Tech History Made on December 10, 1843

What is accredited by most as the first computer program, was written 159 years ago today by a woman named Augusta Ada Byron King. Her mother raised her strictly and with a great education in hopes that young Augusta would not grow mad like her father, the great poet Lord Byron. Augusta was exceptional at mathematics and soon met Charles Babbage, an inventor of calculating machines. His Analytical Engine, which was never completed, was originally documented and published in French. Augusta translated the manuscript into English and added ways in which the engine could be instructed to perform certain tasks: A computer program. Inevitably her mother's valiant effort to save Augusta from her fathers fate was defeated. Augusta lived out her final days as a drug addict and gambler.