CATEGORY: HISTORY Flashcards
Who is known as the Father of Computers?
Answer: Charles Babbage
What was the name of the first programmable digital computer?
Answer: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
The first computer programmer was:
Answer: Ada Lovelace
Which company introduced the first personal computer (PC) in 1981?
Answer: IBM
The first high-level programming language, developed in the 1950s, was:
Answer: FORTRAN
Who developed the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989?
Answer: Tim Berners-Lee
The Turing Test, designed to evaluate a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligence, was proposed by:
Answer: Alan Turing
What was the first search engine on the internet?
Answer: Archie
What operating system was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991?
Answer: Linux
The first commercially successful graphical user interface (GUI) computer was:
Answer: Apple Macintosh
The Morse Code, an early method of digital communication, was invented by:
Answer: Samuel Morse
In what year was the first email sent?
Answer: 1971
Who invented the first compiler in 1952?
Answer: Grace Hopper
What was the first computer virus that spread in the wild?
Answer: Brain (1986)
Which company developed the first commercial relational database system?
Answer: IBM (System R)
What was the name of the first stored-program computer, developed in 1948?
Answer: Manchester Baby
Who designed the Von Neumann architecture, which became the foundation of modern computers?
Answer: John von Neumann
The first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, was released in what year?
Answer: 1971
What programming language, developed in the 1970s, is the foundation of modern operating systems like Unix and Linux?
Answer: C
What early computer was used for breaking the German Enigma code during World War II?
Answer: Colossus
Who invented the public-key cryptography system in 1976?
Answer: Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman
The first computer mouse was invented by whom and in what year?
Answer: Douglas Engelbart, 1964
What is the name of the first general-purpose electronic digital computer developed in the United States?
Answer: ENIAC
In what year was the first modern web browser, Mosaic, released?
Answer: 1993
What famous paper by Alan Turing introduced the concept of a universal machine capable of simulating any computation?
Answer: “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem” (1936)
Who is known as the Father of Artificial Intelligence for coining the term “AI” in 1956?
Answer: John McCarthy
Who invented the concept of hypertext, which later influenced the development of the World Wide Web?
Answer: Ted Nelson
Who developed the first modern compiler, allowing programs to be written in high-level languages instead of machine code?
Answer: Grace Hopper
Who invented the first transistor, revolutionizing computing by replacing vacuum tubes?
Answer: John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain (1947)
Who co-founded Apple Computer Inc. along with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne?
Answer: Steve Wozniak
What was the first widely used operating system developed by Bell Labs in 1969?
Answer: Unix
The first version of Microsoft Windows was released in what year?
Answer: 1985
The Python programming language, now widely used in AI and data science, was created by whom?
Answer: Guido van Rossum
What was the name of the first spreadsheet software, developed in 1979?
Answer: VisiCalc
What was the first object-oriented programming language, developed in the 1960s?
Answer: Simula
What was the first message ever sent over the ARPANET, the predecessor of the modern internet?
Answer: “LO” (short for “LOGIN” before the system crashed)
The first website and web server were created by Tim Berners-Lee at which institution?
Answer: CERN
In what year was the first domain name (symbolics.com) registered?
Answer: 1985
What company launched the first commercial web browser, Netscape Navigator, in 1994?
Answer: Netscape Communications Corporation
What protocol, still used today, was created by Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn to standardize internet communication?
Answer: TCP/IP
Who invented the first mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine, in the 19th century?
Answer: Charles Babbage
In what year did Alan Turing publish his landmark paper, “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem”?
Answer: 1936
Who developed the first stored-program computer, the Manchester Mark I?
Answer: Frederic C. Williams and Tom Kilburn
What early computer scientist is credited with developing the Lambda calculus, which later influenced functional programming?
Answer: Alonzo Church
Who invented the first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004?
Answer: Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stan Mazor
What was the first operating system to implement virtual memory, allowing programs to use more memory than physically available?
Answer: Atlas Supervisor (1962)
Who developed the first interactive programming environment, Smalltalk, which introduced the concept of GUI-based development?
Answer: Alan Kay and the Xerox PARC team
What was the first database management system (DBMS) based on the relational model, developed by IBM?
Answer: System R
The first major open-source operating system, released in 1991, was:
Answer: Linux
Which company created the first widely adopted graphical user interface (GUI), influencing modern operating systems?
Answer: Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center)
What was the original name of the Internet before it was officially called the “Internet”?
Answer: ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)
What was the first country outside the United States to connect to the ARPANET?
Answer: Norway (1973)
What famous computer scientist created the first email system and the use of the “@” symbol in email addresses?
Answer: Ray Tomlinson
What was the first web search engine, created in 1990?
Answer: Archie
The first-ever online transaction (an early form of e-commerce) involved the purchase of what item?
Answer: A bag of marijuana (between Stanford and MIT students via ARPANET)
What was the first documented computer worm, which spread across ARPANET in 1988?
Answer: Morris Worm
What was the name of the first modern ransomware attack, which encrypted users’ files and demanded payment via mail?
Answer: AIDS Trojan (1989)
What was the name of the NSA’s secret project in the 1950s that led to early advancements in modern cryptography?
Answer: VENONA Project
In 2010, which sophisticated state-sponsored cyberattack targeted Iran’s nuclear program?
Answer: Stuxnet
What was the name of the largest password breach in history, exposing over 3 billion user credentials?
Answer: Yahoo Data Breach (2013-2014)
The term “Artificial Intelligence” was first coined during which famous conference?
Answer: Dartmouth Conference (1956)
What was the first AI program capable of playing chess, developed by Claude Shannon in the 1950s?
Answer: Shannon’s Chess Program
In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue became the first AI to defeat a world chess champion. Who was that champion?
Answer: Garry Kasparov
What early AI chatbot, created in the 1960s, was designed to simulate a psychotherapist?
Answer: ELIZA
In 2016, which AI system defeated Go world champion Lee Sedol, marking a breakthrough in deep learning?
Answer: AlphaGo
What was the first commercially successful video game, released in arcades in 1972?
Answer: Pong
What was the first video game console, released in 1972 by Magnavox?
Answer: Magnavox Odyssey
What was the first computer game ever created, developed by MIT students in 1962?
Answer: Spacewar!
What 1980s Nintendo game saved the video game industry after the 1983 video game crash?
Answer: Super Mario Bros.
What was the first MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), released in 1991?
Answer: Neverwinter Nights
