Computer & Calculator Industry Timeline Outline

The First Complete Set of Modern Logarithms
(1628)

The First Commercially Produced Mechanical Calculator
(1820)

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

The Earliest Exhibition Exclusively of Scientific Instruments
(1876)

The Burroughs Dependable Key-Driven Printing Adding Machine
(1892)

The Millionaire Calculator
(1893)

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)

C-T-R
(June 16, 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)

The Eighty-Column Punched Card
(1928)

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 First Electronic Computer Company Receives its first Grant
(September 1946)

The Most Advanced Small Mechanical Calculator
(1947)

First Large Conference on Electronic Computers
(January 7 – January 10, 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)

The First Supercomputer
(1950 – 1954)

The First Credit Card
(February 1950)

Eckert-Mauchly is Sold to Remington Rand
(February 6, 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 – June 14, 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)

Vaccuum Tubes Especially Designed for Digital Circuits
(1952)

First Electronic Computer Produced in France
(1952)

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

The 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)

The First Report on the Application of Electronic Computers to Business
(June 1953)

IBM 702
(September 1953)

The Deuce
(1954)

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

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

Journal of the ACM
(January 1954)

The First Solid State Computer
(1955)

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

The First Independent Software Company
(1955)

The Beginning of Computerization of Banking
(September 1955)

The First Full-Scale Programmable Japanese Computer
(October 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)

There are Forty Computers on American University Campuses
(1957)

First Commercial Electronic Computer Produced in Germany
(1958)

The First Transistorized Supercomputer
(1958)

The IBM 1401, a Relatively Inexpensive Computer
(1958)

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

Manufacturing Integrated Circuits
(1959)

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 – 1962)

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)

The First 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 – June 25, 1974)

35,000 Computers Were Operating in the United States
(1967)

The First Marketed, Mass-Produced Programmable Calculator, or Personal Computer
(1968)

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

Foundation of Intel
(July 18, 1968)

Software Engineering
(October 7 – October 11, 1968)

The First ATM
(Circa 1969 – 1970)

The Datapoint 2200: Precursor of the Personal Computer and the Microprocessor
(1969 – 1971)

AMD
(May 1, 1969)

PDP-11
(1970)

Xerox PARC is Founded
(1970)

The First Commercially Available DRAM Chip
(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)

Precursor to "Micro-Soft"
(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)

The 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
(March 1975)

Gates and Allen Officially Found "Micro-Soft" (Microsoft)
(April 4, 1975)

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

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

First Print-to-Speech Reading Machine
(1976)

An Open Letter to Hobbyists
(February 3, 1976)

Probably the First Personal Computer Conference
(March 1976)

Foundation of Apple Computer and the Origin of the Name
(April 1, 1976 – December 13, 2011)

The Apple I is Released
(July 1976)

Intel's 8086
(1977)

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

Inaugurating the Concept of Office Automation
(1977)

Intel 8088
(July 1, 1979)

QDOS becomes Microsoft PC-DOS
(December 1980)

The Xerox Star: The "Office of the Future"
(1981)

The First Commercially Successful "Portable" Computer
(April 1981)

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

IBM Introduces the IBM 5150- The IBM PC
(August 12, 1981)

Lotus Development Corporation is Founded
(1982)

The First "Clamshell" Laptop?
(1982)

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

Sun Microsystems Announces its First Workstation
(February 24, 1982)

The First IBM PC Compatible Computer
(June 1982)

The First Cheap Home Computer
(August 1982)

The First Scanner?
(November 1982)

The "Trash" 80: The First Notebook Computer?
(1983)

Oracle Corporation
(1983)

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

The First Commercially Available IBM PC Compatible ROM Bios
(1983 – May 1984)

A Computer's Operating System Can be Protected by Copyright
(1983)

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

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

Cisco Systems is Founded
(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)

One of the First U.S. Cases in 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)

PC Magazine Becomes an Online-Only Publication
(November 19, 2008)

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

An Apple 1 Computer Sells for $210,000 in 2010 and for $671,400 in 2013
(November 23, 2010 – May 25, 2013)

$1,300,000,000 Verdict in Software Copyright Infringement Suit Partially Vacated
(November 23, 2010 – September 1, 2011)

More than Ten Billion Apps are Downloaded from the Apple App Store
(January 22, 2011)

Steve Jobs Dies
(October 5, 2011)

"Information Technology Dividends Outpace All Others"
(January 11, 2013)

Smartphone Interactive Reading Device Will Track Eyes to Scroll Pages
(March 4, 2013)