Programming is a fascinating field that has come a long way since its inception. Over the years, there have been countless developments, advancements, and innovations in programming languages, tools, and technologies. With all these changes, it’s easy to overlook the history of programming and the interesting facts that have shaped it.

If you’re a programmer or just someone interested in the field, here are some great programming facts that you should know:

1. The first computer virus was created in 1983 by a programmer named Fred Cohen. He was a graduate student at the University of Southern California, and his virus infected Apple II computers. The virus was called the “brain” virus because it targeted the boot sector of floppy disks and replaced it with a copy of itself.

2. The world’s first computer, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), was built in the late 1930s and early 1940s by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. The ABC was the first computer to use binary digits (bits) to represent data and to perform operations using electronic switches.

3. The programming language Python was created by Guido van Rossum in the late 1980s. He named it after the Monty Python comedy group, of which he was a big fan. Python has since become one of the most popular programming languages in the world.

4. The term “debugging” comes from Grace Hopper, a computer scientist who worked on the Harvard Mark II computer in the 1940s. One day, her team found a moth stuck in a relay and removed it. Hopper then used the term “debugging” to describe the process of fixing errors in code.

5. The first computer game, Spacewar!, was created in 1962 by Steve Russell. It was played on a Digital PDP-1 computer and featured two spaceships battling each other. Spacewar! was a groundbreaking game that paved the way for the modern video game industry.

6. The first hard disk drive was created by IBM in 1956. It was the size of a refrigerator and could store 5 MB of data. Today, hard disk drives are much smaller and can store terabytes of data.

7. The programming language COBOL was designed in 1959 and is still used in some legacy systems today. COBOL stands for “Common Business-Oriented Language” and was designed to be easily readable by humans.

8. The first text message was sent in 1992 by Neil Papworth, a software engineer in the UK. The message read “Merry Christmas” and was sent from a computer to a mobile phone.

9. The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, was released in 1993. It had a touch screen, fax capability, and a calendar. The IBM Simon was a revolutionary device that paved the way for the modern smartphone.

10. The first computer to beat a human at chess was Deep Blue, created by IBM. In 1997, it defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match. Deep Blue was a landmark achievement in the field of artificial intelligence.

These are just a few of the many great programming facts out there. If you want to learn more about the history and evolution of programming, be sure to check out our blog post on “What are great programming facts?”

So next time you’re writing code or tinkering with a computer, remember the fascinating history and interesting facts that have made programming what it is today. Happy programming!

Originally published at programmingeeksclub.com.

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