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First Published Use of the Term "Hacker" in the Context of Computing

11/20/1963
screenshot of partial page of MIT student Newspaper The Tech Nov 20, 1963

Partial page of the MIT student newspaper, The Tech containing the first published use of the term "hacker" in the context of computing.

On November 20, 1963 the first published use of the term "hacker" in the context of computing appeared in the MIT student newspaper, The Tech:

"Many telephone services have been curtailed because of so-called hackers, according to Prof. Carlton Tucker, administrator of the Institute phone system. . . .The hackers have accomplished such things as tying up all the tie-lines between Harvard and MIT, or making long-distance calls by charging them to a local radar installation. One method involved connecting the PDP-1 computer to the phone system to search the lines until a dial tone, indicating an outside line, was found. . . . Because of the 'hacking,' the majority of the MIT phones are 'trapped.' "

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