Nerd

The term "nerd" comes from an original spelling "knurd." The term is originated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the late 1940s. Students who party and rarely study are called "drunks," while students who are always studying are known as "knurds" (drunks spelled backwards). The TV show Happy Days gives the phrase its national popularity.
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The year the World Wide Web

1993 is the year the World Wide Web makes its prolific debut. In January 1993, there are only fifty web servers in existence. By October 1993, the number of web servers increases to approximately 500. Through the entire year of 1993, web use grows at a 341,634% annual growth traffic rate. The Word Wide Web is here!
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WiFi

The IEEE publishes the 802.11 networking standard in 1997 as an over-the-air interface between a wireless client and an access point. As the standard is worked into computers and peripherals, its use begins to climb, especially as a home networking product. The 802.11-compatible standard is later dubbed "WiFi" which helps further market and popularize the wireless networking technology.
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The first spell checker

In order to cope with a personal shortcoming, Stanford University researcher Les Earnest develops the first automated spell checker in 1966. Stand-alone spell checker programs eventually appear for CP/M computers in the late 1970s, followed by packages for the IBM PC in 1981. By the mid 1980s, the spell checker is a common feature in word processing programs.
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The C language

Bell Labs engineers Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie develop the C language in the early 1970s. Thompson first develops the language "B" based on the Basic Combined Programming Language (BCPL) and is used in UNIX system development. Ritchie builds on B in 1973 to create a new language called "C," which inherits Thompson's taste for concise syntax, high-level functionality, and detailed features.
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Apache

The Apache web server is established in February 1995 when a small group of webmasters begin coordinating updates and patches to the public domain NCSA Web server program. The first public release of Apache is delivered in April 1995. The Apache Software Foundation is formed and the Apache web server subsequently becomes one of the most widely deployed web server products in the world.
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Simula

Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard develop Simula at the Norwegian Computing Center in the mid 1960s. Simula is designed to process complex and intensive data for ship simulations. It introduces many key concepts of object-oriented programming including objects and classes, inheritance, and virtual functions. Simula is used as the basis for Bjarne Stroustrup's development of the C++ language.
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Usenet

Usenet's roots go back to 1979 when the idea of sharing information and news within a community of computer users is realized by two graduate students. They develop conferencing software and connect computers at Duke and the University of North Carolina. Usenet grows and subsequently turns into a network that connects tens of thousands of sites around the world, from mainframes to PCs.
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Spam

The term "spam" is believed to be derived from the Spam sketch on the BBC comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus. The sketch features a small restaurant in which every item on the menu includes Spam meat. With the commercialization of the Internet, the term was adopted to mean something excessive and undesirable (like the menu in the sketch) in the context of email and user group postings.
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FORTRAN

The FORTRAN programming language is developed at IBM in 1957. FORTRAN represents a major milestone in computing. The language provides a higher-level way to program, replacing machine and assembly code. FORTRAN catches on quickly as complex programming is done in hours instead of weeks. It is adopted by the scientific and military communities and is used extensively in the space program.
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Dbase

Jet Propulsion Laboratory programmer Jeb Long develops Dbase in the late 1970s. Long's file management program is written in FORTRAN and runs on a UNIVAC computer. A few years later, he works with Wayne Ratliff to create a PC version of the program, which they name Dbase. Dbase and subsequent releases become enormously popular, bringing database management to homes and small businesses.
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The Electric Pencil

Michael Shrayer develops a program that allows people to create, edit, store, retrieve and print documents on a personal computer. Completed in late 1976, his yearlong effort results in the first PC word processing program called The Electric Pencil. In 1979, Micropro International releases the first commercial descendant of The Electric Pencil, called WordStar.
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NLS

Douglas C. Engelbart and a group of Stanford Research Institute researchers demonstrate the online system NLS on December 9, 1968. Developing the project since 1962, NLS features such things as hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, and an x-y display coordinate system. Those on hand also see the debut of the computer mouse.
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IBM PC

IBM sells its personal computing division to Lenovo Group on December 8, 2004. The deal makes China-based Lenovo the third-largest PC maker in the world, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. For IBM, the deal ends a twenty-five year run in the PC market but gives them a partnership with Lenovo, providing a franchise in the world's fastest, and soon to be largest, information technology market.
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Flight Simulator

Bruce Artwick's newly formed company named subLOGIC releases Flight Simulator for the Apple II in 1979. The first flights featured 2-D line grid landscapes and simple instrument gages. The game is licensed to Microsoft in 1982 and evolves into one of the best-known software programs serving a worldwide community of virtual pilots with add-ons and upgrades.
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RadioShack

Brothers Theodore and Milton Deutschmann open a one-store retail and mail order operation in downtown Boston in 1921. They choose the name RadioShack, which is a term for the small, wooden structure that houses a ship's radio equipment. The Deutschmanns think the name is appropriate for a store that will supply the needs of radio officers aboard ships, as well as ham radio operators.
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Robots

The 1921 play "Rossum's Universal Robots" introduces the word "robot" to the English language. Czech playwright, novelist, and essayist Karel Capek coins the term as derived from the Czech word robota, meaning work or serf. The word robot usually conjures up images of clanking metal contraptions, however the robots in Capek's story are human-like droids.
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MySQL

Finnish programmer Michael Widenius develops the open source database product MySQL in 1996. MySQL becomes a popular alternative to other commercial SQL products due to its open source code and that it can be downloaded for free. Over time, MySQL registers millions of users and records tens of thousands of daily downloads, becoming a serious competitor to commercial database management systems.
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Computer graphics

Boeing Corporation art director William Fetter coins the term "computer graphics" in 1960. Fetter uses the phrase to describe new graphic methods he is pursuing during his aircraft cockpit design. One of the most memorable early computer graphic images from Fetter's project is that of a human figure, often referred to as the "Boeing Man."
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The AS/400

IBM introduces its AS/400 midrange system in 1988. Whereas most other minicomputer vendors are seeing their market eroded by PCs and client/server systems, IBM has reasonable success with its AS/400 series. By 1998, IBM is selling an AS/400 computer system to a customer every 12 minutes in a working day. In 2000, the AS/400 is renamed the iSeries server.
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Linux

Linux is created by Finnish computer scientist Linus Torvalds in 1991. Torvalds decides to rewrite Unix from scratch and give away his work for free. The ability to see the source code, to improve it, and share it with others inspires many programmers to dedicate sleepless nights to work on it. Linux is eventually improved to the point where it becomes more popular than many commercial Unix packages.
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H316 Kitchen Computer

Honeywell releases its H316 Kitchen Computer in 1969. At $10,600, this computer is marketed to the wealthy and savvy housewife. The computer requires about two weeks worth of programming to operate and can be programmed to keep track of various things like golf scores, investments, dinner menus, and membership lists of charity organizations.
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Stanford University

Stanford University creates the Stanford Industrial Park in Palo Alto, California in 1950. The goal is to create a center of high technology close to the university in order to raise money. This is the genesis of Silicon Valley, the world famous technology area that radiates outward from Stanford University and lies between the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west and the Coast Range to the southeast.
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CompuServe

