jan 9, 1948 - The World's First Stored-Program Computer Ran Its First Program

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University of Manchester researchers Frederic Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Toothill develop the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), better known as the Manchester "Baby." The Baby was built to test a new memory technology developed by Williams and Kilburn -- soon known as the Williams Tube – which was the first electronic random access memory for computers. The first program, consisting of seventeen instructions and written by Kilburn, ran on June 21st, 1948. This was the first program to ever run on an electronic stored-program computer.

1.Although considered "small and primitive" even by the standards of its own time, the Manchester "Baby" was nonetheless the first working machine to contain all the elements essential to a modern electronic computer.

2. This computer included the stored-program concept, so that the Random Access Memory was used not only to hold numbers involved in calculations, but to hold the program instructions. This meant that instructions could be read successively at electronic speed, and that running a different program only involved resetting part of the memory using a simple keyboard rather than reconfiguring the electronic circuitry (this could take days on ENIAC).

3. The First program being run on an electronic stored-program machine. Sounds magnificent, isn't it.

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