1936 The Z 1 Computer the first freely

1936: The Z 1 Computer, the first freely programmable computer invented by Konrad Zuse.

1944: The Harvard Mark I the first programmable digital computer made in the U. S. Facts: Weighed 5 tons Had 500 miles of wire Was 8 feet tall Was 51 feet long Ran non-stop for 15 years

1943 – 1945: ENIAC computer built at the University of Pennsylvania. Only half of the ENIAC is visible in this picture. If anything went wrong you had to check each of the 19000 possible tubes.

1958: Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce invent the Integrated Circuit (Otherwise known as 'The Chip' or ‘microchip’). This means that computers can now be built on a much (much!) smaller level.

1959: IBM Stretch computer – the fastest computer in the world (for a few years – until 1963). Here is the main control console: And here is the rest of it: Original price – only $13. 5 million!

1962 Spacewar! one of the earliest known digital computer games is created by Steve Russell, Martin Graetz and Wayne Witaenem.

1964 Douglas Engelbart invents the ‘X-Y position indicator for a display system’ or, as we like to call it – a ‘mouse’, nicknamed this because of the ‘tail’ that comes out of the end of it.

1969: ARPAnet (the beginnings of the internet) goes ‘online’ for the first time. The first ever message sent was supposed to be the word ‘login’ but it crashed after sending the letters L and O.

1969: Computers had been expensive because they required so much assembly, such as the wiring seen in this CDC 7600

1969: Development of mini-computers such as the following PDP-12

1970: Intel 1103 Computer Memory, the world's first available RAM chip is invented. RAM increases a computer’s speed by giving it space to read and write data.

1971: Faggin, Hoff & Mazor invent the Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor The first microprocessor. This allowed hand-crafted wiring to be produced as a circuit which is a small sliver of silicon the size of your thumbnail.

1971: Alan Shugart &IBM invent the "Floppy" Disk Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility.

1974/75: The first consumer computers are created: The Altair 8800, the first PC

The IBM 5100

1976/77: More computers become available to buy. Here is one of the first Apple computers.

1979: Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby create Word. Star Software Word Processors.

1981 The IBM PC Home Computer - a personal computer revolution.

1981: Microsoft introduces MS-DOS Operating System

1983: The Apple Lisa Computer The first home computer with a GUI (Graphical User Interface – in this case, a screen), from Apple.

1984: Apple Macintosh Computer: The more affordable home computer with a GUI (Graphical User Interface – in this case, a screen).

1985: Microsoft Windows begins the friendly war with Apple.

1996: Google began in January 1996 as a project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were students at University. The name Google comes from ‘googol’ the number one followed by a hundred zeros.