CompuServe is founded in 1969 as a computer time-sharing service. In 1979, CompuServe becomes the first to offer electronic mail capabilities to personal computer users. One year later it becomes the first to offer real-time chat online. By 1982, the company is providing wide-area networking capabilities to corporate clients. Today, Compuserve is owned by America Online.
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Booting

Booting is the process that loads the operating system from the disk into the computer's memory. The term booting or bootstrapping is inspired by the legend of the Baron Munchhausen. Munchhausen was an 18th century German Nobleman who told tall tales about himself, including the ability to pull himself out of the sea by his bootstraps.
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The first Internet service provider

The world's first public Internet service provider is established in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1989. Software Tool & Die begins "The World ISP, A Public Information Utility," equipped with a Sun computer, six 2400 bps modems, homemade modem cables, and basic account-creation software. The first online customer logs on in November 1989.
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RFID

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) was developed during World War II. RFID transponders placed on an aircraft would give the appropriate response to an interrogating signal so that friendly aircraft could be distinguished from enemy aircraft. Today, RFID technology is being used in many applications including meds tracking, people and animal tracking, toll collections, and inventory control.
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BABAR experiment

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center's BABAR experiment maintains the largest known computer database on record. The experiment is a collaboration of 600 physicists observing collisions between subatomic particles to understand how matter shapes our universe. The experiment generates up to 500 gigabytes of data per day that is sent continuously to the experiment’s custom built database.
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The Lisa Computer

Apple Computer announces the Lisa Computer in 1983. Lisa officially stands for Logical Integrated Software Architecture. The Lisa's significance in computing history is that it is the first commercial computer with a GUI and mouse designed for the mass market. Although critically acclaimed, the Lisa generates relatively low sales numbers due to its $10,000 price tag.
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The History of Computers

A floating-point division bug is discovered in Intel's Pentium chip by University of Kentucky math professor Thomas Nicely in November 1994. The story circulates through the media leading attorney generals in eight states to file liability suits against Intel causing a public relations disaster for the company. Intel's first-ever chip recall results in a $475 million charge against company earnings.
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Computer science

"Computer science is not as old as physics; it lags by a couple of hundred years. However, this does not mean that there is significantly less on the computer scientist's plate than on the physicist's: younger it may be, but it has had a far more intense upbringing!" - Physicist Richard Feynman.
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Spammer files suit

Cyber Promotions files a lawsuit against America Online (AOL) in November 1996. The suit comes about as AOL blocks undeliverable junk e-mail generated by Cyber Promotions. The spammer files suit in U.S. district court and argues that it has a right to send junk e-mail and that AOL had no right to restrict its ability to send junk e-mail. The District Court rules in AOL’s favor in two separate decisions.
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Inkjet printers

IBM invents the first inkjet-based printer in 1976. It takes twenty years of research and incremental developments including Siemens "drop-on-demand" inkjet technology, HP's "thermal" technology, and Epson's "piezo-electric" technology to overcome the challenges of producing a practical and affordable commercial inkjet product. Hewlett Packard releases the first personal inkjet printer in 1988.
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The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Eric S. Raymond publishes his essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" in 1997. Based on his observations of the software industry and his own software management experiences, Raymond describes his "Bazaar" model for software development as the basis of Open Source Software. The paper is published as part of a book in 1999 and becomes the manifesto of the Open Source Software movement.
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2001: A Space Odyssey

The epic drama of adventure and exploration "2001: A Space Odyssey" is released in 1968. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the story depicts a space crew that sets off on a spaceship controlled by HAL 9000, a revolutionary computer system. HAL endangers the crew's lives for the sake of the programmed mission and must be overcome by the crew.
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Hypertext

Ted Nelson coins the term "Hypertext" in 1965. He foresees a future where millions of people will be publishing hypertext on a worldwide network at a time when few people understand the concept. His writings describe a system that would allow users to aggregate meaning in snippets, in the order of their choosing rather than to a pre-established structure fixed by the author.
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Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems is established in 1982 by Stanford University students Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy, Bill Joy and Andy Bechtolsheim. The company derives its name from "Stanford University Network" and delivers its first UNIX workstation design while the group is still attending Stanford. Sun quickly becomes a recognized vendor of technical workstations.
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Sydney J. Harris

"The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers." - Sydney J. Harris, American journalist.
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Computer Associates

Charles B. Wang starts Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) in 1976. CA's first product is called CA-SORT, which delivers full-function sort, merge and copy capabilities for the OS/390 market. CA develops a successful strategy of providing multi-platform software products for its customers. After going public in 1981, CA grows into a worldwide leader in technology products and services.
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The PCjr

IBM announces the PCjr in November 1983. Following the success of the IBM PC, IBM attempts to capture the home market with the IBM PCjr. The $1,300 computer has an 8088 processor, comes with a CGA monitor, and a single 5-1/4 inch floppy disk drive. Predicted to be a huge success, the computer fails to compete with other portables coming onto the market. The PCjr is discontinued in 1985.
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The 4004 CPU

Intel releases the 4004 CPU in November 1971. The 4004 is the first computer on a chip and ushers in the era of the microprocessor. The combination of memory and processor on a single chip dramatically reduces size and cost while increasing computer speed. This event is the latest in the evolution of the vacuum tube to the transistor to the integrated circuit.
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Spacewar

The world's first computerized video game, Spacewar, is developed by Steve Russell on a DEC PDP-1 computer at MIT in 1962. Spacewar is a multiplayer space-combat simulation inspired by Doc Smith's "Lensman" science fiction novels. The game has been essentially under constant development since 1962 and is still played today.
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Identity theft

In November 2002, Federal investigators charge three men in the largest case of identity theft in U.S. history. The case involves a massive identity theft scheme with more than 30,000 victims and and over $2.7 million in losses. The thefts take place within Teledata Communications, a Long Island, New York company that provides computer access to consumer credit reports.
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Election results

CBS Television is the first to use a computer to predict election results during the 1952 Presidential contest. By 8:30 election night, a UNIVAC computer predicts an electoral vote of 438 for Dwight D. Eisenhower and 93 for Adlai Stevenson. These numbers appear dubious to the CBS news staff and are not reported to viewers. The official electoral vote: 442 for Eisenhower, 89 for Stevenson.
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UNIX Programmer's Manual

The first edition of the UNIX Programmer's Manual is released on November 3, 1971. Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie compile the manual two years after the two Bell Telephone Labs programmers develop the original UNIX operating system. The manual is divided into seven sections and includes over sixty commands.
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NET Act

A twenty-two-year old senior at the University of Oregon is the first person to be convicted under the No Internet Theft Act (NET Act) in November 1999. The student is sentenced to two years of probation for making copies of software available for download from a university web site. A related 1999 study estimates that software piracy will account for nearly $12 billion in lost revenue for the software industry.
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Dr. Dobb's

Dennis Allison and Bob Albrecht publish the "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia" in late 1975. The name "Dobb's" comes from an attempt to put together Allison and Albrecht's first names. Shortened to Dr. Dobb's Journal, the newsletter evolves into the highly popular monthly publication for computer programmers and developers.
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Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 is the first comprehensive legislation in the U.S. to identify and provide for the prosecution of crimes committed through and against computer systems. In 1989, a Cornell University student becomes the first person prosecuted under the 1986 law for deploying a virus that shuts down computers at NASA, Purdue University and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
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The Mark 1

