February 1946Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented
ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer
On the timeline · around February 1946 ·
What happened
Unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC filled a room with 18,000 vacuum tubes and computed a thousand times faster than any machine before it.
Why it matters
Proof that electronic, programmable computation worked at scale — the industry starts here.
Sources
- University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC at Penn Engineering · Reputable source
- Computer History Museum. Timeline of Computer History: 1946 · General source