 1 billion
 

2013

Microsoft releases Windows 8.1 on October 18, 2013

Sony releases the PS4 November 15, 2013

 Apple outsells Windows PCs globally for the first time
 

2014

Apple introduces the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch on September 9

Microsoft announces on September 30 the next version of Windows, which will be called Windows 10

Android version 5.0 (Lollipop) released November 3
 

2015

Microsoft releases Windows 10 on July 29

Android version 6.0 (Marshmallow) released October 5

Microsoft releases the Surface Book on October 26
 

2016

Google releases Android version 7.0 (Nougat) August 22

On September 16, Apple announces the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
 

2017

Apple introduced the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 plus, with a new edge-to-edge iPhone X with Face ID on September 12

On November 14 Mozilla announced the release of Firefox Quantum

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) begins developing a new "Molecular Informatics" program that uses molecules as computers.
 

2018

Apple introduces the Apple HomePod

The European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) law comes into effect on May 25

On June 4, Microsoft announces it would acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion

On October 28 BM announce its plans to acquire Red Hat for approximately $34 billion
 

2019

On January 9, Lexar announces the first SD card which can store 1 terabyte

The first folding smartphones are introduced in February by Samsung (Galaxy Fold) and Huawei (Mate X)

Disney+ is  introduced

IBM Q System One, the first commercial quantum computer from IBM, is announced

Google makes cloud gaming mainstream with Stadia

IPv4 internet addresses are exhausted

Google begins drone based deliveries via Google Wing 
 

2020

On January 14, Windows 7 reached EOL (end-of-life) and Microsoft ceases providing any support or security updates for Windows 7

On January 16, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, joined the "four-comma club," achieving a market valuation over $1 trillion. The other two members of the club at the time were Apple ($1.3 trillion) and Microsoft ($1.2 trillion). The next closest company, Amazon ($930 billion), briefly joined the club in 2018

In early February, the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus causes  significant disruption to the worldwide technology industry. Google announces the temporary closure of all offices in mainland China, and all Apple stores in China are also closed indefinitely. Companies including Qualcomm, Nintendo, and Facebook Oculus announce major losses in production from their factories located in China. The Chinese government reports a 50% decrease in smartphone sales

On February 4, Twitter announces a commitment to detect and label deep-fakes, and other deceptive media, on its social media platform

In May, Giphy is purchased by Facebook