The very first Apple Macintosh was released today in 1984. Heralded by a famous Ridley Scott-directed commercial, it failed to completely crack the market, selling only 70,000 units by May. Despite only moderate commercial success, the Macintosh still managed to redefine the personal computer market by introducing the public to both the Graphical User Interface, the mouse, and the 3.5” floppy disk drive.
Category: Technology
Tech News
Babbage’s Analytical Engine operated for the first time
Today in 1888, a working version of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine operated for the first time. Including an arithmetic logic unit, control flow, and integrated memory, Babbage’s Engine is viewed as the first Turing-complete general purpose computer. Babbage had died in 1871 without seeing his vision realized, but his son Henry Babbage subsequently built portions of the machine from his father’s drawings and computed multiples of pi to show the adequacy of the design.