From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Computing Theory Outline

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

The Analytical Engine
(1834)

The First Published Computer Programs
(1842)

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

The Mathematical Analysis of Logic
(1847)

Boolean Algebra
(1854)

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
(1864)

"On Governors"
(1868)

The First Logic Machine to Solve Complicated Problems Faster than Man
(1870)

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

Mathematische Probleme
(1900)

The First Decision-Making Automaton
(1911)

The Lowenheim-Skolem Theorem
(1915)

The Lowenheim-Skolem Theorem
(1920)

Is Mathematics Complete, is it Consistent, and is it Decidable?
(1928)

The Minimax Theorem
(1928)

Godel's Proof
(1931)

Zuse Begins Working on Computers
(1934)

The Rapid Arithmetical Machine Project
(1936)

Proof of Undecidability
(1936)

Turing Studies with Alonzo Church
(1936 – 1938)

Zuse's Z1: The First Freely Programmable Binary-Based Calculating Machine
(April 11, 1936)

"On Computable Numbers"
(May 1936)

The Turing Machine
(August 1936)

The Post-Turing Machine
(October 1936)

Turing and von Neumann Discuss What Will Eventually be Called "Artificial Intelligence"
(1937)

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

Atanasoff Plans the ABC Machine
(Circa December 1937)

Zuse Completes the Z1
(1938)

Construction of the Harvard Mark I Begins
(1939)

Turing Reports to Bletchley Park
(September 4, 1939)

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

The Rapid Arithmetical Machine Project
(March 7, 1940)

Design and Principles of the ABC Machine
(August 1940)

All the Features of an Electronic Digital Computer Except a Stored Program
(September 23, 1940)

Mauchly Meets Atanasoff
(December 1940)

An Improved Bombe
(Circa December 1940)

Converting Zuse's Logical Designs into Switching Circuits
(1941)

Eckert and Mauchly Begin their Collaboration
(Circa June 1941)

Atanasoff Abandons Work on his ABC Machine
(1942)

Z4
(1942)

High Speed Vacuum Tube Devices for Calculating
(August 1942)

The First Mathematical Model of a Neural Network
(1943)

Walter Pitts Works with Norbert Wiener
(1943)

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

The First Theoretical Description of a Stored-Program Computer
(June 30, 1945)

The Moore School Lectures Take Place
(1946)

The Macy Conferences
(1946 – 1953)

Von Neumann Begins the Princeton IAS Computer Project
(March 1946)

Ideas to be Incorporated into the Princeton IAS Design
(June 28, 1946)

"Practical Versions of the Universal Machine"
(February 20, 1947)

First Theoretical Discussion of Programming a Stored-Program Computer
(April 1947)

Cybernetics
(1948)

Comparison of Computers and the Human Brain
(September 20, 1948)

The First Popular Book on Electronic Computers
(1949)

The Differences between Computers and the Human Brain
(June 9, 1949)

The Turing Test
(1950)

The First Weather Forecast by Electronic Computer
(1950)

The First Technical Paper on Computer Chess
(March 1950)

Calculating Machines and Human Thought
(January 8 – January 13, 1951)

von Neumann Dies
(February 8, 1957)

Machines Can Learn from Past Errors
(July 1959)

Packet Switching
(April 1962)

The Resolution Principle
(January 1965)

The Cooley-Tukey FFT Algorithm
(April 1965)

The First Book on Digital Physics
(1969)

The First Computer Employing RISC
(1974)

Is the Universe Made of Information?
(February 2007)