Explore | Computer history

How computers became what they are

Explore ten milestones in the history of computing, from mechanical calculators and punched cards to personal computers and the World Wide Web.

10 history guidesSources: museums and primary references

1600s · Mechanical calculation

Before computers: machines that calculated

Pascal and Leibniz built mechanical devices that represented numbers and automated arithmetic.

Read the history → 1820s–1840s · Programmable machines

Babbage, Ada Lovelace, and the idea of a program

Explore the proposed Analytical Engine and Lovelace's ideas about instructions and symbolic work.

Read the history → 1800s–early 1900s · Data processing

Punched cards: from patterns to information

See how cards controlled looms, encoded census records, and became computer input.

Read the history → 1940s · Electronic computing

From room-sized calculators to stored programs

ENIAC showed the speed of electronic calculation; the stored-program idea made machines more flexible to use.

Read the history → 1947 onward · Semiconductor technology

Transistors and integrated circuits shrink computing

Learn how solid-state electronics made smaller, more reliable, and more capable systems possible.

Read the history → 1950s–1970s · Shared computing

Mainframes, terminals, and time-sharing

How large computers moved from batch jobs to interactive systems shared by many people.

Read the history → 1960s–1970s · Networking

ARPANET and the beginning of networked computing

How a research network helped establish the idea that different computers could communicate.

Read the history → 1971 onward · Microprocessors

When the processor moved onto a chip

The Intel 4004 and early personal computers hint at how integration changed the scale of computing.

Read the history → 1970s–1990s · Personal computing

Personal computers and graphical interfaces

Discover how computers entered homes and offices, and how visual interfaces changed interaction.

Read the history → 1989 onward · The Web

The World Wide Web makes information linkable

Learn how URLs, HTTP, HTML, and browsers created a global system of linked information.

Read the history →

These ten concise guides highlight selected milestones rather than providing an exhaustive timeline. Follow the sources for broader historical detail and collections.