The Mark 1 computer is developed by Harvard graduate Howard H. Aiken at IBM in the early 1940s. Officially known as the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), the machine can add or subtract two numbers in three-tenths of a second, multiply them in four seconds, and divide them in ten seconds. The computer is 50 feet long, 8 feet tall, and weighs approximately 5 tons.
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The Internet

The Internet is born on October 29, 1969. UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock leads a team of engineers in sending the first message from one remote computer to another on ARPANET. The actual message sent from UCLA to the Stanford Research Institute is the text "lo."
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Computer science

Purdue University establishes the first formal computer science department and degree program in October 1962. Computer science had been taught at many universities prior to 1962, but students received degrees in other disciplines, usually mathematics or electrical engineering. The first computer science related courses were offered by Harvard University in the late 1940s.
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Computer generated film

Bell Telephone scientist Edward Zajac creates the first computer generated film in 1963. The film "Simulation of a two-giro gravity attitude control system" shows how the path of a satellite could be altered as it orbits the Earth. The animation is created on an IBM 7090 mainframe computer. Soon after, other scientific researchers begin to develop computer generated films to graphically describe their activities.
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The laser printer

Xerox researcher Gary Starkweather invents the laser printer in 1969. Starkweather uses a laser beam with the xerography process to create a laser printer method. Remarkably, Xerox shows little initial interest in his invention. Starkweather persists and continues to refine the laser printer technology. He completes the first working laser printer in 1971.
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The VAX

Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX computer is released on October 25, 1977 at the company's annual meeting of shareholders. VAX is an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension. It is the first commercially available 32 bit machine and a major milestone in computer history. The Vax is built from the ground-up along with its highly successful Virtual Memory System (VMS) operating system.
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CICS

Customer Information Control System (CICS), one of IBM's most durable and long-lasting products, is released in 1968. The architecture for the product allows it to be incorporated into new platforms over the ensuing years. Recent reports found that over 90% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies, and most state and national governments, rely on CICS for their core business functions.
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WordPerfect

The WordPerfect word processing program is written for Data General minicomputers in 1982 by Satellite Software International. The program is ported to the IBM PC as the company renames itself WordPerfect Corporation. The program's popularity takes off with WordPerfect 4.2 in 1986, and becomes the de facto standard word processor until the mid 1990s, when it is eclipsed by Microsoft Word.
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Sketchpad

Ph.D. student Ivan Sutherland uses the TX-2 computer at MIT to develop the Sketchpad computer program in 1963. Sketchpad is the first computer program to utilize a complete graphical user interface. It uses an x-y point display as well as a light pen. The program also pioneers the use of objects and instances, shedding light onto object oriented programming.
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Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Linux is released in October 1994. In need of new open source software products to sell, the ACC Corporation agrees to market and distribute Marc Ewing's Red Hat Linux product. As sales take off, the ACC Corp changes its name to Red Hat Software, Inc. Red Hat subsequently becomes the most popular brand of Linux in the world.
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Black Monday

On October 19, 1987, the S&P 500 loses 20.5%, the Dow Jones loses 22.6% and the NASDAQ goes down 11.3%, marking the largest one-day decline in stock market history. One of the major causes of the crash is the use of automated computer program trading. During the rapid decline, the markets are found to be controlled more by computers rather than by investor decisions.
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Google

Google transitions from a search engine into a multi-faceted information services company in 2002. Having increased its search engine capability to three billion web documents, the company sets a new course. In 2002, Google launches an enterprise search appliance application, Google News, an advertising key word program, and Froogle, a shopping search engine.
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Web banner ads

The inevitable occurs in October 1994: the first banner ad appears on a World Wide Web page. HotWired, an early and prolific website content creator, is credited with inventing the banner ad motif. The first banner ad is a 320 by 40 pixel graphic stating "Have you ever clicked your mouse here?" The ad appears on HotWired.com and is linked to the AT&T website.
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Computer memory

Dr. F.C. Williams develops the first computer memory storage system in the mid 1940s. In November 1946, he demonstrates the use of a cathode ray tube to store a single binary digit. By autumn 1947, working with Tom Kilburn, they are able to store 2,048 bits over a period of a few hours. The Williams tube becomes the first random-access memory device for a modern computer.
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MP3s

Eiger Labs sells the world's first MP3 player in the summer of 1998 for $165. The 32 MB portable holds up to 32 minutes of near CD-quality audio or 64 minutes of FM stereo-quality audio. The player is very basic and is not user expandable, though owners can upgrade the memory to 64 MB by sending the player back to Eiger Labs.
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IBM 5100 Portable Computer

IBM unveils the IBM 5100 Portable Computer in 1975. Code named Project Mercury during its development, the portable is a briefcase-sized minicomputer with 64 KB of RAM, a tape storage drive, a keyboard, and a built-in 5-inch screen. The machine weighs 55 pounds and starts at $9,000. The 5100 is IBM's first personal computer.
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Tim Berners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee begins work on a hypertext GUI browser and editor in October 1990. One month later he produces the first web server and web page. The first web server is nxoc01.cern.ch, later called info.cern.ch. The first web page is http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.
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Tron

One of the first computer generated movies, "Tron," is released in 1982. A hacker is split into molecules and is transported into a computer where he teams with a book keeping program and his girlfriend as they try to replace the enemy Master Control program with Tron, a heroic independent security program.
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3340 Winchester sealed hard disk

In 1973, IBM ships the model 3340 Winchester sealed hard disk drive, the predecessor of all current hard disk drives. Nearly two decades earlier, IBM had developed the first computer with a hard disk drive, the IBM 305. The 305's disk drive came with fifty 24-inch platters and a total capacity of five million characters.
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ISDN and DSL

Bellcore researcher Joseph Lechleider originates broadband technologies in the late 1980s. He demonstrates the feasibility of sending broadband signals via telephone lines, which starts the movement of analog to digital. This research effort eventually spawns new transmission technologies such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL).
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GO TO statements

Computer Science professor Edsger W. Dijkstra writes his classic programming paper "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" in the Communications of the ACM in March 1968. This paper outlines Dijkstra's observation that the quality of programmers is a decreasing function of the density of GO TO statements in the programs they produce.
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NeXT computer

Steve Jobs resigns from Apple Computer in 1985 to start a company called NeXT. The NeXT computer is intended to be an affordable supercomputer aimed at the academic market. Unfortunately, the computer fails in the marketplace as NeXT churns through $250 million in capital. The failure is due to its $6,000 price tag and the fact that there is no useful software for it.
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Grid Compass 1101

The first true laptop computer is designed in 1979 by British engineer William Moggridge for Grid Systems Corporation. The $10,000 Grid Compass 1101 features a clamshell design and is one-fifth the weight of comparable computers. The computer runs from batteries, has 384-KB of bubble memory, and is equipped with a 320 by 200-pixel plasma display.
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Longest Internet domain name

