From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Mathematics / Logic Outline

The Oldest Known Mathematical Artifact
(35,000 BCE)

Information Recorded in Cave Paintings
(Circa 30,000 BCE)

The Ishango Bone
(25,000 BCE – 20,000 BCE)

Neolithic Tokens Replace Paleolithic Tally Sticks
(Circa 8,000 BCE)

The First Securely Datable Mathematical Table in World History
(Circa 2,600 BCE)

The Older of the Two Best-Known Mathematical Papyri
(Circa 2,000 BCE)

The Most Famous Document of Babylonian Mathematics
(Circa 1,822 BCE – 1,784 BCE)

Thousands of Cuneiform Tablets Document Babylonian Mathematics
(1,800 BCE – 1,600 BCE)

“Accurate Reckoning for Inquiring into Things, and the Knowledge of All Things, Mysteries . . .All Secrets”
(Circa 1,650 BCE)

The First Known Description of a Binary Numerical System
(Circa 500 BCE)

The Egyptians Reckon with Pebbles and Probably Use the Sandboard Abacus
(Circa 440 BCE)

Arabic Numerals are Invented in India by the Hindus
(Circa 400 BCE)

"The Founding Document of Mathematics"
(323 BCE – 283 BCE)

The Earliest Surviving Counting Board
(Circa 300 BCE)

The Mawangui Silk Texts
(Circa 175 BCE)

The Earliest Analog Computer
(Circa 150 BCE – 100 BCE)

Probably the First Trigonometric Table
(Circa 150 BCE)

Invention of the Astrolabe
(Circa 150 BCE – 100 BCE)

Julius Caesar Introduces a Calendar and Plans a Great Library
(46 BCE)

The First Census of Which Records are Preserved
(2 CE)

One of the Oldest and Most Complete Diagrams from Euclid
(75 CE – 125 CE)

Thedoric Executes the Philosopher Boethius: Beginning of the Middle Ages
(524 – 525)

Computus
(525)

Early Advanced Mathematics
(628)

Foundation of Corbie Abbey
(659 – 661)

Earliest Western Reference to Indian or Arabic Numerals
(662)

Perhaps the Earliest Extant Treatise on Finger Reckoning
(688)

Finger Reckoning and Computus in the Eighth Century
(725)

How the Hindu Numbers Came to the Arabs
(Circa 776)

Algorithm Invented; Introduction of the Decimal Positional Number System to the West
(Circa 825)

Origins of the Term, Algebra
(Circa 830)

The Earliest Surviving Manuscript Closest to Euclid's Original Text
(Circa 850)

The Oldest Dated Manuscript of a Classical Greek Author
(888)

The Earliest Surviving Dated Astrolabe
(927 – 928)

The Earliest Surviving Copy of Pappus's Mathematical Collection
(Circa 950)

The Earliest Record of the Use of Arabic Numerals in Europe
(976)

The Mathematician Pope Reintroduces the Abacus and Armillary Sphere
(Circa 1000)

The Leading Translator from the Arabic
(Circa 1150)

Originator of the Concept of Mathematical Function
(Circa 1150)

The Suanpan
(Circa 1200)

Fibonacci Introduces Arabic Numerals to the European Public and Describes the Fibonacci Sequence
(1202)

The European Table Abacus
(Circa 1299)

Logical Machines for the Production of Knowledge
(1305)

The Aztec Calendar Stone
(1427 – 1479)

The Earliest Known Treatise on Shipbuilding
(1434)

The First Dated Printed Book on Arithmetic and the Operation of the Abacus
(December 10, 1478)

The Most Famous Textbook Ever Published
(May 25, 1482)

Among the Earliest Printed Mathematical Tables
(July 4, 1483)

The First Great General Work on Mathematics
(November 10 – November 20, 1494)

First Printed Edition of the Greek Text of Euclid
(September 1533)

The Copernican Revolution Begins
(1543)

The First Treatise on Mathematics Published in the Western Hemisphere and the First Textbook on Any Subject Besides Religion Printed Outside of Europe
(1556)

Classic of Mannerist Book Illustration and Printing
(June 28, 1560)

One of the Earliest Pop-Up Books
(1570)

Classic of Mathematics and Typography
(1579)

The Gregorian Calendar
(February 24, 1582)

The First "Computer Manual"
(1606)

The Invention of Logarithms
(1614)

Napier's Bones & the Lightning Calculator
(1617)

Kepler Creates Logarithms by a New Procedure
(1624 – 1625)

The First Complete Set of Modern Logarithms
(1628)

Descartes Discusses the Idea of an Artificial Language
(1629)

The Circular Form of Slide Rule
(1630)

