1825-1850 - Charles Babbage designs Difference Engine (a
machine designed to produce mathematical tables) and then the
Analytical Engine the first programmable computer. Augusta Ada
Byron, Lady of Lovelace, is first programmer.
~1890 - Hollerith builds machines that use punch cards to
tabulate Census information.
~1939 - John Atanasoff (Iowa State) builds prototype electronic
computer with 300 tubes.
1946 - Eckert and Mauchly (Pennsylvania) build first "large scale
electronic digital computer" with 18K tubes. Programmable via patch
panel
~1946 - Von Neumann (Inst. Advanced Study) describes computer in
which data and program stored in machine.
Technology highlights
50's - vacuum tubes, Von Neumann architecture
60's - transistors, higher-level programming languages