What is the longest Internet domain name in the world? According to the domain registrars, the longest legal domain name is 63 characters starting with a letter or number. The longest domain name in the world reportedly belongs to the official homepage of a Welsh, United Kingdom village called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
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Cray Research

Computer designer Seymour Cray founds Cray Research in 1972. After several years of development, Cray Research's first product, the Cray-1 Supercomputer, is released in 1976. Faced with several costly development projects, the company runs out of money and files for bankruptcy in 1995. Cray dies of injuries suffered in a car accident on October 5, 1996 at age 71.
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The IBM 1401

The IBM 1401 Data Processing System is released in October 1959. Priced at $2,500 per month, this is IBM's first affordable general-purpose computer for business. The 1401 is host to one of the earliest high-level business-oriented programming languages, Report Program Generator (RPG), which increases its usability and popularity. The IBM 1401 is the first computer to sell 10,000 units.
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The 386 microprocessor

Intel Corporation introduces the 80386 microprocessor chip in October 1985. The 386 is a 32-bit microprocessor containing over 275,000 transistors on a single chip, capable of four million operations per second. This gives PCs as much speed and power as older mainframes and minicomputers and makes graphical operating environments like Windows and OS/2 practical.
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The PowerPC

Apple, IBM, and Motorola announce an alliance to create the PowerPC on October 2, 1991. The PowerPC is based on IBM's Power microprocessor, one of the first superscalar RISC implementations. The alliance creates two other companies: Taligent to develop an object-oriented operating system for the PowerPC, and Kaleida Labs to develop multimedia software, tools and scripting languages.
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Stanford University

California Governor Leland Stanford purchases 650 acres of land in 1876. He later buys adjoining properties to bring his farm to more than 8,000 acres. This land is the future site of Stanford University, which opens its doors on October 1, 1891. Through the 20th century, Stanford University establishes itself as a world-class engineering and technology institution at the center of Silicon Valley.
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Liquid Crystal Display

American chemist Glenn Brown sparks a resurgence in liquid crystal research in 1958. Ten years later, the first operational liquid crystal display (LCD) is introduced by a group headed by George Heilmeier at RCA laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. Today, LCD devices are used in a wide range of electronic equipment from palm-sized mobile phones to large-size TV screens and computer monitors.
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Geographic Information Systems

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the combination of relational databases with digitized maps. This includes computer programs for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, analyzing and displaying data about the earth that is spatially referenced. GIS systems are used primarily by governments, research institutes or any other body to handle processing large amounts of geographical data.
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Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 game system is released in 1977. This is the first successful video game console to use plug-in cartridges instead of built-in games. It is bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game. The Atari 2600 introduces the hobby called video gaming to a new segment of users.
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The Intel 4004 chip

Intel scientist Ted Hoff designs the "computer-on-a-chip microprocessor" in 1968. His idea of a universal processor instead of custom-designed circuits is developed while working with an Intel client on calculator chip designs. His new chip is called the Intel 4004 and released in 1971. This microprocessor invention is credited as the start of the microcomputer industry.
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Computer viruses

Computer virus predecessors began showing up in the 1960s, the first being a memory saturating program called Core Wars. A program called Elk Cloner, written for Apple II systems in 1982, is believed to be the first computer-spreading type of virus. The first IBM-PC virus called the Brain appears in 1986.
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Motorola

In September 1928, brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin purchase a battery business in Chicago and start the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. In 1930, they create the brand name Motorola for the company's new car radio, linking "motor" with the suffix "ola" (sound). The company sells its first television in 1947 and also changes its name from Galvin Manufacturing to Motorola, Inc.
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George Boole

Mathematician George Boole develops the foundation for binary algebra and logic in the late 1830s. He proposes logical expressions as equations, multiplication by the word "and" and addition by the word "or". This provides the basis for validation of statements that may be either true or false. Years later, Boole's two valued logic becomes the basis for electronic circuits and computer design.
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The first commercial modem

The first commercial modem is manufactured in 1962. The Bell 103 by AT&T is the first modem with full-duplex transmission and frequency-shift keying. It has a speed of 300 bits per second. AT&T has the modem market all to itself up until 1968 when the Federal Communications Commission establishes competitive policies for modem use.
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Eliza Artificial Intelligence program

MIT scientist Joseph Weizenbaum creates one of the best known Artificial Intelligence programs in the world in 1966. The 200 line program called Eliza replicates the conversation between a psychoanalyst and a patient by applying pattern matching rules to dialog to figure out its replies. Weizenbaum is shocked that his program is taken seriously by many users, who open their hearts to it.
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Internet Explorer

In response to growing public interest in the Internet, Microsoft creates an add-on to the Windows 95 operating system called Internet Explorer in September 1995. The Internet Explorer 1.0 web browser is developed from a licensed copy of the Spyglass Mosaic browser. At the time of Internet Explorer's release, Microsoft's browser competitor Netscape has almost 80% of the entire web browser market.
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Prodigy

Sears and IBM launch a national online service called Prodigy on September 20, 1988. Prodigy is an online videotext service costing $9.95 per month. Prodigy becomes one of the three leading online services before it loses ground to the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s. The company is bought out by its management in 1996 and becomes an Internet service provider.
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WebTV

WebTV Networks, Inc introduces the first WebTV set-top boxes in September 1996. Web TV is described as a pioneering Internet appliance based on the premise that a consumer will enjoy email and web browsing without having to own or operate a PC. In August 1997, Microsoft buys WebTV Networks and begins offering television-based software products and associated network services.
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X-Windows

The X-Windows graphical user interface system is conceived at MIT in 1984. The X-Windows name is derived from the W-Windows system developed previously at Stanford University. X-Windows is designed as a true client-server system, one part on the client machine, the other on a network server. X-Windows subsequently becomes the standard toolkit for building graphical applications on UNIX platforms.
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Computer keypunch operators

The demand for computer keypunch operators reaches its historic peak during the 1950s and 1960s. Employing a staff of keypunch operators is essential for mainframe computer systems during this period. The job entails entering program instructions and data using a card keypunch machine, verifying and correcting results with card verifier machines, and operating a card sorting machine.
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Chief Technology Officer

The emergence of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) takes place during the 1980s. The CTO is a business-focused extension of the R&D lab with the goal of increasing profits yielded from research projects. The CTO proliferates further during the mid 1990s to oversee the use of the multitude of emerging technologies coming from the growth of Internet and web-related technologies.
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Extreme Programming

Kent Beck introduces the concept of Extreme Programming in March 1996. Extreme Programming is a conceptual software engineering framework that attempts to meet perceived rapid changes in business. The concept is later formalized by Beck, Ward Cunningham and Ron Jeffries, and is the subject of several professional and technical publications during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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WYSIWYG

In Fall of 1974, Charles Simonyi, a young Stanford Ph.D from Hungary, refines a program that allows a user to view a graphical display of how a document will appear exactly as printed out. The document is shown with underlining, bold face, italics, and fonts of various styles and sizes. This capability is dubbed as "What You See Is What You Get" - WYSIWYG.
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Artificial intelligence

Prominent computer scientist John McCarthy coins the phrase "artificial intelligence" in 1955 at a Dartmouth University conference devoted to the subject. Five years later, McCarthy invents the Lisp programming language, the preeminent computer language of Artificial Intelligence.
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Jack Kilby's microchip

