Data Processing / Computing Timeline Outline

The First Securely Datable Mathematical Table in World History
(Circa 2,600 BCE)

Computus
(525)

The First Dated Printed Book on Arithmetic and the Operation of the Abacus
(December 10, 1478)

Among the Earliest Printed Mathematical Tables
(July 4, 1483)

The Soroban
(Circa 1600)

The First "Computer Manual"
(1606)

Among the First Records of Litigation over an Invention
(1607)

The Invention of Logarithms
(1614)

Napier's Bones & the Lightning Calculator
(1617)

Kepler Creates Logarithms by a New Procedure
(1624 – 1625)

The First Complete Set of Modern Logarithms
(1628)

The Circular Form of Slide Rule
(1632)

The Pascaline
(1642)

The Mathematical Organ
(1668)

More Affordable and Easier to Use than the Pascaline
(1671)

First Book on a Calculating Machine Published in English
(1672)

Leibnitz Invents the Stepped Drum Gear Calculator
(1673 – 1710)

Leibniz on Binary Arithmetic
(March 15, 1679 – 1705)

First Description of the Stepped-Drum Calculator
(1710)

A Loom Controlled by Perforated Paper Tape
(1725)

Invention of Punched Cards?
(1728)

The Earliest Formal Treatment of "Data-Processing"
(1755)

Bayes's Theorem
(1763)

Computing the "Seaman's Bible"
(1766)

The Chess-Playing Turk
(1769)

The Earliest Large-Scale Data-Processing Organization
(1770)

Mathematical Tables Calculated by Hairdressers Unemployed after the French Revolution
(1793 – 1801)

The Jacquard Loom Uses Punched Cards to Store Patterns
(1803)

The First Commercially Produced Mechanical Calculator
(1820)

Babbage Begins Construction of his Difference Engine
(1822)

The Beginning of Operations Research
(1832)

The Analytical Engine
(1834)

Solution of Differential Equations Using a Mechanical Device
(1836)

Poe Writes Maelzel's Chess Player
(April 1836)

Funding Cut Off for the Difference Engine No. 1
(1842)

The First Published Computer Programs
(1842)

Translated and Augmented by Lord Byron's Daughter
(1843)

The First Working Difference Engine
(1843)

Computing within the Context of Biology
(1844)

The First of the Industrial Insurance Companies that Processed Immense Amounts of Data
(May 30, 1848)

The First Automatically Made Numerical Table Printed by the First Printing Calculator
(1849)

Flong as an "Immutable Form of Information Capture"
(Circa 1850)

The "Computer" Might Occupy a Space Larger than London
(1851)

The Second Scheutz Difference Engine
(1853)

Having Refused to Support Babbage, the British Government Pays for a Difference Engine Produced in Sweden
(1859)

The First Instance of a Printing Calculator Used Extensively to do Original Work
(1864)

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
(1864)

The First Catalogue of a Library on Computing and its History
(1872)

Invention of Calculators Using a True Variable-Toothed Gear
(Circa 1875)

The First Logarithmic Table Produced by a Calculating Machine
(1875)

The Earliest Exhibition Exclusively of Scientific Instruments
(1876)

300 Clerks Reviewing 2,500,000 Insurance Policies with 24 Calculators
(1877)

Invention of the Integraph
(1878)

A Physician-Librarian Suggests the Idea for Electric Punched Card Tabulating
(1882)

NCR
(1884)

The Comptometer
(1887)

The Most Complete Work on Babbage's Computers
(1889)

Electromechanical Punched Card Tabulating
(1889)

Publication of the Tables of de Prony
(1891)

The Millionaire Calculator
(1893)

The First International Exhibition of Mathematical Devices
(September 1893)

The First Systematic Classification of Calculating Machines
(1894)

The Automatic Punched Card Feed
(1900)

A New Version of Babbage's Analytical Engine, Lost
(1908)

A Mechanical Punched-Card Tabulating System
(1911)

C-T-R
(June 16, 1911)

Thomas J. Watson President of CTR
(1914)

Summarizing the State of the Computer Industry Prior to World War I
(July 24 – July 27, 1914)

800,000 Burroughs Calculators Have Been Sold
(1919)

Using 64,000 Human Computers to Predict the Weather
(1922)

The Eighty-Column Punched Card
(1928)

Using a Commercial Accounting Machine as a Difference Engine
(1928)

First Use of Punched Cards in a Purely Scientific Application
(1928 – 1929)

The IBM 601 Multiplying Punch
(1931)

The First Machine to Perform Complex Scientific Calculations Automatically
(1933 – 1934)

Zuse Begins Working on Computers
(1934)

The Social Security Program Creates a Giant Data-Processing Challenge
(1935 – 1936)

The First Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator
(September 1935)

The Rapid Arithmetical Machine Project
(1936)

The First Independent Scientific Computing Service
(1937)

The First Electromechanical Computer Built in America
(November 1937)

