A Brife Computer History

B.C.
In 300 B.C. the counting board much like the later abacus is believed to be first used by the Babylonians circa. By 500 B.C. the abacus much like the device we know today begins being used.

0-1599
In 1502 Peter Henlein, a craftsman from Nuremberg Germany, creates the first watch.

1600-1799
In 1600 William Gilbert coins the term electricity from the Greek word elecktra. A system called "Napiers Bones," is introduced in 1617 by John Napier, it was made from horn, bone or ivory the device allowed the capability of multiplying by adding numbers and dividing by subtracting. In 1622 the circular slide rule is invented by William Oughtred. The first known workable mechanical calculating machine is invented by Germanys Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. Frances Blaise Pascal invents a machine, called the Pascaline by 1642, that can add, subtract, and carry between digits. By 1674 Germanys Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz creates a machine that can add, subtract, multiply and divide automatically. In 1774 The first telegraph is built.

1800-1899
By 1804 Frances Joseph-Marie Jacquard completes his fully automated loom that is programmed by punched cards. Thomas de Colmar creates the first reliable, useful and commercially successful calculating machine in 1820. in 1821 Charles Babbage invents the Difference Engine. Samuel Morse invents a code in 1838 (later called Morse code) that used different numbers to represent the letters of the English alphabet and the then digits. In 1868 Christopher Sholes invents the typewriter in the United States utilizing the QWERTY keyboard. By 1883 American Thomas Edison discovers the Edison effect, in which an electric current flows through a vacuum. In 1888 William S. Burroughs patents a printing adding machine. In 1896 Herman Hollerith starts the Tabulating Machine Company, the company later becomes the well-known computer company IBM (International Business machines). By 1897 German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun invents the Cathode-Ray Oscilloscope. 1900-1939 In 1921 Czech playwright Karel Capek coins the term "robot" in the 1921 play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots). Tabulating Machine Company is renamed in 1924 to to IBM. The first publicly demonstrated TV is demonstrated in 1927 at Bell Telephone Laboratories.Germanys Konrad Zuse creates the Z1 in 1936, one of the first binary digital computers and a machine that could be controlled through a punch tape. In 1936 Dvorak keyboard is developed. By 1937 Iowa State Colleges John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry begin work on creating the binary-based ABC (Atanasoft-Berry Computer). Considered by most to be the first electronic digital computer, and prototype was created by 1939. HP 200A is created 1938 by the company now known as Hewlett Packard. in 1939 George Stibitz completes the Complex Number Calculator capable of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing complex numbers. This device provides a foundation for digital computers.

1940-1946
In 1941 German Konrad Zuse finishes the Z3, a fully operational calculating machine. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first general-purpose electronic digital calculator begins to be constructed in 1943. This computer by most is considered to be the first electronic computer. it was completed in 1946. In 1944 The 'Harvard-IBM MARK I' a large programmable-controlled calculating machine provides vital calculations for the U.S. Navy. Grace Hopper becomes its programmer. By 1945 The Von Neumann Architecture is introduced in John von Neumann's report of the EDVAC. The term bug as computer bug was termed by Grace Hopper in 1945, when programming the MARK II.

1947
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley invent the first transistor at the Bell Laboratories. F.C. Williams memory system is now in working order. ISO is founded.

1948
IBM builds the SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator). The computer contains 12,000 tubes. Andreew Donald Booth creates magnetic drum memory, which is two inches long and two inches wide and capable of holding 10 bits per inch. The 604 multiplying punch, based upon the vacuum tube technology, is produced by IBM.

1949
Claude Shannon builds the first machine that plays chess at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Harvard-MARK III, the first of the MARK machines to use an internally stored program and indirect addressing, goes into operations again under the direction of Howard Aiken. The EDSAC performs its first calculation on May 6, 1949. The small-scale electronic machine (SSEM) is fully operational at Manchester University.

1950
The first electronic computer is created in Japan by Hideo Yamachito. The enhanced Z4 is installed by Konrad Suse. Alan Turing publishes his paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence in October. This paper helps create the Turing Test. The first business computer, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) is completed by T. Raymond Thompson, John Simmons and their team at Lyons Co.

1951
The first commercial computer, the "First Ferranti MARK I" is now functional at Manchester University. The first ISO is published with the title, "Standard reference temperature for industrial length measurement". UNIVAC I was introduced. The EDVAC begins performing basic tasks.

1952
Fairly reliable working magnetic drum memories for use in computers begin to be sold by Andrew Donald Booth and his father. Alexander Sandy Douglas created the first graphical computer game of Tic-Tac-Toe on a EDSAC known as "OXO".

1953
IBM introduces the first IBM computer, the 701. A magnetic memory smaller and faster than existing vacuum tube memories is built at MIT. The IBM 701 becomes available to the scientific community. A total of 19 are produced and sold.