From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Computer & Calculator Industry Outline

Charles Thomas de Colmar Invents the Arithmometer
(1820)

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

Ancestor of IBM
(1896)

The Automatic Punched Card Feed
(1900)

Hollerith Sells the Tabulating Machine Company to Flint
(1911)

A Mechanical Punched-Card Tabulating System
(1911)

20,000 Calculators
(1912)

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)

IBM is Founded
(1924)

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

Foundation of Texas Instruments
(May 16, 1930)

The IBM 601 Multiplying Punch
(1931)

The First Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator
(September 1935)

"The Most Significant Master's Thesis of the 20th Century"
(August 10, 1937)

Construction of the Harvard Mark I Begins
(1939)

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

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

The World's First Electronic Computer Company
(September 1946)

The Most Advanced Small Mechanical Calculator
(1947)

Von Neumann's First Draft Bars Patenting the ENIAC
(April 8, 1947)

Naming UNIVAC
(May 24, 1947)

Eckert & Mauchly Apply for a Patent on the Stored-Program Computer
(June 26, 1947)

Predecessor of the ACM
(September 15, 1947)

Northrop Places the Contract for the BINAC
(October 1947)

Patenting the Mercury Acoustic Delay-Line Electronic Memory
(October 31, 1947)

The First Brochure Advertising an Electronic Computer
(Circa November 1947)

Contract for Production of the UNIVAC
(1948)

First Assemblage of Digital Electronics Replaceable as a Unit
(1948)

Innovations in the BINAC
(September 9, 1948)

First Program Run on the First Stored-Program Electronic Computer in the U.S.
(February 1949)

The First Press Release Ever Issued for the Sale on an Electronic Computer
(August 22, 1949)

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

Eckert-Mauchly is Sold to Remington Rand
(February 6, 1950)

The First Credit Card
(March 1950)

Simon, the First Personal Computer
(November 1950)

IBM's First Electronic Computer, the 701
(1951)

Ferranti Mark I
(February 1951)

The First Electronic Computer Commercially Manufactured in the United States
(March 31, 1951)

The First Computer Salesman in England
(July 9 – July 12, 1951)

First Stored-Program Computer to Run Business Programs on a Routine Basis
(November 17, 1951)

First Electronic Computer Produced in France
(1952)

First West Coast Computer Meeting
(April 30 – May 2, 1952)

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

IBM Produces an "Electronic Data Processing Machine"
(December 1952)

First Widely Read English Book on Electronic Computing
(1953)

IBM 702
(September 1953)

The Deuce
(1954)

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

First Computer to be Sold to a Non-Governmental Customer in the U.S.
(1954)

The First Supercomputer
(1954)

Journal of the ACM
(January 1954)

The First Solid State Computer
(1955)

First Stored-Program Computer Produced for Sale in France
(1955)

The Beginning of Computerization of Banking
(September 1955)

First Japanese Stored-Program Computer
(March 1956)

Sperry Rand Cross-Licenses Patents with IBM
(August 21, 1956)

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

First Japanese Conference on Electronic Computers
(November 1956)

So-Called Second Generation of Computers
(1957)

First Commercial Electronic Computer Produced in Germany
(1958)

The First Transistorized Supercomputer
(1958)

Manufacturing Integrated Circuits
(1958)

The IBM 1401, a Relatively Inexpensive Computer
(1958)

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

ERMA and MICR
(1959)

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

ARPA Increases Funding for Research on Computing
(1960)

The First Commercially Available General Purpose Computer with Transistor Logic
(1960)

6000 Computers in U.S., Out of 10,000 Worldwide
(1960)

COBOL Allows Compatibility Between Computers Made by Different Manufacturers
(December 6 – December 7, 1960)

Over 7000 People Belong to the ACM
(1961)

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

The First Integrated Circuit Computer
(October 19, 1961)

Origins of the IBM System/360
(December 28, 1961)

ASCII is Promulgated
(1963)

The First Commercially Produced Mini-Computer
(1963)

General Typesetting Computers
(1963)

The First Commercial Computers to Use Integrated Circuits
(1964)

The Beginning of "Word Processing"
(1964)

