JavaScript

Netscape Communications programmer Brendan Eich invents LiveScript in 1995. After a partnership is established between Netscape and Sun, LiveScript is renamed JavaScript, to match Sun's Java language. The object-oriented scripting language becomes an international standard allowing web developers to produce dynamic HTML that works on almost all web browsers.
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Bob

A few months after its highly successful release of Windows 95, Microsoft releases Bob, a suite of user-friendly programs intended to work with Windows 95. Bob's cartoonish appearance and pseudo-friendliness become the worst flop in Microsoft's history. The company reportedly destroys all copies of the software and attempts to erase the entire episode from its public record.
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REXX

The first specification for the REXX programming language is published in March 1979. REXX is a powerful macro language developed by Mike Cowlishaw of IBM. It grows out of the basic scripting statements used with IBM’s Virtual Machine/370 operating system. The popularity of Cowlishaw's macro language compels IBM to begin shipping it as a commercial product in 1982.
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Kings Quest

Kings Quest is released in 1984. The game is the first to support the EGA graphics color card and is touted as one of the greatest adventure games in the computer industry. So good that IBM selects the game as a showpiece for its PCjr. The game's object: you are sent on a quest by the King of Daventry to return three lost treasures in return for the throne.
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Atari

Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney form Atari in 1972 and begin work on a video game called Pong. Based on the tabletop ping-pong game, the home version of Pong becomes a huge success in 1974. Three years later, the company introduces its video game console, the Atari 2600, and scores another huge success. Atari is subsequently sold to Warner Communications in 1976.
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"Blue screen of death"

The "blue screen of death" is the popular phrase for the screen displayed by Microsoft's Windows operating system when it cannot recover from a system error. The phrase is an extension of the "black screen of death" which occurred during the early 1990s on Windows 3.1 systems when a DOS application failed to execute properly.
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IBM's Magnetic Tape/Selectric

IBM introduces the Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter in 1964. The MT/ST combines the features of the Selectric Typewriter with a magnetic tape drive. For the first time, typed material can be edited without having to retype the whole text. On the tape, information can be stored, replayed, corrected and reprinted as many times as needed, and then erased and reused for other projects.
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TJ-2

The TJ-2 formatting program is developed in the early 1960s on a Digital PDP-1 computer. TJ stands for Type Jusitfier. TJ-2 is believed to be the first computerized word processor. Long before the widespread use of interactive computer monitors, TJ-2 users enter, edit and save word text and formatting commands at a console typewriter.
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Thinking Machines

Daniel Hillis and Sheryl Handler establish Thinking Machines in May 1983. Two years later, Thinking Machines sells its first computer, the $5 million CM-1 designed with the concept of massive parallelism. By 1990, after a series of questionable decisions and a shift in government scientific spending, the former market leading Thinking Machines files for Chapter 11.
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PHP

The PHP language is created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. Lerdorf creates his personal set of Perl scripts he calls Personal Home Page Tools. He upgrades the scripts to communicate with databases and enables users to develop simple dynamic web applications. By 1997, PHP has a base of several thousand users, with approximately 50,000 domains reporting as having it installed.
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National Medal of Technology

The National Medal of Technology is created in 1980 by the United States Congress as part of an effort to foster technological innovation in the United States. Among the first medal recipients issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 are Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, founders of Apple Computers.
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The facsimile process

Scottish inventor Alexander Bain invents the facsimile process in 1843. He devises an apparatus that is able to transmit and reproduce writing on an electrically conductive surface. He receives a British patent for “improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs.”
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The Dot Com Crash

The Dot Com Crash occurs from March to October 2002 when the NASDAQ stock market composite index loses 78% of its value. The bubble began in the mid 1990s with the advent of the World Wide Web. The new economy set the stage for technology and investment euphoria. The crash was set into motion as a series of losses and failures are reported in the first quarter of 2000.
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Optical character recognition

In 1950, Armed Forces Security Agency cryptanalyst David Shepard develops an optical character reader program called "Gismo," and establishes Intelligent Machines Research Corporation in 1952. The company delivers the first commercial optical character recognition (OCR) system, which is installed by publisher Reader's Digest in 1955.
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Apple II

First shipped in 1977, the Apple II computer is the first personal computer to be built in large-scale production. Up until the development of the Apple II, most microcomputers were sold in kits or were hand-built in relatively small quantities. The inexpensive and easy to use Apple II introduces PC users to digital spreadsheets, word processing and computer graphics.
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Ken Olsen