Texas Instruments scientist Jack Kilby demonstrates the first simple microchip on September 12, 1958. Working with borrowed and improvised equipment, he builds the first electronic circuit in which all of the components are fabricated on a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. Later, Kilby co-invents the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer.
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Isaac Asimov

"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them." - Isaac Asimov
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Control Data Corporation

The newly formed Control Data Corporation introduces the 1604 in 1957. The company becomes widely respected for its high-speed computers used in government and scientific installations. For the next 30 years, Control Data uses the CYBER trade name and produces a complete product line from workstations to mainframes. In 1999, Control Data is acquired by British Telecom's Syntegra subsidiary.
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EISA bus

Compaq and nine other PC competitors work together to develop the Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus in September 1988. EISA is developed as an alternative to IBM's microchannel bus, and is more compatible with the earlier ISA bus. The primary reason for its development is to avoid paying a fee to IBM for its microchannel bus technology, which was introduced a year earlier.
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TCP/IP

Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf present a paper in 1973 that describes a new protocol they call the Transmission-Control Protocol. In 1978, the TCP protocol is split into two parts: One part for processing messages and detecting errors and the other part for routing and delivery of data. The protocol is renamed TCP/IP and subsequently becomes the standard for all Internet communication.
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Google

Stanford graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin collaborate on an Internet search engine they call "BackRub," named for its unique ability to analyze the back links pointing to a given website. They rename the search engine and officially open up Google for business on September 7, 1998. The Google name is a play on the word googol, a term that represents the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.
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Wireless cameras

Eastman Kodak Co. begins shipping the world's first computer free, wireless camera in September 2005. Named the EasyShare One, the digital camera works within range of hotels, coffee shops, airport lounges, offices, homes and other wireless hot spots, and can send high-quality pictures directly onto the Internet and into e-mail boxes. The $599 camera has storage space for up to 1,500 photos.
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Microsoft Excel

Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program is released for the Apple Macintosh in September 1985. The program is one of the first to use a graphical user interface with pull down menus and a mouse-pointing device. Many people purchase Macintosh computers just for the Excel spreadsheet program. When Microsoft releases its Windows operating system in 1987, Excel is one of the first products released for it.
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The TRS 80

Ten thousand TRS 80s are sold one month after the computer's September 1977 release, greatly exceeding all sales projections. The TRS 80, affectionately called the "Trash 80", is designed by Radio Shack to compete with the Apple II and Commodore PET. Priced at $599, the model ships with 4K of RAM, a keyboard, a modified black and white television display, and a cassette tape device.
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Spreadsheets

Harvard MBA student Dan Bricklin develops the first spreadsheet program to edit, delete, and recalculate numbers in a digital format. The result is a simple, elegant solution to an age-old problem. By the fall of 1979, Bricklin's VisiCalc spreadsheet program is available for Apple II, TRS-80, Commodore PET, and Atari 800 computers and sells for $100.
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The PET

Commodore delivers its first computer, the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor), in September 1977. The PET starts at $595 and comes with 8K of RAM, 14K of ROM loaded with BASIC, and an operating system. The machine is complete with a keyboard, a cassette recorder, and a nine-inch video monitor, all built into a single cabinet.
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BYTE Magazine

The first issue of BYTE Magazine is published in September 1975. BYTE magazine is the most influential microcomputer magazine in the 1970s and 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage. BYTE's articles cover emerging hardware and application software, publication of source code for various computer languages, and reports on microcomputer operating systems.
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Power Point Art

David Byrne, the former front man of the musical group Talking Heads, publishes his book "Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information" in August 2003. The book is a collection of essays and artistic imagery created with Microsoft's Power Point software. The work explores emotional and subjective information through the Power Point media producing an array of thought provoking and clever themes.
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Cisco Systems

Stanford computing staff employees Leonard Bosack and Sandra Lerner establish Cisco Systems in 1984. Named for the shortened version of San Francisco, the company markets the first commercially successful network router that allows incompatible computers to communicate. The router was developed by Bosack, Lerner and several individuals at Stanford University.
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Flowcharts

Graduate student Ben Shneiderman envisions the idea of structured flowcharts while attending a 1972 ACM discussion on structured programming. Working with fellow student Isaac Nassi, they put together and refine the sketches leading to the first ideas of sequence, conditionals and iteration. They draft and publish the paper "Flowchart Techniques for Structured Programming" in August 1973.
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The Russian software industry

The Russian software industry dates back to the 1950s. The government controlled the software industry, which dealt mainly with military or industrial applications. One of the first successful software applications was used in the space program. Russia encountered problems over the ensuing decades as it tried to create its own computing hardware and software systems despite worldwide standards.
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Visual Basic

Software designer Allen Cooper conceives Visual Basic in 1986. VB is an environment that provides a palette of Windows controls allowing users to easily create and program forms. After showing his project to Bill Gates, a deal is worked out with Microsoft to purchase Cooper's work. Microsoft integrates Cooper's concept with its QuickBasic language and releases Visual Basic 1.0 in 1991.
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Ebay

Ebay is founded in Pierre Omidyar's San Jose living room on Labor Day 1995. Omidyar poses the question, "What would happen within a marketplace if everyone had equal access to information and tools?" Joined by co-founder Jeff Skoll, and three years later by Meg Whitman, the company charts an enormously successful business model based on a world-wide community of online buyers and sellers.
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C++

Bell Labs engineer Bjarne Stroustrup begins the development of the C++ language in 1980. Stroustrup comes up with the idea of adding class structures to the C language by using elements of the object-oriented language Simula. He calls the newly developed language "C with Classes." The language is later renamed C++ and goes on to become a highly popular applications programming language.
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DBMS

IBM researchers develop the database management system concept and the SQL standard in the early 1970s. The first commercially available relational database system is later developed by Honeywell Information Systems Inc. Their Multics Relational Data Store (MRDS) is released in June 1976 and is based on the database management system concepts developed at IBM.
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PDP-8

Digital Equipment Corporation unveils the PDP-8 computer in 1965. The first commercially successful minicomputer is small enough to sit on a desktop and sells for $18,000. The combination of speed, size, and cost puts the PDP-8 in thousands of manufacturing plants, offices, and scientific laboratories. By late 1973, the PDP-8 family is the best selling computer in the world.
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The Newton Message Pad

Apple announces its first Personal Digital Assistant product, the Newton Message Pad, in August 1993. It features an address book, calendar, notes, faxing and email, as well as handwriting recognition. Unfortunately, the initial product has problems with its handwriting recognition. Even worse, these problems are widely reported, including digs by the Doonesbury comic strip and the Simpsons TV show.
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Research in Motion

Research in Motion Ltd. is founded by University of Waterloo student Mike Lazaridis and University of Windsor student Douglas Fregin in 1984. The Canadian company creates many innovative products, most notably, the Blackberry introduced in 1998. The award winning hand held email device is a huge commercial success and becomes a "must-have" for people who want constant contact.
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BitTorrent

