Modern computing can probably be traced back to the 'Harvard Mk I' and Colossus (both of 1943). Colossus was an electronic computer built in Britain at the end 1943 and designed to crack the German coding system - Lorenz cipher.
The 'Harvard Mk I' was a more general purpose electro-mechanical programmable computer built at Harvard University with backing from IBM. These computers were among the first of the 'first generation' computers....
preview:
http://trillian.randomstuff.org.uk/~stephen/history/
11/13/2007
