“Fascinating Tales from the Evolution of Computers!”
The last time I wrote a blog about History of the computers, I came across some facts that drew my interest to research them. And to my surprise, the facts are super fascinating.
So in this blog, I would like to share the top 18 facts that made things even more interesting in the History of computers.
1. The term “computer bug” was first used by Admiral Grace Hopper. In 1947, she found an actual moth causing problems in the Mark II computer at Harvard University and taped it into the logbook, coining the term “debugging.”
2. The world’s first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace. In the 1840s, she wrote the first algorithm intended for implementation on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, making her the world’s first computer programmer, even though the Analytical Engine was never completed.
3. The first computer mouse was made of wood. In 1964, Doug Engelbart invented the mouse, and the prototype was a wooden box with two metal wheels.
4. The first computer to be controlled by software was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) in 1945. It weighed 30 tons and used over 17,000 vacuum tubes.
5. The first computer game was created in 1961. It was a rudimentary version of Spacewar! developed by Steve Russell and others at MIT.
6. The mouse was initially called the “X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System” by its inventor, Doug Engelbart. The term “mouse” came later due to its long cord resembling a tail.
7. The concept of email was first introduced by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. He chose the “@” symbol to signify sending messages from one computer to another.
8. The first computer virus, named “Brain,” was created in 1986 by two Pakistani brothers to deter illegal copying of software.
9. The first computer-animated film was “Toy Story,” released by Pixar in 1995.
10. The first webcam was used at the University of Cambridge in 1993 to monitor a coffee pot.
11. The computer used by NASA for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969 had less processing power than a modern smartphone.
12. The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed in 1868 for typewriters to prevent jamming, not necessarily for optimal typing speed.
13. The world’s first computer virus for Microsoft Windows, named “Concept,” was discovered in 1986.
14. The term “pixel” is a combination of “picture” and “element.” The concept was first introduced by Frederic C. Billingsley in 1965.
15. The first computer to defeat a world chess champion was IBM’s Deep Blue, which defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.
16. The term “Wi-Fi” doesn’t stand for anything. It was just a play on “Hi-Fi” (High Fidelity).
17. The first domain name ever registered was symbolics.com on March 15, 1985.
18. The first computer-generated movie was “Westworld” in 1973, featuring 2D computer graphics.
From bugs in a basement to mice made of wood, everything turns into inventions, sometimes even a solution for new evolutions.
Note: All the images I post here are from Google. So I am posting the link to the images I use below them. So If you want to use them plz visit the official website. I give all the credit to the owners of those images.