History of Computers

"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer.  Here is a list of major milestones in computer history (but not all of them).

• 1936 - Konrad Zuse - Z1 Computer First freely programmable computer.

• 1945 - Vannevar Bush first proposed the basics of hypertext.

• 1953 - International Business Machines IBM 701 EDPM Computer IBM enters into 'The History of Computers".

• 1962 - Steve Russell & MIT Spacewar Computer Game The first computer game invented.

• 1964 - Douglas Engelbart Computer Mouse & Windows Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end.

• 1969 - ARPAnet The original Internet.   ARPAnet protected the flow of information between military installations by creating a network of geographically separated computers that could exchange information via a newly developed protocol (rule for how computers interact) called NCP (Network Control Protocol).  Under ARPAnet several major innovations occurred: email (or electronic mail), the ability to send simple messages to another person across the network (1971); telnet, a remote connection service for controlling a computer (1972); and file transfer protocol (FTP), which allows information to be sent from one computer to another in bulk (1973).

• 1970 - Intel 1103 Computer Memory The world's first available dynamic RAM chip.

• 1971 - Computer engineer, Ray Tomlinson invented internet based email.  Ray Tomlinson chose the @ symbol to tell which user was "at" what computer. The @ goes in between the user's login name and the name of his/her host computer.

• 1973 - Robert Metcalfe & Xerox -  The Ethernet Computer Networking.

• 1973 - Internet Designed

• 1974/75 - Scelbi  & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers The first consumer computers.
  

  

• 1981 - IBM The IBM PC - Home Computer From an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution

• 1981 - Microsoft MS-DOS Computer Operating System From "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century.

• 1982 - Four computers were the first connected in the original ARPAnet. As the network expanded, different models of computers were connected, creating compatibility problems. The solution rested in a better set of protocols called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).   ARPAnet created the TCP/IP communications standard, which defines data transfer on the Internet today.

• 1983 - Internet up and Running.  As non-military uses for the network increased, more and more people had access, and it was no longer safe for military purposes. As a result, MILnet, a military only network, was started. Internet Protocol software was soon being placed on every type of computer, and universities and research groups also began using in-house networks known as Local Area Networks or LAN's. These in-house networks then started using Internet Protocol software so one LAN could connect with other LAN's.

• 1984 - Apple Macintosh Computer The more affordable home computer with a GUI.

• 1986 - One LAN branched out to form a new competing network, called NSFnet (National Science Foundation Network). NSFnet first linked together the five national supercomputer centers, then every major university, and it started to replace the slower ARPAnet (which was finally shutdown in 1990). NSFnet formed the backbone of what we call the Internet today.

• 1989 Tim B-L invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing.

• 1990 - Tim B-L - wrote the first World Wide Web (WWW) client and the first www server and defined standards such as (URL, HTML and HTTP).
  
  

• 1991 - Tim B-L - Made the Web available on the Internet. By giving the specifications for HyperText Markup Language (HTML - the code in which Web sites are written), HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP - the code by which sites are moved into and out of the Web), and UDIs (now a.k.a. URLs), Berners-Lee made it fairly easy for anyone with Internet access to contribute, as well as collect, information.

• 1994 - Marc Andreessen's and Eric Bina's Mosaic, Tim Berners-Lee formed the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), based at the Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT.   
  
  
  
  

• 1995 - Today.  More, More, More;  Faster, Faster, Faster.  

• "The Internet's pace of adoption eclipses all other technologies that preceded it. Radio was in existence 38 years before 50 million people tuned in; TV took 13 years to reach that benchmark. Sixteen years after the first PC kit came out, 50 million people were using one. Once it was opened to the general public, the Internet crossed that line in four years." - quote from the U.S. Department report "The Emerging Digital Economy".