IT HistoryA Chronicle of Information Technology

Overview · 66 events

A General History of Information Technology

An abstraction that once lived in equations migrated, decade by decade, into vacuum tubes, into silicon, into networks, into screens, and finally into the pocket. ChatGPT brought generative AI to a household scale, and from the EU AI Act through DeepSeek-R1, Stargate, and the AI-related Nobel Prizes, the late 2020s have woven geopolitics and AI into a single story. This chronicle takes the long view—lists only the era-marking events; the detailed lineages live in the genre timelines.

1940s

  1. EVT.001T1First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC — The Day the Stored Program Was Written DownA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  2. EVT.002T1ENIAC Unveiled — The Electronic Computer You Programmed With CablesA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  3. EVT.003T1The Point-Contact Transistor — Bell LabsA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  4. EVT.004T1The Manchester Baby — A Program Runs Out of MemoryA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  5. EVT.005T1A Mathematical Theory of Communication — Information Gets a UnitRead more →

1950s

  1. EVT.006T1UNIVAC I Accepted — The Day the Computer Became a ProductA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  2. EVT.007T1The A-0 System — When "Compiler" Meant Something ElseA History of Programming LanguagesRead more →
  3. EVT.008T1The Dartmouth Workshop — Naming Artificial IntelligenceA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  4. EVT.009T1IBM 305 RAMAC — The First Commercial Hard Disk DriveA History of Semiconductors and HardwareA History of DatabasesRead more →
  5. EVT.010T2FORTRAN ReleasedA History of Programming Languages
  6. EVT.011T2The Integrated CircuitA History of Semiconductors and Hardware

1960s

  1. EVT.012T1The ALGOL 60 Report — Defining a Language by Its GrammarA History of Programming LanguagesRead more →
  2. EVT.013T1IBM Announces System/360 — Compatibility as the ProductA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  3. EVT.014T1BASIC First Runs at DartmouthA History of Programming LanguagesRead more →
  4. EVT.015T1Simula 67 — Classes and Inheritance Enter a Programming LanguageA History of Programming LanguagesRead more →
  5. EVT.016T1Engelbart's Demo — Ninety Minutes of Interactive ComputingA History of the Internet and the WebA History of Operating SystemsRead more →
  6. EVT.017T1The Birth of UNIX — Bell LabsA History of Operating SystemsA History of Open Source and Free SoftwareRead more →
  7. EVT.018T1ARPANET's First MessageA History of the Internet and the WebRead more →

1970s

  1. EVT.019T1The C Language — Dennis RitchieA History of Programming LanguagesRead more →
  2. EVT.020T1The Xerox Alto — The Machine That Was Never SoldA History of Semiconductors and HardwareA History of Operating SystemsRead more →
  3. EVT.021T1The Ethernet Memo — One Cable Through the BuildingA History of the Internet and the WebRead more →
  4. EVT.022T1Microsoft FoundedA History of MicrosoftRead more →
  5. EVT.023T1New Directions in Cryptography — Sharing a Secret Without Delivering a KeyA History of CybersecurityA History of the Internet and the WebRead more →
  6. EVT.024T1The Apple II — A Finished Machine With Colour and SlotsA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →

1980s

  1. EVT.025T2MS-DOS 1.0 — Shipping with the IBM PCA History of Operating SystemsA History of Microsoft
  2. EVT.026T1The IBM Personal Computer 5150 — An Open Design and the Market It LostA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  3. EVT.027T2The Switch to TCP/IP — 'Flag Day'A History of the Internet and the Web
  4. EVT.028T2The Macintosh — The GUI Goes MainstreamA History of Operating Systems
  5. EVT.029T1NSFNET — The Decade in Which a Research Network Became the Public InternetA History of the Internet and the WebRead more →
  6. EVT.030T1The World Wide Web Proposed — CERNA History of the Internet and the WebRead more →

1990s

  1. EVT.031T1Linux — Linus Torvalds' 21-Year-Old AnnouncementA History of Operating SystemsA History of Open Source and Free SoftwareRead more →
  2. EVT.032T2NCSA Mosaic — A Web Browser That Showed ImagesA History of the Internet and the WebA History of Open Source and Free Software
  3. EVT.033T1Windows 95 ReleasedA History of Operating SystemsA History of MicrosoftRead more →
  4. EVT.034T2Deep Blue Defeats Garry KasparovA History of Artificial Intelligence
  5. EVT.035T2Google FoundedA History of the Internet and the WebA History of Search Engines