Zuse Completes the Z1
(1938)

The "Earliest" Electronic Digital Computer
(1939)

Zuse Completes the Z2
(1939)

The First Electromechanical Computer for Routine Use
(April 1939)

"10,000 Operations per Second"
(October 15, 1939)

The Top-Secret Heath Robinson Cryptographic Computer
(1940 – 1941)

Complex Number Calculator
(January 8, 1940)

The Rapid Arithmetical Machine Project
(March 7, 1940)

Design and Principles of the ABC Machine
(August 1940)

The First Demonstration of Remote Computing
(September 11, 1940)

First Application of Electric Punched Card Tabulating Equipment in Crystal Structure Analysis
(1941 – 1946)

Zuse's Z3: The First Turing-Complete Electromechanical Computer
(May 12, 1941)

Eckert and Mauchly Begin their Collaboration
(Circa June 1941)

Applying Electromechanical Calculating to Data Processing
(October 8, 1941)

Atanasoff Abandons Work on his ABC Machine
(1942)

The Z4
(1942)

Containing 2000 Vacuum Tubes and Weighing 100,000 Pounds
(1942)

High Speed Vacuum Tube Devices for Calculating
(August 1942)

The First Complete Machine to Perform Arithmetic Electronically
(1943)

The First Computing Journal
(1943)

The Harvard Mark 1 is Operational
(January 1943)

The Proposal to Build the ENIAC
(April 8, 1943)

Promoting the Rumor that the ENIAC is a "White Elephant"
(May 31, 1943)

Possibly the First Computer to Run Programs in the U.S.
(September 1943)

Computer Prototype Damaged and Lost
(November 11, 1943)

The Colossus
(January 1944)

Aiken's Harvard Mark 1 is Operational
(May 1944)

The Colossus Mark II is Operational
(June 1, 1944)

The ENIAC is Partly Operational
(July 1944)

John von Neumann Visits the ENIAC in Development
(September 1944)

Authorship of the ENIAC Design
(September 27, 1944)

The U.S. Army Funds Development of the EDVAC
(October 1944)

The Fastest Digital Calculators in the U.S.
(December 1944)

Zuse's Z4
(1945)

The ENIAC is Operational
(Circa May 1945)

The First Use of "Bug" in the Context of Computing
(September 9, 1945)

Turing's ACE
(Circa October 1945)

The First Mathematical Tables Calculated by a Programmed Automatic Computer
(Circa October 1945)

From Analog to Digital
(Circa November 1945)

The First Confidential Report on the Completed ENIAC
(November 30, 1945)

Among the Earliest Published Examples of Computer Programs
(1946)

The ENIAC Meets the Public
(February 14, 1946)

The World's First Electronic Computer Company
(March 15, 1946)

Bigelow joins von Neumann and Goldstine
(June 1946)

Max Newman Founds the Computer Laboratory at Manchester
(July 1946)

A Soroban Beats an Electric Calculator
(November 12, 1946)

Couffignal Decides against Building a Stored-Program Computer
(1947)

First Large Conference on Electronic Computers
(January 7 – January 10, 1947)

Contract for Production of the UNIVAC
(1948)

The First Operational Stored-Program Computer Runs its First Program
(June 21, 1948)

Automated Detection and Interception System
(1949)

Transposing a System from Commercial and Statistical Uses to the Sorting of Words in a Literary Text: The Origins of Humanities Computing
(1949 – 1951)

The First Stored-Program Computer in Australia
(November 1949)

The First Weather Forecast by Electronic Computer
(1950)

The First Textbook on How to Build an Electronic Computer
(1950)

Compiling a Bibliography by Electric Punched Card Tabulating
(1950)

Whirlwind is in Limited Operation
(1950)

The First Supercomputer
(1950 – 1954)

Simon, the First Personal Computer
(November 1950)

The First Russian Stored-Program Computer
(November 6, 1950 – 1951)

The First OCR System: "GISMO"
(1951)

The First Electronic Computer in Canada
(September 8 – September 10, 1952)

The First Journal on Electronic Computing
(October 1952)

IBM Installs its First Stored Program Electronic Computer, the 701, but They Don't Call it a Computer
(March 27, 1953)

The First Report on the Application of Electronic Computers to Business
(June 1953)

IBM 702
(September 1953)

The Deuce
(1954)

Early Library Information Retrieval System
(1954)

First Computer to Incorporate Indexing & Floating Point Arithmetic
(1954)

The First Routine Real-Time Numerical Weather Forecasting
(December 1954)

The ENIAC is Retired
(1955)

The Beginning of Computerization of Banking
(September 1955)

The First Full-Scale Programmable Japanese Computer
(October 1955)

Proving the Feasibility of Weather Prediction by Numerical Process
(1956)

Magnetic Ink Character Reading
(July 1956)

First Computer Conference in Italy
(October 17 – October 18, 1956)

First Japanese Conference on Electronic Computers
(November 1956)

