Mechanical Era 2400 B.

C1940
2400 BC
The abacus was invented in
Babylonia
500 BC
Panini Introduced the
forerunner to modern formal
language theory
300 BC
Pingala invented the binary
number system
60 AD
Heron of Alexandria invents
machines which follow a
series of instructions
724 AD
Liang Ling-Can invents the
first fully mechanical clock
1623
The Calculating Clock
was Invented by Wilhelm
Schickard.
1642
Blaise Pascal invents the the
"Pascaline
1671
Gottfried Leibniz created the
stepped reckoner.
1822
Charles Babbage designs the
difference machine
1834
The Analytical Engine was
invented by Charles Babbage
1853
Per Georg Scheutz and his son
Edvard invent the Tabulating
Machine
1878
Ramon Verea invents a fast
calculator with an internal
multiplication table
1880
Alexander Graham Bell
invents the Photophone
1884
The Comptometer is an
invention of Dorr E. Felt
1890
Herman Hollerith invents a
counting machine

1896
Herman Hollerith forms the
Tabulating Machine Company
which later becomes IBM
1898
Remote control was invented
by Nikola Tesla
1906
Lee De Forest invents the
electronic tube
1911
IBM is formed on June 15,
1911
1923
Television Electronic was
invented by Philo Farnsworth

1943
Alan Turing develops Colossus
1944
Howard Aiken and Grace
Hopper designed the MARK
series of computers
1945
John Presper Eckert & John W.
Mauchly: John Presper Eckert
& John W. Mauchly develop
the ENIAC ( Electronic
Numerical Integrator and
Computer)
1945
The term computer bug was
first used by Grace Hopper

1924
Walther Bothe develops the
logic gate

1946
F.C. Williams develops his
cathode-ray tube (CRT)
storing device

1924
Electro Mechanical television
system was invented by John
Logie Baird

1947
Donald Watts Davies joins
Alan Turing to build the Pilot
ACE

1930
Vannevar Bush develops a
partly electronic Difference
Engine

1947
William Shockley invents the
transistor at Bell Labs

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

1947
Douglas Engelbart theorises
on interactive computing with
keyboard and screen display
instead of on punchcards

1937
Alan Turing develops the
concept of a theoretical
computing machine

1948
Andrew Donald Booth invents
magnetic drum memory

1938
Konrad Zuse creates the Z1
Computer
1939
George Stibitz develops the
Complex Number Calculator
1939
William Hewlett and David
Packard start Hewlett Packard
1939
John Vincent Atanasoff and
Clifford Berry develop the
ABC (Atanasoft-Berry
Computer) prototype
First Generation - 1940-1956
1943
Adolf Hitler uses the Enigma

1948
Frederic Calland Williams &
Tom Kilburn develop the SSEM
"Small Scale Experimental
Machine" digital CRT storage,
nicknamed the "Baby"
1949
Claude Shannon builds the
first machine that plays chess
1949
Howard Aiken develops the
Harvard-MARK III
1950
The first electronic computer
is created by Hideo
Yamachito.
1950
Alan Turing publishes his
paper Computing Machinery

and Intelligence which helps

create the Turing Test.

between humans and

machines

1951
T. Raymond Thompson and
John Simmons the Lyons
Electronic Office (LEO) at
Lyons Co.

1960
The Common BusinessOriented Language (COBOL)
programming language is
invented

1952
UNIVAC I (UNIVersal
Automatic Computer I) was
introduced - the first
commercial computer made in
the United States

1961
General Motors puts the first
industrial robot, Unimate, to
work.

1951
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 to the scientific
community.
1954
John Backus & IBM develop
the FORTRAN Computer
Programming Language
1955
Bell Labs introduces its first
transistor computer.
Second Generation - 19561963
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
1958
The first integrated circuit is
produced by the US Jack Kilby
& Robert Noyce
1959
Paul Baran theorises on the
"survivability of
communication systems under
nuclear attack", digital
technology and symbiosis

1962
The first computer game
Spacewar Computer Game
invented
1963
Douglas Engelbart invents
and patents the first
computer mouse
1963
The American Standard Code
for Information Interchange
(ASCII) is developed to
standardize data exchange
among computers.
Third Generation (1963-1971)
1964
IBM introduces the first word
processor
1964
John Kemeny and Thomas
Kurtz develop Beginners Allpurpose Symbolic Instruction
Language (BASIC)
1965
Andries van Dam and Ted
Nelson coin the term
"hypertext
1967
IBM creates the first floppy
disk
1969
Seymour Cray develops the
CDC 7600, the first
supercomputer
1969
Gary Starkweather invents
the laser printer

Intel introduces the world's

first available dynamic RAM
( random-access memory)
chip and the first
microprocessor, the Intel
4004.
Fourth Generation (1971-)
1971
E-mail was invented by Ray
Tomlinson
1971
Liquid Crystal Display ( LCD )
was invented by James
Fergason
Pocket calculator was
invented by Sharp
Corporation
1971
Floppy Disk was invented by
David Noble with IBM Nicknamed the "Floppy" for
its flexibility.
1972
Atari releases Pong, the first
commercial video game
1972
The compact disc is invented
in the United States.
1973
Robert Metcalfe creates the
Ethernet, a local-area network
(LAN) protocol
1973
The minicomputer Xerox Alto
(1973) was a landmark step in
the development of personal
computers
1973
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn
develop gateway routing
computers to negotiate
between the various national
networks
1974
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

1969
The U.S. Department of
Defense sets up the Advanced
Research Projects Agency
Network (ARPANET )..

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

1970

1975

Altair produces the first

portable computer
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
1979
Over half a million computers
are in use in the United
States.
1975
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 Computers was founded
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
1977
Apple Computers Apple II,
the first personal computer
with color graphics, is
demonstrated
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 DO
1981
MS-DOS Computer Operating
System increases its success

1982
WordPerfect Corporation
introduces WordPerfect 1.0 a
word processing program
1982
The Commodore 64 becomes
the best-selling computer of
all time.
1982 SMTP (Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol) is
introduced
1983

More than 10 million

computers are in use in the
United States
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 dropdown menus, tabs and icons
1983
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.
1984
William Gibson coins the word
cyberspace when he publishes
Neuromancer
1984
Apple introduces the
Macintosh with mouse and
window interface
1985
Paul Brainard introduces
Pagemaker for the Macintosh
creating the desktop
publishing field
1985
The Nintendo Entertainment
System makes its debut.
1986
More than 30 million
computers are in use in the
United States.

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
1994
YAHOO is created in April,
1994.
1995
Java is introduced
1995
Amazon.com is founded by
Jeff Bezos
1995
EBay is founded by Pierre
Omidyar
1995
Hotmail is started by Jack
Smith and Sabeer Bhatia
1996
WebTV is introduced
1997
Altavista introduces its free
online translator Babel Fish
1998 Google is founded by
Sergey Brin and Larry
Page on September 7, 1998

1987
Microsoft introduces Microsoft
Works

1998
PayPal is founded by Peter
Thiel and Max Levchin

1988
Over 45 million PCs are in use
in the United States.
1990
Microsoft and IBM stop
working together to develop
operating systems

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

1990
Tim Berners-Lee and Robert
Cailliau propose a 'hypertext'
system starting the modern
Internet
1991

2002
Approximately 1 billion PCs
been sold
2006
Skype announces that it has
over 100 million registered
users.