Bram Cohen demonstrates his newest peer-to-peer programming project at the Defcon Convention in Las Vegas in 2001. The project, later named BitTorrent, provides an easy to use protocol for downloading large files and file sets. BitTorrent users get their files from the original server and from anyone else who is downloading the same file, making the entire file transfer significantly faster.
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Zhongguancun

China's version of the Silicon Valley is located in Beijing's Zhongguancun district. The area is home to thousands of high-tech companies ranging from local firms to international companies such as Microsoft, Sun, Siemens and NEC. The region features two esteemed universities, Peking and Tsinghua, and has become the center for engineers and technology entrepreneurs in China.
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Virtual reality

The term "virtual reality" is coined by computer scientist and philosopher Jaron Lanier in 1980. The phrase is an adaptation of the phrase "Virtual World" originated by Suzanne Langer in the 1950s to describe what one sees as real through a computer-generated world. Lanier established the Virtual Programming Language (VPL) in the early 1980s.
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HyperCard

Bill Atkinson of Apple Computers introduces HyperCard in 1987. Apple bundles the application free with all Macintosh machines and soon Hypercard becomes the most widely used hypertext system. Many believe HyperCard to be the application that contributed the most to the popularization of the hypertext model.
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VoIP

VocalTec develops the first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone application in 1995. The idea is to compress the voice signal and translate it into IP packets for transmission over the Internet. VocalTec's Internet phone is a remarkable breakthrough. However, delays, disconnections, and incompatibility problems prevent it from becoming a popular product.
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The iMac

Apple begins shipping the iMac on August 15, 1998. Aesthetically, the iMac is different from other computers. It is made of translucent blue plastic and is egg-shaped around a 15 inch CRT. The iMac project is started one day after Steve Jobs returns as CEO in 1997 to help the beleaguered company return from obscurity. The new computer is a huge success and is the top selling model for most of 1998.
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Henry Gantt

Industrial engineer Henry Gantt invents the Gantt chart in 1917. The Gantt chart is an innovative horizontal bar chart used for coordinating and scheduling tasks. It is considered revolutionary in that it is based on time rather than quantity. Gantt is also noted in management history for recognizing the importance of motivation as a psychological phenomenon in the work place.
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The Matrix

The sci-fi action thriller film "The Matrix" is released in 1999. A computer hacker discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate virtual world created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence for the purpose of using humans to fuel a campaign of domination in the "real" world.
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The IBM PC

The IBM PC is released on August 12, 1981. Priced at $1,565, the personal computer has a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor and comes with a 160-KB floppy disk drive, an optional color monitor, and IBM's Disk Operating System. The development team at IBM develops and announces the IBM PC in 12 months, at that time, faster than any other hardware product in IBM's history.
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Amdahl

After 18 years at IBM, Dr. Gene Amdahl partners with Fujitsu to establish the Amdahl Corporation in 1970. The company releases its first computer, the Amdahl 470 V6 in 1975. The highly successful machine allows customers to run IBM S/360 applications without buying higher priced IBM hardware. By 1979, Amdahl Corporation reaches one billion in revenue and has over 6,000 employees worldwide.
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Microsoft Certification

Arfa Karim Randhawa is believed to be the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world. Arfa is from Faisalabad, Pakistan and received her certification at the age of nine. Microsoft Certification is earned by taking a series of exams that prove your knowledge of Microsoft products and programming. Achieving this certification also earned Arfa a chance to meet with Microsoft's Bill Gates.
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COBOL

Grace Murray Hopper initiates a project in 1952 that will eventually lead to the development of the COBOL programming language. The initial specifications for Common Business Oriented Language are presented in a report of the executive committee of CODASYL in April 1960. The language is designed to be business oriented, machine independent, and capable of continuous change and development.
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MS DOS

IBM contracts the small PC software company Microsoft to develop a new personal computer operating system in October 1980. Microsoft creates MS DOS by purchasing the rights to 86-DOS for $50,000 from Seattle Computer Products. IBM allows Microsoft to market MS DOS to other PC makers and consumers thus providing Microsoft a growing presence in the emerging PC software market.
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Blaise Pascal

In 1642, French mathematician, physicist, and theologian Blaise Pascal begins developing a device to help his father add and subtract sums of money. His Arithmetic Machine is introduced a few years later. It is cited by many as the first mechanical calculator, of which the basic design principle is still used today in water meters and modern-day odometers.
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Windows 95

Microsoft releases its landmark Windows 95 operating system in August 1995 with a $300 million launch campaign. Windows 95, originally code-named Chicago, is Microsoft's first 32-bit operating system for PC consumers. Among its biggest draws is its large virtual memory and the new Internet Explorer web browser. Windows 95 sales reach one million copies two months after its launch.
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The Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum is established in Mountain View, California in 1996. The mission of the museum is to preserve the artifacts of the information age and celebrate computing history. The Museum is home to one of the largest collection of computing artifacts in the world, comprised of over 4,000 items, 10,000 images, 4,000 feet of cataloged documentation and several gigabytes of software.
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SHARE

The IBM User Group SHARE celebrates its 50th year of existence in 2005. The SHARE user group holds its first meeting at the Rand Corporation on August 15, 1955 in Santa Monica, Calif. The first meeting is called to help scientific users grapple with the problems of IBM’s first major commercial mainframe, the 704.
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Denial of service

On August 3, 2000, Canadian federal prosecutors charge a fifteen-year-old boy with fifty-four counts of illegal access to computers, plus ten counts of mischief to data for his attacks on Amazon.com, eBay, Dell Computer, and Yahoo. During the month of February, the boy carries out several "denial of service" attacks on these websites causing service interruptions and some of the websites to go down.
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Borland

Borland Software opens for business in Ireland with three employees in August 1981. Borland incorporates in California in May 1982 under the leadership of Philip Kahn. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Borland develops and releases highly regarded software products such as SideKick, Paradox, QuatroPro, Turbo Pascal, and Delphi.
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Windows

IBM and Microsoft agree in August 1985 to produce the OS/2 operating system for IBM's PS/2 PC. Meanwhile, Microsoft continues working on its Windows product and releases Windows 3.0 in 1990. Windows' ensuing popularity over OS/2 prompts Microsoft to end the OS/2 agreement with IBM. OS/2 eventually fades away. IBM announces that sales of OS/2 will officially end on December 23, 2005.
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The first electronic television

Russian immigrant Vladimir Zworykin joins Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1920 to work on the development of radio tubes and photocells. By 1923, Zworykin invents and patents a television transmitter (iconoscope) and receiver (kinescope). The first electronic television system produces an image about one inch square. All future CRT systems are based on Zworykin's 1923 patent.
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Napster

Eighteen-year-old Shawn Fanning changes the music industry forever in 1999 with his file-sharing program he calls Napster. His idea is to create software that allows computer users to share and swap music files. His program combines a music-search function with file sharing and instant messaging. Napster is eventually shut down by a lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America.
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Data General

The Data General corporation is formed in 1966 by former engineers of Digital Equipment Corporation and Fairchild Semiconductor. Edson De Castro leads the new company in the development and release of its 16-bit minicomputer called the Nova. Released in 1969, the $8,000 Nova quickly gains a large following. Data General is eventually purchased by EMC Corporation in 1999.
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KraftWerk

