Today in Science (0215)

Events

1946 - ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.

Births

1564 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist

1809 - André Dumont, Belgian geologist

1861 - Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

1873 - Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-born chemist and Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths

1988 - Richard Feynman, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

1999 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

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February 15th 1564 - Birth of Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist 1809 Birth of André Dumont, Belgian geologist 1847 - Death of Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician 1849 - Death of Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician 1861 - Birth of Charles Edouard Guillaume,…
February 14th 1468 - Birth of Johann Werner, German mathematician 1848 - Birth of Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer 1869 - Birth of Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate 1894 - Death of Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician 1898 - Birth of Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-…
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Events 1609 - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. 1894 - Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet. 1981 - Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn 1989 - Voyager 2…

In the future I hope you are as diligent to make note of the actual first electronic digital (binary) computer developed in 1939 at Iowa State University, as you are at perpetuating the notion that Eniac was the first by the inclusion of the modifier "general-purpose" and the exclusion that it was a decimal computer. The plans for general purpose use (and numerical integration) existed for the ABC computer, but WWII interfered with the implementation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff%E2%80%93Berry_Computer

http://www.cs.iastate.edu/jva/jva-archive.shtml

Thank you,

Best,

Randy

By Randy Bancroft (not verified) on 15 Feb 2008 #permalink