The ENIAC Patent
(February 4, 1964)

First Consumer Product with an Integrated Circuit
(February 14, 1964)

The IBM System/360 Family
(April 7, 1964)

The First Production Model Minicomputer
(1965)

Early Home Computer?
(1965)

Moore's Law
(April 19, 1965)

Semi-Conductor Memory
(1966)

The First Hand-Held Electronic Calculator
(1967)

The HP Desk Calculator
(1968)

Unbundling Gives Rise to the Software and Services Industry
(1968)

Foundation of Intel
(July 18, 1968)

Software Engineering
(October 7 – October 11, 1968)

AMD
(May 1, 1969)

PDP-11
(1970)

Xerox PARC
(1970)

The First Commercially Available DRAM Chip
(1970)

The First ATM
(Circa 1970)

First Systematic Review of Computer Security Issues
(February 1970)

System/370 Using Semiconductor Memory
(June 30, 1970)

The First General Patent on the Microprocessor
(December 1970)

The First Microprocessor
(1971)

Speech Recognition Technology
(1971)

Intel 8008
(1971)

"A Calculator in Every Kitchen or Businessman's Pocket'
(September 17, 1971)

Expensive Electronic Calculators Flood the Market
(1972 – 1974)

Conceptually, the First Personal Computer System
(1973)

First Electronic Pagination System, Forerunner of Email and Instant Messaging
(1973)

CP/M
(1973 – 1974)

The ENIAC Patent is Invalidated
(October 19, 1973)

The Term "Mainframe"
(1974)

The First Microprocessor for the First Personal Computer
(March 1974)

An Antitrust Suit to Break up AT&T
(November 20, 1974)

First Computer Language Written for a Personal Computer
(1975)

200,000 Computers are Operating in the U. S.
(1975)

The First Personal Computer Offered for Sale
(January 1975)

The Homebrew Computer Club Holds its First Meeting
(Circa April 1975)

U.S. v. IBM is in Trial
(May 19, 1975)

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

The Apple 1
(1976)

First Print-to-Speech Reading Machine
(1976)

An Open Letter to Hobbyists
(February 3, 1976)

Probably the First Personal Computer Conference
(March 1976)

Intel's 8086
(1977)

The First Personal Computer Sold as a Fully Assembled Product
(1977)

Gates and Allen Found Microsoft
(1977)

Inaugurating the Concept of Office Automation
(1977)

Intel 8088
(July 1, 1979)

QDOS becomes Microsoft PC-DOS
(December 1980)

Xerox Star
(1981)

The First Commercially Successful Portable Computer
(1981)

Quick and Dirty Operating System Becomes MS-DOS
(July 1981)

The IBM PC
(August 12, 1981)

Lotus Development Corporation is Founded
(1982)

Sun Microsystems Announces its First Workstation
(1982)

The First "Clamshell" Laptop?
(1982)

The U.S. Withdraws its Antitrust Case Against IBM
(January 8, 1982)

The First Cheap Home Computer
(August 1982)

The First Scanner?
(November 1982)

The "Trash" 80: The First Laptop?
(1983)

Oracle Corporation
(1983)

6,000,000 Personal Computers are Sold in the U.S.
(1983)

Apple Introduces the "Mac"
(January 24, 1984)

Michael Dell Founds "PC's Limited"
(May 3, 1984)

Cisco Systems
(December 1984)

The Intel 386
(1985)

The First Laserprinter for a Microcomputer
(January 1985)

Windows 1.0
(November 20, 1985)

The First Hand-Held Electronic Book, or e-Book
(1986)

25,000,000 PCs Have Been Sold in the U.S.
(1987)

The First Commercial Network-Based Groupware Program
(1988)

Cyberspace Law
(October 29, 1991)

Scalable Parallel Systems
(1993)

Climax of the Dot-Com Bubble
(March 10, 2000)

The ASCI White Supercomputer
(June 29, 2000)

IBM Forms a Life Sciences Division
(August 2000)

IBM and the Holocaust
(2001)

Xbox
(November 15, 2001)

Introduction of Apple's iPad
(January 27, 2010)