This Day in History
May 12, 1939
First Appropriation for Harvard Mark I
The first appropriation was made to the construction of the Harvard Mark I, eventually completed in 1944. The Mark I was the first successful fully automatic machine and computed three additions or subtractions a second; its memory stored 72 numbers of 23 digits (plus sign).
May 12, 1941
Zuse Completes Z3 Machine
Konrad Zuse completes his Z3 computer, the first program-controlled electromechanical digital computer. It followed in the footsteps of the Z1 - the world’s first binary digital computer - which Zuse had developed in 1938. Much of Zuse’s work was destroyed in World War II, although the Z4, the most sophisticated of his creations, survives.