The avant-garde, electro-pop quartet KraftWerk releases its highly acclaimed album "Computer World" in 1981. KraftWerk is German for "Power Plant." The concept album's songs are themed on the rise of computers within society and include songs such as "Computer World","Computer Love", and "It's More Fun to Compute."
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The SCAMP

IBM engineer Paul Fiedl develops the first personal computer prototype at IBM in 1973. The machine is called the SCAMP, an acronym for the Special Computer APL Machine Portable. The SCAMP has a built-in cassette tape drive, a Selectric type keyboard, 64K of memory, and a very small screen. The SCAMP leads to the launch of the IBM 5100 Portable Computer two years later.
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Mosaic

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) opens in 1986 at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The goal of the center is to define and develop a high-performance cyber-infrastructure for scientists, engineers, and society. The most notable development at NCSA is the development of the first web browser, Mosaic, in the early 1990s.
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Flash

In the summer of 1995, Jonathan Gay leads the development of SmartSketch, a web animation program that works with the Netscape browser. Gay renames the program FutureSplash Animator and sells the first version in May 1996. After Microsoft uses FutureSplash on its MSN website, the program is acquired by Macromedia and is officially renamed Macromedia Flash 1.0.
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Bugs

A "Bug" is an error or problem in a software or hardware system. The term originates at Harvard University in August 1945 when the Mark I computer project staff notice something is wrong with one of the computer's circuits. After a lengthy search, someone locates and removes a two-inch moth from one of the computer cabinets. From then on, computer problems are referred to as bugs.
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Novell

Novell Data Systems begins in 1979 as a team of four Brigham Young University students. Raymond Noorda engages this team in 1983 to develop a file sharing system for the newly introduced IBM-compatible PC. The file sharing operating system is later renamed Novell Netware. By 1990, Novell's Netware has a virtual monopoly on the local area network market and a large base of customers.
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SQL

IBM begins the System/R project in 1974 to develop SEQUEL, or Structured English Query Language. The language is based on E. F. Codd's relational database model and is designed to manipulate and retrieve data. The language is rewritten in 1977 to include multi-table and multi-user features. The revised system is briefly called SEQUEL/2 but later renamed SQL for legal reasons.
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Robots

The first documented case of a robot-related fatality in the United States occurs on July 21, 1984. An automotive worker in Michigan is found pinned between an automated die-casting industrial robot and a 4-inch-diameter steel safety pole used to restrict undesired arm movement by the robot. The worker suffers cardiopulmonary arrest after the robot stalls and applies sustained pressure to his chest.
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The PS/2

IBM releases its second-generation PS/2 personal computer line in 1987. The PS/2 machines run IBM's OS/2 operating system and are the first IBM PCs to use a mouse. IBM ships more than 1 million units by the end of 1987. Despite its highly competent technical design, the PS/2 is a commercial failure due mainly to IBM's perceived attempt to gain control of the personal computer market.
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StarOffice

Sun Microsystems announces on July 19, 2000 that it is making the source code of its StarOffice available for download with the intention of building an open source development community around the software. The free office suite, referred to as OpenOffice, includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database applications. OpenOffice competes directly with Microsoft Office.
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Intel

Intel is founded on July 18, 1968 by former Fairchild Semiconductor Company engineers Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore. The name Intel is a shortened version of "Integrated Electronics." The company's first money making product is the 3101 Schottky bipolar 64-bit static random access memory (SRAM) chip.
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CGI

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is invented at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in 1993. This advancement enables a web browser to request data from a program executed on a web server. CGI moves the web from a reading and viewing mechanism to a truly interactive experience.
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Texas Instruments

The Geophysical Services Company changes its name to Texas Instruments in 1951, reflecting its focus on transistors. The company was established in 1930 by Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott, mainly producing soil analysis for oil companies in the U.S. and the Middle East. During the 1940s, the company began building radar installations and became a leading manufacturer of transistors.
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Altair 8800

Considered by many to be the first microcomputer, the MITS Altair 8800 is released in 1974. Developed by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the $495 Altair has a 2 MHz Intel 8080 processor, 256 bytes of RAM, and interfaces with the user through octal front panel switches. There is no keyboard, video terminal or paper tape reader.
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Pascal

Professor Niklaus Wirth develops the original Pascal programming language in 1970. Pascal is based on the ALGOL programming language and is named in honor of mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. The goal of Pascal is to provide a language suitable for teaching programming and whose implementation is reliable and efficient. Variants of Pascal are still widely used today.
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Hypertext

The history of Hypertext begins in July 1945 when Dr. Vannevar Bush publishes his article "As We May Think" in The Atlantic Monthly. In the article, he outlines the ideas for a machine that would have the capacity to store textual and graphical information in such a way that any piece of information could be arbitrarily linked to any other piece.
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RISC

IBM, Stanford, and UC-Berkeley announce the first Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) projects in the early 1980s. RISC processors provide advantages to applications that benefit from faster instruction execution, such as engineering and graphics workstations, and parallel-processing systems. The first commercially available RISC processors hit the market around 1990.
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Pablo Picasso

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." - Pablo Picasso
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EDVAC

IBM delivers its first commercial computer in 1953. The Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Calculator (EDVAC), later renamed the IBM 701, has a clock speed of 1 Mhz and is capable of 2,200 multiplications per second. Developed primarily for military use, IBM eventually sells nineteen of the 701 computers.
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COBOL

During the 1940s, Navy reservist Grace Murray Hopper devotes most of her waking hours to programming the Mark I and its successors, the Mark II and Mark III while working with a team of Harvard and IBM scientists. The first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics is also credited with having written the first high-level language compiler, and for leading the effort to develop the COBOL programming language.
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Arithmometer

French mathematician Thomas de Colmar develops the Arithmometer in 1820. The patented Arithmometer performs basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It is the first mass produced and commercially successful calculator. It stays in use up through the early 1900s.
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SimCity

The software gaming company Maxis releases SimCity in 1989. Will Wright and Jeff Braun establish Maxis after no takers are found to distribute the game. Inspired by the complex interactions in the growth of cities, Wright studies urban planning and incorporates what he learns into the game. SimCity sells millions of copies and captures media attention, spawning three sequels and many imitations.
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Trade sanctions of PCs

The U.S. Commerce Department lifts its trade sanctions of PCs with Communist bloc nations in July 1989. Despite stringent controls directed by the Department of Defense, the Soviet Union and China are able to import systems from Brazil, India and Taiwan. The decision opens the door for American computer makers to market PC desktops and laptops computers to the previously restricted regions.
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Lotus

IBM completes its takeover of Lotus Development Corporation on July 5, 1995. The $3.52 billion takeover represents the largest software acquisition to date. Lotus is best known for its Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet and Notes groupware. IBM's purchase of Lotus completes its OS/2-SmartSuite product as it attempts to get a leg up on Microsoft Office.
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Xerox Alto

The Xerox Alto computer is developed in 1972. Regarded as the precursor to today's PC, it has a bitmap screen display, windows, drop-down menus, hard disk, a mouse, a software productivity suite with a word processor, and even email. As Xerox focuses on copier technology and patents, the Alto researchers eventually move on to Microsoft, IBM, and Apple, taking with them their Alto knowledge and technology.
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ENIAC