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." — Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment, in 1977.
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Computer programmers

The first modern day computer programmers appear during the 1940s to compute complex ballistic trajectories for the U.S. Army using the ENIAC computer. The programmers use logical diagrams to help them figure out how to make the ENIAC work. They physically program by using the 3,000 switches and dozens of cables and digit trays to physically route data and program pulses through the machine.
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The Source

William von Meister establishes The Source in 1978 as one of the first online services available to the general public. It offers information such as news sources, weather, stock quotations, a shopping service, electronic mail, various databases, online text of magazines, and airline schedules. Dial-up users pay monthly subscription fees and phone usage fees to use the text-based service.
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"You've Got Mail"

The romantic comedy film "You've Got Mail" is released in 1998. A large chain bookstore owner spars with a local bookstore owner. All the while they have been corresponding with email without knowing who either of them are. They cannot stand each other in person but over the Internet they are very attracted to each other.
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First point contact transistor

Bell Telephone Laboratories researchers John Bardeen and Walter Brattain develop the first point contact transistor in 1947. The transistor concept is demonstrated to executives at Bell, who are very impressed that the transistors do not need time to warm up, like existing vacuum tubes. They immediately realize the power of the transistor.
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WYSIWYG

Electronic print technologist Jonathan Seybold originates the WYSIWYG phrase in the 1980s. The phrase is an acronym for "what you see is what you get," and is used in computing to describe the seamlessness between the appearance of edited content and the final product. Syebold reportedly first uses the phrase after watching a Flip Wilson TV show comedy sketch.
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Hangul

Korea's Haansoft Company develops its word processor program named "Hangul" in 1990. The program name is adopted from the Korean written language Hangul, meaning "Great Script". Hangul is optimally suited for the Korean language and has a 70% share of the entire Korean word processing software market, making it a virtual household name synonymous with "word processing."
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Creating the Internet

During a March 1999 CNN interview with reporter Wolf Blitzer, Vice President Al Gore makes his famous claim to have "invented the Internet". What he actually says is "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Vice President Gore was one of the first government officials to have a personal website and coined the phrase "information superhighway."
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Logo

South African native Seymour Papert pioneers the development of the Logo programming language in 1968. His team designs Logo as a computer language for children. Logo provides immediate feedback, aiding in the learning process. When a command is unable to be executed, Logo explains the problem instantly, allowing the user to learn from the mistake and debug intelligently.
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Myst

Brothers Rand and Robyn Miller lead a team of nine through the development of the computer game "Myst" in 1993. Working out of a converted garage in Spokane, Washington, the team crafts the spectacular abstract CD-ROM adventure that defies the logic of conventional gaming. Myst becomes one of the most important and influential games in the history of digital entertainment.
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Michelangelo virus

The Michelangelo virus is the first computer virus to capture the attention of the mass media. Set to execute on March 6, 1992, the virus is predicted to destroy data on all personal computers where it resides. The hype leads to many installations of anti-virus software and computer checks. All told, less than 10,000 PCs worldwide are affected as a result of Michelangelo.
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Pentium

Intel brings the PC to a new level with the release of its Pentium processor in 1993. Pentium runs at an astounding 60 Mhz, has 3.3 million transistors, and performs 100 million instructions per second. Intel prices the chip at $878 and makes the strategic decision to maintain backward compatibility with previous x86 designs. The Pentium becomes synonymous with "PC."
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Largest computer error

The largest reported computer error occurs at First National Bank of Chicago in spring of 1996. More than 800 bank account holders receive checking balances that increase by hundreds of millions of dollars. One customer is told by an automated voice that his checking balance is $924,844,208.32. The First National Bank error is attributed to a "computer glitch."
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ODBC

The Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard is released by the SQL Access Group in 1992. The goal of ODBC is to make it possible to access any data from any software application, regardless of which database management system is handling the data. Looking to capitalize on this, Microsoft partners with Simba Technologies and delivers ODBC to over 30 million desktops, making it a desktop staple.
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Tivo

In 1997, Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton develop their new interactive entertainment network device they call Tivo. Their vision is to record television shows and possibly share photos, music and more. The first Tivo digital video recorders are shipped in March 1999. The DVR allows up to 40 hours of programming, pausing live TV, instant replay, and skipping of advertisements.
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Phishing

"Phishing" scams emerge n the early 2000s as ecommerce grows. The scams attempt to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as an apparent trustworthy email, instant message, or web page. The scams become so pervasive that U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy introduces the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005 on March 1, 2005.
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