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Computers, love them or hate them, we rely on them every day. You’re using one right now! But have you ever stopped to think about who invented computers and how they came to dominate our lives? So who created the first computer, and whom can I blame for all those wasted hours?

You might be surprised to learn that many computer pioneers struggled to get funding for their ideas and faced skepticism from their contemporaries. The word «computer» is also much older than you might think!

The first computer, the Antikythera mechanism (200 BC – 70 BC), was mechanical. Initially, computers were people – it was a job title. The first computer was invented by Charles Babbage (1822) but was not built until 1991! Alan Turing invented computer science. The ENIAC (1945) was the first electronic general-purpose digital computer; it filled a room. The Micral N was the world’s first “personal computer”(1973). It was not a commercial success. The Epson HX-20 (1981) was the world’s first laptop, although you wouldn’t recognize it as a laptop today. The first Mac debuted in 1984.