Physically the Largest Computers Ever Built
(1957)

The First Computerized Concordance of the Bible
(1957)

The First Operational Satellite Navigation System
(October 4, 1957 – 1960)

The IBM 1401, a Relatively Inexpensive Computer
(1958)

Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE)
(1958)

A Computer Occupying a Half Acre of Floor Space
(1958)

The Burroughs Atlas Guidance Computer
(July 19, 1958)

BankAmericard
(September 1958)

Keyword in Context (KWIC) Indexing
(November 1958)

ERMA and MICR
(1959)

The Nautical Almanac is Finally Produced by an Electronic Computer
(1959)

The U.S. Banking Industry Adopts Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
(1959 – 1960)

Auto-Encoding of Documents for Information Retrieval
(1959)

The First "Large Scale" Application of Humanities Computing in the U. S.
(1959)

The PDP-1: Programmed Data Processor, Not Called a Computer
(December 1959)

The First Journal on Computing Changes its Name
(1960)

Pioneering Computer-Assisted Legal Research
(1960)

Computerized Stock-Quotation System
(1961)

Special-Purpose Typesetting Computer
(1961)

Coining the Term "Computer Science"
(1961)

The Linc, Perhaps the First Mini-Computer
(May 1961 – 1962)

The First Integrated Circuit Computer
(October 19, 1961)

Computers Drive Linotype Hot Metal Typesetters
(1962)

Touch-Tone Dialing is Introduced
(November 1963)

The First Online Reservation System
(1964)

Social Security Numbers as Identifiers
(1964)

Email Begins
(1965)

The U.S. Postal Services Introduces OCR
(1965)

The MARC Cataloguing Standard
(1965 – 1968)

Moore's Law
(April 19, 1965)

NY Stock Exchanges Completes Automation of Trading
(1966)

Computerizing Income-Tax Processing
(1966)

The Invention of DRAM
(1966)

A Computer-Assisted Full-Text Inventory System
(1966)

The First Hand-Held Electronic Calculator
(1967 – June 25, 1974)

Interface Message Processors
(April 1967)

The First Marketed, Mass-Produced Programmable Calculator, or Personal Computer
(1968)

Invention of the "Smart Card"
(1968 – 1984)

The First U.S. Conference on Museum Computing
(April 1968)

Problem with the Apollo 11 Guidance Computer Nearly Prevents the First Moon Walk
(July 21, 1969)

First Test of Magnetic Stripe Transaction Card Technology
(January 1970 – May 1973)

Speech Recognition Technology
(1971)

The Floppy Disk is Introduced
(1971)

The Universal Product Code
(1971)

Conceptually, the First Personal Computer System
(1973)

Publication of the Index Thomisticus: Forty Years of Data Processing
(1974 – 1980)

IBM's First "Portable" Computer: $19,975
(September 1975)

The First Commercially Available Laser Printer
(1976)

Foundation of Apple Computer and the Origin of the Name
(April 1, 1976 – December 13, 2011)

dBase
(1978)

IBM Introduces the IBM 5150- The IBM PC
(August 12, 1981)

Lotus Development Corporation is Founded
(1982)

The First "Clamshell" Laptop?
(1982)

The First "Killer App" for the PC
(January 1983)

The First Desktop Publishing Program
(1984)

The Greatest PC Keyboard of All Time?
(1984)

NSFNET Connects Five Supercomputer Centers
(1986)

The Unicode Standard: Now 107,000 Charcters in 90 Scripts
(October 1991)

Supercomputer ASCI Blue-Pacific SST
(October 28, 1998)

IBM's Blue Gene
(December 1999)

IBM and the Holocaust
(2001)

Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 and its Printer are Finally Constructed
(2002)

Origins of Cyberspace
(2002)

Customer Account Data Engine
(2003)

Supercomputer Project Columbia
(October 27, 2004)

"From Gutenberg to the Internet"
(2005)

280.6 Trillion Operations per Second
(October 28, 2005)

More than 80 Trillion Floating-Point Operations per Second
(February 13, 2007)

Statistical Analysis Correctly Forecasts the Election of Obama
(March 3, 2008)

The First Computer to Go Petascale
(May 25, 2008)

Toward a World Digital Mathematics Library
(July 27, 2008)

Wolfram/Alpha is Launched
(May 16, 2009)

1.75 Petaflops Achieved
(November 2009)

"The Data-Driven Life"
(April 20, 2010)

Cell Phones Are Now Used More for Data than Speech
(May 13, 2010)

Worldwide Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information
(February 10, 2011)

"Distant Reading" Versus "Close Reading"
(June 24, 2011)

IBM Announces Phase-Change Memory
(June 30, 2011)

The Cost of Sequencing a Human Genome Drops to $10,500
(November 30, 2011)

2.5 Quintillion Bytes of Data Each Day
(October 23, 2012)

Historicizing Big Data
(November 2012)

A Natural History of Data
(November 2012)