Today in History 04/08/18

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Dr. Grace Hopper, pioneering computer scientist (© AP)(1959) Grace Hopper leads computer programming milestone
Mathematician, computer scientist, and rare woman in her field, Grace Hopper consults at a two-day conference with the best brains in the new realm of computer programming. The committee will build on Hopper’s earlier work to develop what will be the groundbreaking programming language COBOL.
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first compiler related tools. She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.
Lived: Dec 09, 1906 – Jan 01, 1992 (age 85)
Spouse: Vincent Foster Hopper (m. 1930 – 1945)
Inventions: COBOL · FLOW-MATIC · MATH-MATIC
Education: Yale University · Vassar College (1924 – 1928) · Wardlaw-Hartridge School
Parents: Walter Fletcher Murray (Father) · Mary Campbell Van Horne Murray (Mother)
Awards: Defense Distinguished Service Medal · American Campaign Medal · National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1991) · IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award (1988)
Highlights
  • 1930: Grace Hopper married Vincent Foster Hopper in 1930; their marriage lasted 15 years till 1945.

  • 1949: In 1949, Hopper became an employee of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician and joined the team developing the UNIVAC I. Hopper also served as UNIVAC director of Automatic Programming Development for Remington Rand.

  • 1952: By 1952, Hopper finished her program linker (originally called a compiler), which was written for the A-0 System.

  • 1954: In 1954 Hopper was named the company’s first director of automatic programming, and her department released some of the first compiler-based programming languages, including MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC.

  • 1959: In 1959, she participated in the CODASYL consortium, which consulted Hopper to guide them in creating a machine-independent programming language.

  • 1992: She retained that position until her death at age 85 in 1992.

Grace Hopper and UNIVAC
Grace Murray Hopper at the UNIVAC keyboard, c. 1960. Grace Brewster Murray: American mathematician and rear admiral in the U.S. Navy who was a pioneer in developing computer technology, helping to devise UNIVAC I. the first commercial electronic computer, and naval applications for COBOL (common-business-oriented language).
wiki/Grace_Hopper
4.9.a18

(1959) Grace Hopper leads computer programming milestone.
Also on this day,
1093 | Winchester Cathedral
1820 | Venus found
1974 | Home run record

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