Computing History Displays: Computer History Time Line - Introduction

When the Computer Science building was completed in 2004 it was decided to use the artistic embellishment budget to construct a suitable display. The long walkway into the building proved ideal for housing a timeline on the history of computing.

Timelines are supposed to be a sequence of events in order of date. However, before there were computers there was no discipline of Computer Science but many other fields, the advances in which made the development of computers possible. We list these advances by subject rather than by date.

Then came a period, mainly in the late 1940s, where there was intense activity in many different countries in order to make the first computers. We consider this period separately, then we have one section of the timeline for advances in each decade from 1950. You will notice that we have a bias towards events that happened in New Zealand, especially Auckland, and we include some non-computing events to give additional perspective.

When constructing a time line many more events come to mind than it is possible to include. We do try to choose events that have a big impact but apologies if we have missed some. You will also notice that we sometimes combine many different stages of a development into one event. We try to avoid giving priority, even if we sometimes say "first", because the origin of many developments is very complicated and often controversial.

After these few words of warning and explanation please go back and continue the story.