Begun in 1958 by an international committee, the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery), ALGOL was a hugely influential series of algorithmic programming languages. Culminating in ALGOL 60 in 1960, later languages were heavily influenced by ALGOL’s concepts for lexicon, structure, and syntax. It’s considered the first of the so called second-gen computer languages, and was the first to introduce the block structure. For a time in the early 1960s it was the predominant language in Europe, and today most modern code is a descendant of ALGOL.
This Day In Tech History
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons.
-Popular Mechanics, March 1949More Tech History
Apple Computer releases the Apple II to instant success.
The Tandy TRS-80 is introduced.
TCP arrives.
The Commodore PET is released.
Oracle Corporation is founded.
The VAX-11/780 by Digital Equipment Corporation is introduced.
The Vector-1 microcomputer is released by Vector Graphic.
PeachTree Accounting arrives. It's the first business software introduced for microcomputers.
The first fiber optic telephone cables are installed in California.