DATE

COMPUTER HISTORY

INTERNET HISTORY

BUSINESS HISTORY

3000 BC 80 AD 1517

The abacus is invented in Babylonia

The Antikythera Device, a bronze mechanical lunar month calculator, is constructed in Greece

1600 1620 1622 William Oughtred invents theslide rule. This first one was circular.

1623

Wilhelm Schickard designs the first known mechanical calculator, the "Calculating Clock" to multiply large numbers.

1633

1642

Blaise Pascal invents an adding machine which he calls the Pascaline. It could perform addition and subtraction, but it was too expensive to be practical and only Pascal could keep it working Samuel Morland builds amechanical calculator that will add and subtract

Income and property tax introduced

1666

1670

1674

Gottfried Leibnez, the man to blame for the invention of calculus, uses a stepped cylindrical gear to build his "Stepped Reckoner" which will both add and multiply Leibniz introduces binary mathematics

1679 1752 1761

1772 1774 Phillip-Malthus Hahn builds and sells a small number of calculating machines which are accurate to 12 digits

1776 1777 The third Earl of Stanhopeinvents a multiplying calculator

1803- Joseph-Marie Jacquardinvents an 4 automated loom which uses punched cardsto reproduce complex patterns.

1811

1820

The first mass-produced calculating machine,Thomas de Colmar'sArithmometer, is marketed and continues in use for many years.

1822

Charles Babbage begins work on the DifferenceEngine

1829

The first typewriter is patented by William AustinBurt. It's slow and clumsy, but it's the first writing machine.

1831 1832 1834 1837

The telegraph is invented Babbage completes a portion of his Difference Engine Babbage begins work on theAnalytical Engine

1838 1840 Lord Byron's daughter, Ada,Countess of Lovelace, suggests to Babbage that he use the binary system. She writes programs for his analytical engine, becoming the world's first programmer

Samuel Morse demonstrates the principle of the telegraph

1843

Ada translates Luigi Menabrea's theories of the analytical engine and adds her own commentary Morse sends the firsttelegraphic message from Washington to Baltimore.

1844

1848 1853 Scheutz invents the firstprinting calculator

1850's George Boole developsBoolean Logic which will one day become the basis for computer logic. 1856 The first Atlantic cable is laid between the US and Europe. It only works for a few days before breaking, but by 1866 a successful cable is laid and will carry international communications for over 100 years

1858 1861 A trans-continental telegraph line connects the Atlantic and Pacific coasts

1862 1865

1876 1882 William S. Burroughs quits his job as a bank clerk and sets out to invent a reliable adding machine.

Alexander Graham Bellinvents the telephone

1884

1886 1890 Dr. Herman Hollerithintroduces the first electro-mechanical punched-card data processing machine. It is used to compile

information from the 1890 US census.

1892

Burroughs produces the firstadding machine with aprinter

1894 1895 1899 1900 Magnetic recording is invented.

NEC Corporationincorporates in Jap Electric Company Ltd.

1901

Hollerith starts his own company, the Tabulating Machine Company, to market his data processing machines.

Marconi sends the first transatlantic wireless message

1903

1904 1906 William DeForest invents thevacuum tube

Xerox corporation is founded. It is firs Haloid Co. (becomes Xerox in 1961)

1908 1909 1911

Hollerith's company merges with two companies to become CTR, theCalculating, Tabulating andReco Why should we care? Because in 19 ahead)

1914 1915 1917 Aberdeen Proving Grounds begins computing ballistics tables

1919

Two American physicists,Eccles and Jordan, invent the flip-flop circuit which will be necessary for high-speed electronic calculating.

1920

1924

Thomas J. Watson, President of CTR, name toIBM