Timeline: The 1940s

← Before 1940 · [[index|Thematic index]] · The 1950s →

1940

• Zuse’s Z2 tests telephone relays for arithmetic. → Konrad Zuse and the Z3
• Bush presents Roosevelt with a one-page plan for wartime science mobilization in June. → Vannevar Bush and the Memex

1941

• Bill Tutte reconstructs the Lorenz cipher machine’s structure from one operator error. → Tommy Flowers and Colossus
• Helmut Hölzer builds the first fully electronic analog computer at Peenemünde to simulate the A4 rocket. → Helmut Hölzer
• Konrad Zuse presents the Z3 in Berlin in May. → Konrad Zuse and the Z3

1942

• Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil patent frequency-hopping spread spectrum. → Hedy Lamarr and Frequency Hopping
• Schreyer’s experimental 100-tube machine exists; his 2,000-tube proposal is rejected. → Helmut Schreyer: The Missed Electronic Age
• The Ballistic Research Laboratory’s firing-table backlog creates the demand for ENIAC. → ENIAC and the First Electronic Computers
• The Daily Telegraph crossword contest staffs Bletchley Park. → Recruiting by Puzzle
• The Mischgerät, Hölzer’s electronic guidance computer, flies on the A4; it is the first computer aboard a vehicle. → Helmut Hölzer

1943

• McCulloch and Pitts model neurons as logic gates; Wiener and Rosenblueth publish “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology”. → Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics
• NACA establishes the segregated West Area computing pool; Dorothy Vaughan is hired. → Women in Computing: The Invisible Pioneers
• Tommy Flowers builds Colossus at Bletchley Park. → Tommy Flowers and Colossus
• The Army signs the ENIAC contract with the Moore School on 5 June. → ENIAC and the First Electronic Computers

1944

• Grace Hopper is commissioned in the Naval Reserve and assigned to the Harvard Mark I. → Grace Hopper: The Queen of Code
• IBM builds Howard Aiken’s electromechanical Harvard Mark I. → IBM: The Company
• Whirlwind is conceived at MIT as a Navy flight simulator; it becomes the first real-time computer. → Whirlwind, SAGE, and Core Memory
• Colossus Mark 1 arrives at Bletchley Park on 18 January. → Tommy Flowers and Colossus

1945

• Perry Crawford sees ENIAC and turns Whirlwind digital. → Whirlwind, SAGE, and Core Memory
• Six women are selected to program ENIAC. → Women in Computing: The Invisible Pioneers
• The EDVAC report describes the stored-program architecture. → The Von Neumann Architecture
• Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” describes the Memex. → Vannevar Bush and the Memex
• Von Neumann’s EDVAC report spreads the stored-program design. → John von Neumann
• The First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC circulates in June. → The Von Neumann Architecture
• ENIAC runs its first test calculation on 10 November. → ENIAC and the First Electronic Computers

1946

• Antonín Svoboda returns from MIT to Prague. → Czechoslovakia’s Computing Industry: Svoboda, SAPO, and the Institute That Lost Its Founder
• Sony is founded in postwar Tokyo. → Sony: From Rice Cooker to PlayStation
• The IEEE Computer Society’s institutional origins begin. → IEEE Computer Society
• The Macy Conferences on cybernetics begin. → Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics
• ENIAC is dedicated at the Moore School on 15 February. → ENIAC and the First Electronic Computers
• Wilkes reads the EDVAC report in one night in May and decides to build a stored-program machine. → Maurice Wilkes and EDSAC

1947

• Bell Labs formalizes the cellular concept of frequency reuse. → Cellular Networks: From 1G to 5G
• George Dantzig invents the simplex method. → George Dantzig and the Simplex Method
• Kathleen Booth creates the first assembly language at Birkbeck. → Kathleen Booth and the First Assembler
• The Haloid Company of Rochester licenses Carlson’s electrophotography from Battelle; the word xerography is coined the next year. → Chester Carlson
• A moth is taped into the Harvard Mark II logbook on 9 September: “first actual case of bug being found”. → Grace Hopper: The Queen of Code
• The Association for Computing Machinery is founded on 15 September. → ACM: The Association for Computing Machinery
• Bardeen and Brattain demonstrate the point-contact transistor at Bell Labs on 16 December. → The Transistor: The Invention That Made Everything Else Possible

1948

• Jean Bartik’s team converts ENIAC to stored-program operation. → Women in Computing: The Invisible Pioneers
• Shannon’s “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” founds information theory. → Claude Shannon and Information Theory
• Shockley invents the junction transistor, the manufacturable form of the device. → From Vacuum Tubes to Transistors: The Dawn of the Semiconductor Age
• The Monte Carlo method runs on ENIAC for nuclear weapons design. → Monte Carlo Methods
• Wiener publishes Cybernetics. → Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics
• The Manchester Baby runs the first stored program on 21 June. → The Manchester Baby: The First Stored-Program Computer

1949

• CSIRAC, among the first stored-program computers in the world, runs in Australia. → Australia’s Tech Industry: Atlassian, WiFi, and the Tyranny of Distance
• Dorothy Vaughan becomes NACA’s first Black supervisor. → Women in Computing: The Invisible Pioneers
• EDSAC runs at Cambridge, the first stored-program computer to offer a regular service. → Maurice Wilkes and EDSAC
• EDSAC runs its first program, a table of squares, on 6 May. → Maurice Wilkes and EDSAC
• The Soviet atomic test in August turns Whirlwind into an air-defense project; An Wang files the core-memory patent. → Whirlwind, SAGE, and Core Memory

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