Eight significant events in the 50 year history of computing

Abstract

The history of computing is relatively short compared with that of any other area of human knowledge, be it science, engineering, medicine, law, or accounting. On the other hand, the development of the field has been meteoric and computing now occupies a position as a major employer of professional persons, a major facet of industry and a body of knowledge to be disseminated at educational institutions and used - hopefully as a benefit to mankind. To have a broad perspective on the history of computing for the purposes of education, it is informative to review something like a fifty year period and to identify the really significant events which have paid a major role in developing computing technology as we see it and use it at the present time. This paper is inevitably subjective, but is based on the author's fifty year involvement on different levels and in different facets of computing. The number "eight" is chosen, albeit arbitrarily, as a appropriate number for a subject such as computing. © 2004 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.