Lovelace published the first machine algorithm in 1843
In 1843 Ada Lovelace published, in Note G of her notes on the Analytical Engine, what is widely regarded as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine.
Facts
Atomic, verifiable facts - every one tied to a primary source.
13 entries, all primary-sourced
Go Was Designed at Google
Go was designed at Google starting in 2007 by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson, and released as open source in 2009.
Java's slogan: Write Once, Run Anywhere
Sun Microsystems marketed Java with the slogan 'Write Once, Run Anywhere' (WORA), capturing its promise that one compiled program would run on any platform with a Java Virtual Machine.
MS-DOS Started as QDOS
MS-DOS began as 86-DOS, also called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), written by Tim Paterson at Seattle Computer Products and later acquired by Microsoft.
npm Is the World's Largest Software Registry
npm describes itself as the world's largest software registry, hosting the JavaScript ecosystem's enormous collection of shared packages.
PHP Originally Meant Personal Home Page
PHP first stood for Personal Home Page, the name of Rasmus Lerdorf's 1994 tools, but it was later redefined as the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
The World Wide Web Was Invented at CERN
The World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee at the CERN physics laboratory, starting with his 1989 proposal.
C was created by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs around 1972
The C programming language was created by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs in the early 1970s, with its key development occurring around 1972.
The K&R Book Defined Early C (1978)
The 1978 book The C Programming Language by Kernighan and Ritchie was so authoritative that the early dialect of C it described is simply called K&R C.
Linux Started as 'Just a Hobby'
Linus Torvalds described Linux in his 1991 announcement as 'just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu' - one of computing's most famous understatements.
JavaScript Was Written in About Ten Days
Brendan Eich built the first JavaScript prototype, code-named Mocha, in about ten days in May 1995 at Netscape.
Git and Mercurial Both Began in April 2005
Git and Mercurial were both started within days of each other in April 2005, in direct response to the Linux kernel losing free use of BitKeeper.
Git Was Written in Days
Linus Torvalds wrote the first working version of git in April 2005, reaching self-hosting within days, to replace BitKeeper for Linux kernel development.