The ENIAC is built at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945. The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer is the first all-electronic computer designed to be capable of being reprogrammed by rewiring to solve a full range of computing problems. The ENIAC has a clock speed of 100 kHz and is used for military purposes, such as calculating ballistic firing tables and designing atomic weapons.
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The Mythical Man Month

The classic book "The Mythical Man Month" is published by Fred Brooks in 1975. Brooks reflects on the mistakes made and lessons learned while working as a project manager at IBM. The book cites the fallacy in the attempt to add more workers to a project that is falling behind schedule. His observation, known as Brooks' Law, is simple: adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
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PARC

The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) officially opens its doors at 3180 Porter Drive in Palo Alto, California on July 1, 1970. The center's mission is to research and create "the architecture of information." The center's most notable development, among others, is the WIMP (windows, icons, menus and pointers) paradigm, which spawns the Macintosh, OS/2, and Windows graphical user interfaces.
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FoxBase

The PC database programming language FoxBase+ is released in 1989. The product is developed by Bowling Green University professor Dave Fulton, beginning in 1984. The product is subsequently renamed FoxPro and becomes a huge commercial success. So successful, that Microsoft purchases FoxPro for $173 million in June 1992.
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Computer Generated Pictures

The Howard Wise Gallery in New York City presents the first showing of computer generated art in 1965. The show is titled "Computer Generated Pictures" and features artists working with computers such as Manfred Mohr and Charles Csuri. The work is presented as wall work or as experimental film. Working with the theme, the announcements for the exhibition are made from computer cards.
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Microsoft anti-trust

In June 1990, the Federal Trade Commission launches a probe into possible collusion between Microsoft and IBM. Eight years after the initial FTC probe, Microsoft is accused of anti-competitive acts and is sued for anti-trust violation. The verdict calls for the breakup of Microsoft. On June 28, 2001, after 4 1/2 years of litigation, Microsoft wins an appeal victory as the court throws out the breakup order.
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EDS

Ross Perot establishes Electronic Data Systems (EDS) on June 27, 1962 by incorporating the company in the state of Texas for $1,000. EDS signs an agreement to buy unused time on Southwestern Life Insurance’s IBM 7070 mainframe computer. Two months and 78 sales calls later, Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa becomes EDS’ first customer.
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GPS

The final Navstar satellite is launched into orbit on June 26, 1993, completing a network of satellites known as the Global Positioning System. With a GPS receiver that costs a few hundred dollars, people are now able to instantly know their location on the planet - latitude, longitude, and altitude - to within a few hundred feet. The GPS system is controlled by the Department of Defense and can be used by anyone, free of charge.
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Gateway

Gateway is founded in 1985 in an Iowa farmhouse. Starting with a $10,000 loan from his grandmother, a rented computer and a three-page business plan, Ted Waitt turns Gateway into one of America's best known computer brands. The company is known by its distinctive cow-spotted boxes. Today, Gateway is among the top computer companies worldwide.
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Hayes-Compatible

Dennis C. Hayes invents the PC modem in 1977. The new communication device for the PC is critical technology that allows the Internet to eventually emerge and grow. The Hayes Communications company establishes the de facto standard for microcomputer modems being aptly described as "Hayes-Compatible."
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ASCII

The American Standards Association publishes the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) in 1963. ASCII codes are used to standardize data exchange among computers, communications equipment, and control devices. ASCII is adopted by all U.S. computer manufacturers except IBM, which develops a proprietary character code for its mainframe computers.
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J.C.R. Licklider

"It seems reasonable to envision a 'thinking center' that will incorporate the functions of present-day libraries. With the anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval, the picture readily enlarges itself into a network of such centers, connected to one another and to individual users by wide-band communication lines." J.C.R. Licklider, 1960.
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Sand Hill Road

Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California is notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. Its significance as a symbol of private equity in the United States is matched only by that of Wall Street. For several years during the Dot com boom of the late 1990s, commercial real-estate on Sand Hill Road was more expensive than anywhere else in the United States.
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FCC

The Federal Communications Commission is created by U.S. Congress in June 1934. A month later, the FCC begins merging regulations from the Federal Radio Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Postmaster General into one agency. Today, the agency has extensive oversight of new communications technologies, such as satellite, microwave, and private radio communications.
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The Webmaster

The job title Webmaster originates in the mid 1990s as companies look to hire the necessary personnel capable of deploying and maintaining a website. The Webmaster job has very broad responsibilities such as information architecture, designing and developing web pages, web scripting and programming, and overseeing the management of e-commerce capabilities.
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Silicon Valley of India

The city of Bangalore is called the "Silicon Valley" of India. The capital of the State of Karnataka and is home to over 6 million people. Since technology giant Texas Instruments discovered its potential as a high-tech city in the early 1980s, Bangalore has seen a major technology boom. It is now home to several hundred high-tech companies, including homegrown companies Wipro and Infosys.
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The Moog Synthesizer

Dr. Robert A. Moog creates the first playable and reconfigurable music synthesizer in 1963. Wendy Carlos's 1968 album "Switched on Bach" is produced entirely by using Moog's synthesizer. Many popular music artists begin using the Moog. In 1971, Moog breaks into the mass market with the Minimoog Model D, an all-in-one instrument interfaced with a keyboard.
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The Computer Store

Dick and Lois Heiser see the newly released Altair microcomputer at a Southern California computer show in the summer of 1975. The Heisers begin selling the Altair and later open The Arrow Head Computer Co. doing business as The Computer Store in Santa Monica, California. The Heiser's store is the first independent retail computer store in the United States.
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CP/M

Gary Kildall completes the Control Program/Monitor (CP/M) operating system in 1974. The system is remarkably simple, reliable, and well suited to the limited microcomputers of the day. He sells it himself through the newly formed company Digital Research. The highly popular CP/M operating system is the standard on most PCs until it is eventually eclipsed by MS DOS.
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The first commercial microprocessor

Intel engineer Federico Faggin leads the design of the first commercial microprocessor in 1970. Working into the early morning, Faggin successfully tests the critical functions of his 4004 chip design. The 4004 chip revolutionizes the integrated circuit by placing all the parts of a computer --the central processing unit, input and output controls, and memory-- onto one small chip.
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Lee De Forest's vacuum tube

American inventor and physicist Lee De Forest develops the vacuum tube triode in 1906. The triode is a three terminal device that allows him to develop an amplifier for audio signals, making AM radio possible. The vacuum tube triode also helps push the development of computers forward as the tubes are used in several computer designs in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
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The first computer screensaver

Berkeley Systems develops one of the first computer screensaver programs in 1989. The screensaver is designed to prevent image burning on monitors when a computer is left running or unused for long periods. Berkeley's product includes its most famous screen saver - the Flying Toasters - which features art deco styled chrome toasters with bird-like wings, flying in formation across the screen.
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UNIX

Bell Labs programmers Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson develop the UNIX operating system in spring of 1970. UNIX uses many of the time-sharing and file-management features previously developed with the Multics project at Bell. The Bell Labs Patent Department is the first group to use the UNIX operating system.
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