- :: 1940 ::
- The first remote computer was introduced when the Complex Number Calculator was demonstrated at Dartmouth College.
- :: 1942 ::
- The first nuclear reactor is designed.
- :: 1943 ::
- Colossus becomes operational. It is the first working electronic deciphering device.
- :: 1944 ::
- The Harvard Mark I is introduced at Harvard University. It was built by Howard Aiken and IBM.
- :: 1945 ::
- Rear Admiral Grace Hopper records the first computer bug, a moth that got stuck inside one of the relays of the Harvard Mark II Computer. Hopper eventually went on to help invent COBOL.
- The first outline of the architecture of a stored-program computer was done by John Von Neumann, in his “First Draft of a Report on EDVAC”.
- The Plankalkül programming language is developed in Nazi Germany.
- :: 1946 ::
- ENIAC is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
- :: 1947 ::
- The first successful test of the point contact resistor occurs, creating a revolution in semiconductors. It would later replace the use of vacuum tubes in computers.
- The BINAC computer is constructed by the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp., a fledgling company formed by John Eckert and John Mauchly.
- :: 1948 ::
- Claude Shannon introduces the bit , the basic component of computation.
- Norbert Wiener publishes “Cybernetics” , revolutionizing the study of artificial intelligence.
- IBM completes the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator.
- :: 1949 ::
- The Manchester Baby Machine functions as a complete system using the Williams tube for memory. It is the world’s first stored program computer.
- Thomas Watson, Jr. predicts that all moving parts in machines will be replaced by electronics in a decade.
- Austrailia’s first digitial computer, the CSIRAC is activated.
