The computer age began when ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was completed in 1945. The first multipurpose computer, ENIAC set speed records with an amazing 5,000 additions per second. Computers have come a long way since—a laptop today can do 500,000,000 additions per second.

That’s not the only difference. ENIAC weighed more than 30 tons, filled an 1,800-square-foot room and included 6,000 manual switches. It used so much electricity that it sometimes caused power shortages in its home city of Philadelphia. By contrast, a notebook PC today might weigh in at about 3 pounds.

Booting Up

You may know that “booting” your computer means starting it up. But did you know the word comes from “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? That’s an expression that means taking charge of yourself, which is what a computer seems to do when it starts up!

Bugging Out

The term “bug” has been used for problems in machinery since electricity was invented. But the first computer bug was actually a moth! In 1945, a computer being tested at Harvard University stalled when a moth got caught inside. The engineers taped the moth into their computer log with the note, “First actual case of bug being found.”

Computer Timeline

1945

The computer age begins with the debut of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). It is the first multipurpose computer.

1975

The MITS Altair, a PC-building kit, hits stores

Bill Gates and Paul Allen establish Microsoft.

1976

Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak start Apple Computer.

1977

Apple Computer introduces the Apple II computer.

1978

Floppy disks replace older data cassettes.

1981

IBM introduces a complete desktop PC

1983

TIME magazine names the PC “Man of the Year”

1984

The user-friendly Apple Macintosh goes on sale

1985

Microsoft launches Windows.

1992

The Apple PowerBook and IBM ThinkPad debut

1996

Palm releases the PalmPilot, a hand-held computer also called a “personal digital assistant.”

1997

The term "weblog" is coined. It's later shortened to "blog."

1998

Google opens its first office, in California.

1999

College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, a computer application that allows users to swap music over the Internet.

"E-commerce" becomes the new buzzword as Internet shopping rapidly spreads.

MySpace.com is launched.

2000

To the chagrin of the Internet population, deviant computer programmers begin designing and circulating viruses with greater frequency. "Love Bug" and "Stages" are two examples of self-replicating viruses that send themselves to people listed in a computer user's email address book.

America Online buys Time Warner for $16 billion. It's the biggest merger of all time.

2001

Wikipedia is created.

Apple introduces the iPod.

2003

Spam, unsolicited email, becomes a server-clogging menace. It accounts for about half of all emails. In December, President Bush signs the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM Act), which is intended to help individuals and businesses control the amount of unsolicited email they receive.

Apple Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download songs for 99 cents each.

2004

Mark Zuckerberg launches Thefacebook at Harvard. The site expands to other universities.

Google introduces gmail.

2005

YouTube.com is launched.

2006

There are more than 92 million websites online.

Twitter, a website for mini-blogging and social networking, debuts.

2007

Apple releases the iPhone in the United States. iPhone users can access social media sites and apps through their phone. The smartphone becomes a portable, hand-held mini-computer.

2010

Apple introduces the iPad.

2011

Social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook help activists organize an uprising in Egypt. The trend of using social networking websites to organize protests and demonstrations continues throughout 2011 in the Middle East and North Africa. Various governments attempt to shut down social media and internet access to crackdown on protest movements throughout 2011 to varying degrees of success.