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Year	Event
1614	John Napier invented logarithms.
1615	William Oughtred invented the
	slide rule.
1623	Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635)
	invented the mechanical
	calculating machine.
1642	Blaise Pascal produced a
	calculator.
1672-4	Gottfried Leibniz built his
	first calculator, the
	'Stepped Reckoner'.
1801	Joseph-Marie Jacquard
	developed an automatic loom
	controlled by punch cards.
1820	The first mass-produced
	calculator, the Arithometer,
	was developed by Charles Thomas
	de Colmar (1785-1870).
1822	Charles Babbage completed his
	first model for the difference
	engine.
1834	Babbage created the first design
	for the analytical engine.
1855	Calculating engine constructed
	by G. Schentz and exhibited at
	the Paris exhibition.
1889	Herman Hollerith developed the
	punched-card ruler for the US
	census.
1924	Tabulating Machine Company of
	the US becomes International
	Business Machines (IBM).
1936	Alan Turing published the
	mathematical theory of
	computing.
1938	Konrad Zuse constructed the
	first binary calculator, using
	Boolean algebra.
1939	US mathematician and physicist
	J V Atanasoff (1903- ) became
	the first to use electronic
	means for mechanising
	arithmetical operations.
1943	The Colossus electronic code-
	breaker was developed at
	Bletchley Park, England.
	The Harvard University Mark I
	or Automatic Sequence
	Controlled Calculator (partly
	financed by IBM) became the
	first program controlled
	calculator.
1946	ENIAC (electronic numerator,
	integrator, analyser, and
	computer), the first, fully
	electronic digital computer, was
	completed at the University of
	Pennsylvania, USA.
1948	Manchester University (England)
	Mark I, the first stored-
	program computer, was
	completed.
	William Shockley of Bell
	Laboratories invented the
	transistor.
1951	Launch of Ferranti Mark I,
	the first commercially
	produced computer.
	Whirlwind, the first real-time
	computer, was built for the US
	air-defence system.
	Grace Murray Hopper of
	Remington Rand invented the
	compiler computer program.
1952	EDVAC (electronic discrete
	variable computer) was
	completed at the Institute
	for Advanced Study, Princeton,
	USA (by John Von Neumann
	and others).
1953	Magnetic core memory was
	developed.
1954	The first high-level programming
	language  (Fortran) published by
	IBM.
1958	The first integrated circuit was
	constructed.
1963	The first minicomputer was built
	by Digital Equipment (DEC).
	The first electronic calculator
	was built by Bell Punch Company.
1964	Launch of IBM System/360, the
	first compatible family of
	computers.
	John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz
	of Dartmouth College invented
	BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose
	Symbolic Instruction Code),
	a computer language similar
	to FORTRAN.
	The first word processor was
	introduced by IBM.
1965	The first supercomputer, the
	Control Data CD6600, was
	developed.
1971	The first microprocessor, the
	Intel 4004, was announced.
1974	CLIP-4, the first computer with
	a parallel architecture, was
	developed by John Backus at IBM.
1975	Altair 8800, the first personal
	computer (PC), or microcomputer,
	was launched.
1978	Magnetic discs first introduced
	by Oyz.
1979	First videotext information
	system, Prestel, launched by
	British Telecom.
1980	RISC (Reduced Instruction Set
	Computer) chip developed by
	Intel.
1981	The Xerox Star system, the first
	WIMP system (windows, icons,
	menus, and pointing devices),
	was developed.
	IBM introduced the IBM-PC.
1984	Apple launched the Macintosh
	computer.
	CD-ROM introduced as data
	storage.
1985	The Inmos T414 transputer, the
	first 'off-the-shelf'
	microprocessor for building
	parallel computers, was
	announced.
	Commodore launched the first
	Amiga, the A1000.
	Optical Fibres first used to
	link mainframe computers.
1986	High-temperature
	superconductors discovered
	at IBM laboratories, with
	potential for superconducting
	computers in the future.
1988	The first optical microprocessor,
	which uses light instead of
	electricity, was developed.
1989	Wafer-scale silicon memory
	chips, able to store 200
	million characters, were
	launched.
1990	Microsoft released Windows 3
	windowing environment for PCs.
1991	Apple Macintosh PowerBook
	laptop microcomputer, able to
	function as a desktop.
1992	Philips launched the CD-I
	(Compact-Disc Interactive)
	player, based on CD audio
	technology, to provide
	interactive multimedia
	programs for the home user.
1993	Intel launched the Pentium
	chip containing 3.1 million
	transistors and capable of
	100 MIPs (millions of
	instructions per second).
	The Personal Digital Assistant
	(PDA), which recognises users'
	handwriting, went on sale.