"Je pense, donc je suis."
(1637)

The Pascaline
(1642)

The Sliding Stick Form of Slide Rule
(Circa 1650)

The Mathematical Organ
(1668)

First Book on a Calculating Machine Published in English
(1672)

Leibnitz Invents the Stepped Drum Gear Calculator
(1673 – 1710)

The Mathematical Analysis of Pendulum Motion
(1673)

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

First Publication on the Differential Calculus
(1684)

Newton's Principia Mathematica
(1687)

The First Independently Published Bibliography of Mathematics
(1688)

Newton's Opticks
(1704)

First Publication of Newton's Early Writings on the Calculus
(1711)

Newton - Leibniz Dispute over Invention of the Calculus
(1712)

Possibly the Earliest References to a Fictional Device that Resembles a Modern Computer
(1726)

The First Correct Life Tables
(1746 – 1760)

The Earliest Formal Treatment of "Data-Processing"
(1755)

Bayes's Theorem
(1763)

Computing the "Seaman's Bible"
(1766)

Discovery of the Method of Least Squares
(1795)

Gradual Disappearance of the Long S in Typography
(Circa 1800 – 1820)

Mathematical Tables Calculated by Hairdressers Unemployed after the French Revolution
(1801)

The Prince of Mathematicians
(1801)

First Publication of the Method of Least Squares
(1805)

Babbage Begins Construction of his Difference Engine
(1822)

The Fourier Series
(1822)

Non-Euclidean Geometry
(1829 – 1830)

Non-Euclidean Geometry Independently Discovered
(1832 – 1833)

Decipherment of the Mayan System of Counting
(1832)

Solution of Differential Equations Using a Mechanical Device
(1836)

Mathematical Model of a Continuously Growing Population
(1838)

The First Published Computer Programs
(1842)

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

The Mathematical Analysis of Logic
(1847)

The First Separately PublishedBibliography on the History of Science
(1847)

Boolean Algebra
(1854)

One of the Most Remarkable Human Computers
(1856)

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
(1864)

Field Equations
(1865)

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

Mathematical Study of Anthropological Data
(1871)

The First Logarithmic Table Produced by a Calculating Machine
(1875)

Invention of the Integraph
(1878)

Foundation of Modern Mathematical Logic
(1879)

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
(1884)

Publication of the Tables of de Prony
(1891)

Nomograms: A Graphical Method of Calculation
(1891)

The First International Exhibition of Mathematical Devices
(September 1893)

Mathematische Probleme
(1900)

The First Library of Rare Science Books Formed by an American
(1908)

Principia Mathematica
(1910 – 1913)

How the Quipu System of Mathematical Record-Keeping Worked
(1912)

The Lowenheim-Skolem Theorem
(1915)

The Basis for Computed Tomography
(1917)

The Lowenheim-Skolem Theorem
(1920)

The Basic Equations for Two-Species Interactions
(1926)

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

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

Hartley's Law
(1928)

The Minimax Theorem
(1928)

The Deduction Theorem
(1930)

Godel's Proof
(1931)

The Rapid Arithmetical Machine Project
(1936)

Proof of Undecidability
(1936)

Turing Studies with Alonzo Church
(1936 – 1938)

"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 First Electromechanical Computer Built in America
(November 1937)

Zuse Completes the Z1
(1938)

Turing Reports to Bletchley Park
(September 4, 1939)

Communication Theory as a Statistical Problem
(1942)

Walter Pitts Works with Norbert Wiener
(1943)

The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior
(1944)

The First Mathematical Tables Calculated by a Programmed Automatic Computer
(Circa October 1945)

Soroban Beats Electric Calculator
(November 12, 1946)

Proof that a Program Could Reproduce Itself
(December 1949)

The ENIAC is Retired
(1955)

The Computer and the Brain
(1955)

von Neumann Dies
(February 8, 1957)

The Nautical Almanac is Finally Produced by an Electronic Computer
(1959)

The First Journal on Computing Changes its Name
(1960)

The Resolution Principle
(January 1965)

The Cooley-Tukey FFT Algorithm
(April 1965)

The Viterbi Algorithm
(1967)

Fractals
(1975)

Coining the Term Computer Virus
(November 10, 1983)

Mathematica 1.0
(1988)

The First Intelligible Word from an Extinct South American Civilization?
(August 12, 2005)

Using Currency Movements to Predict the Spread of Infectious Disease
(January 26, 2006)

Previously Unknown Speeches by Hyperides
(November 2006)

Toward a World Digital Mathematics Library
(July 27, 2008)

Using Air Traffic and Currency Tracking Data in Epidemiology
(May 3, 2009)