2000s

  1. EVT.036T2Amazon S3 Launches — Pay-as-You-Go Cloud StorageA History of Cloud Computing
  2. EVT.037T1The Original iPhone Goes on SaleA History of the iPhoneA History of Operating SystemsA History of Mobile Phones and SmartphonesRead more →
  3. EVT.038T2Android 1.0 and the HTC DreamA History of Operating SystemsA History of Mobile Phones and Smartphones

2010s

  1. EVT.039T1AlexNet — The Deep-Learning Era BeginsA History of Artificial IntelligenceA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  2. EVT.040T2Satya Nadella Becomes CEO of MicrosoftA History of Microsoft
  3. EVT.041T2AlphaGo Defeats Lee SedolA History of Artificial Intelligence

2020s

  1. EVT.042T1PlayStation 5 ReleasedA History of Game Consoles and Game TechnologyRead more →
  2. EVT.043T1Elon Musk Acquires Twitter for US$44 BillionA History of the Internet and the WebA History of Social MediaRead more →
  3. EVT.044T1ChatGPT LaunchedA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  4. EVT.045T1The 2023 Tech Layoffs — The Month a Decade of Hiring EndedRead more →
  5. EVT.046T1Anthropic Releases Claude — A Safety-First Rival LLMA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  6. EVT.047T1Geoffrey Hinton Leaves Google to Warn About AI's DangersA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  7. EVT.048T1Biden's Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AIA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  8. EVT.049T1The OpenAI Coup — Altman Fired, Reinstated in Five DaysA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  9. EVT.050T1AI Goes to War — OpenAI Policy Reversal and the Anthropic-Palantir-AWS PactA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  10. EVT.051T1EU AI Act Adopted — The World's First Comprehensive AI RegulationA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  11. EVT.052T1NVIDIA Briefly Becomes the World's Most Valuable CompanyA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  12. EVT.053T1The CrowdStrike Falcon Outage — The Largest IT Outage in HistoryA History of Cloud ComputingA History of CybersecurityRead more →
  13. EVT.054T1The Three Mile Island Unit 1 Restart Deal — Data Centres Call a Reactor BackA History of Artificial IntelligenceA History of Cloud ComputingRead more →
  14. EVT.055T1Nobel Prizes for AI — Physics and Chemistry in the Same WeekA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  15. EVT.056T1The DeepSeek-R1 Shock — A Low-Cost Chinese Reasoning Model Rocks the MarketA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  16. EVT.057T1The Trump AI Pivot — Biden's Order Rescinded, Stargate's $500 Billion PledgeA History of Artificial IntelligenceA History of Cloud ComputingRead more →
  17. EVT.058T1Nintendo Switch 2 ReleasedA History of Game Consoles and Game TechnologyRead more →
  18. EVT.059T1Bartz v. Anthropic — Training an LLM Is Fair Use; Stocking a Library with Pirated Books Is NotA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  19. EVT.060T1The United States Becomes an Intel Shareholder — CHIPS Act Grants Turned into EquityA History of Semiconductors and HardwareRead more →
  20. EVT.061T1Windows 10 End of SupportA History of Operating SystemsRead more →
  21. EVT.062T1OpenAI's Recapitalisation — The For-Profit Becomes a PBC, the Nonprofit Keeps ControlA History of Artificial IntelligenceRead more →
  22. EVT.063T1TikTok's US Business Passes to a Joint Venture — The Divest-or-Ban Law Actually FiresA History of Social MediaRead more →
  23. EVT.064T1A Turing Award for Quantum Information Science — Bennett and Brassard Win for 2025Read more →
  24. EVT.065T1Executive Order 14409 — 'Covered Frontier Models' and a Voluntary Pre-Release FrameworkA History of Artificial IntelligenceA History of CybersecurityRead more →
  25. EVT.066T1Commerce Puts Two Anthropic Models Under Export Control — Nineteen Days DarkA History of Artificial IntelligenceA History of CybersecurityRead more →