Comparing Timelines
Exploring the overlapping histories of "History of computing" and "Roman Empire".
History of computing
-2300 - 1999
Roman Empire
-100 - 1453
2300 BCE
Sumerian Abacus Invented
The earliest known tool used for computation, the Sumerian abacus, was invented in Babylon. Its original style of usage involved lines drawn in sand with pebbles, representing the first systematic approach to mechanical calculation.
771 BCE
South-Pointing Chariot Invented
Ancient China invented the south-pointing chariot, the first known geared mechanism to use a differential gear. This mechanical innovation would later become crucial in the development of analog computers.
150 BCE
Chinese Abacus Development
The Chinese developed a more sophisticated abacus around the 2nd century BC, improving upon the earlier Sumerian design. This tool became fundamental to mathematical computation in East Asia for centuries.
100 BCE
Antikythera Mechanism Created
The Antikythera mechanism was designed to calculate astronomical positions, believed to be the earliest known geared computing device. Discovered in 1901 in a Greek shipwreck, it demonstrates sophisticated ancient engineering.
Roman Expansion Beyond Italy
By 100 BC, Rome had expanded its rule from the Italian peninsula to most of the Mediterranean and beyond. This marked the transformation of Rome from a regional power to a Mediterranean empire, setting the stage for future imperial developments.
44 BCE
Assassination of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar was assassinated by a faction that opposed his concentration of power after briefly serving as perpetual dictator. This event triggered a series of civil wars that would ultimately lead to the end of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Empire.
42 BCE
Battle of Philippi
Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted son Octavian defeated the faction that had assassinated Julius Caesar at the Battle of Philippi. This victory eliminated Caesar's assassins and set up the eventual conflict between Antony and Octavian for control of Rome.
31 BCE
Battle of Actium
Octavian's forces defeated those of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium, ending the last civil war of the Roman Republic. This decisive naval battle made Octavian the sole ruler of Rome and paved the way for the establishment of the Roman Empire.
27 BCE
Augustus Becomes First Roman Emperor
The Roman Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus and made him princeps with proconsular imperium, marking his accession as the first Roman emperor. This event officially began the Principate and transformed Rome from a republic to an empire.
9 CE
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Germanic tribes wiped out three Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, dealing a devastating blow to Roman expansion in Germania. This defeat led to the increase of legions from 25 to around 30 and marked the effective end of Roman attempts to conquer Germany.
69 CE
End of Julio-Claudian Dynasty
The Julio-Claudian dynasty ended after four emperors following Augustus—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—yielding to the strife-torn Year of the Four Emperors. This period of instability demonstrated the fragility of imperial succession and led to the rise of the Flavian dynasty.
70 CE
Siege of Jerusalem and Destruction of Second Temple
The siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD led to the sacking of the Second Temple and the dispersal of Jewish political power. This event marked a crucial turning point in Jewish history and the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.
129 CE
Hadrian Refounds Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina
Emperor Hadrian visited Judaea and refounded Jerusalem as the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina, overlaying the destroyed Jewish city with a new Roman urban plan. This included construction of a Temple to Jupiter on the site of the former Jewish Temple, which helped spark the Bar Kokhba Revolt.
132 CE
Bar Kokhba Revolt
The Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE) was sparked by Hadrian's measures and restrictions on Jewish practices. After crushing the uprising, Roman forces expelled most Jews from Jerusalem and rebuilt the city as a statement of imperial power and domination.
180 CE
Accession of Commodus
The accession of Commodus in 180 marked what contemporary historian Cassius Dio called the descent 'from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron.' This event is considered by some historians as the beginning of the Empire's decline, ending the period of the 'Five Good Emperors.'
212 CE
Constitutio Antoniniana - Universal Citizenship
During the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the empire through the Constitutio Antoniniana. This legal egalitarianism required a far-reaching revision of existing laws and fundamentally changed the nature of Roman identity.
235 CE
Crisis of the Third Century Begins
The Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, a 49-year period of invasions, civil strife, economic disorder, and plague that threatened its existence. The Gallic and Palmyrene empires broke away from the state during this tumultuous period.
270 CE
Aurelian Reunifies the Empire
Emperor Aurelian stabilized the empire militarily and reunified it after the Crisis of the Third Century. His successful campaigns restored imperial unity and ended the breakaway Gallic and Palmyrene empires.
285 CE
Diocletian's Reforms and Tetrarchy
Diocletian reorganized and restored much of the empire in 285, dividing it into four regions each ruled by a separate tetrarch. His reign brought the empire's most concerted effort against Christianity, known as the 'Great Persecution.'
303 CE
Great Persecution of Christians
Diocletian undertook the most severe persecution of Christians from 303 to 311, representing the empire's most concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity. This was the last and most systematic attempt to eliminate Christianity from the Roman Empire.
312 CE
Constantine Becomes First Christian Emperor
Constantine the Great became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, fundamentally changing the relationship between the Roman state and Christianity. His conversion marked the beginning of Christianity's transformation from a persecuted religion to the dominant faith of the empire.
330 CE
Foundation of Constantinople
Constantine the Great moved the imperial seat from Rome to Byzantium in 330 and renamed it Constantinople. This established a new capital in the East that would become the center of the Byzantine Empire and survive for over a thousand years.
395 CE
Death of Theodosius I - Final Division
Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 after making Christianity the state religion. His death marked the permanent division of the empire into Eastern and Western halves, each with its own emperor.
476 CE
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer, marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Odoacer declared Zeno sole emperor and placed himself as Zeno's nominal subordinate, effectively ending Western imperial rule.
1453 CE
Fall of Constantinople
The Eastern Roman Empire, called the Byzantine Empire by later historians, continued until Constantine XI Palaiologos died in battle in 1453 against Mehmed II and his Ottoman forces during the siege of Constantinople. This marked the final end of the Roman Empire after over 1,400 years.
1886 CE
Charles Sanders Peirce Describes Electrical Logic
In a letter, Charles Sanders Peirce described how logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits. He also showed that NOR gates alone could reproduce the functions of all other logic gates, laying groundwork for digital logic.
1907 CE
Lee De Forest's Vacuum Tube Logic Gate
Lee De Forest's modification of the Fleming valve could be used as a logic gate, representing an early step toward electronic computing. This advancement would eventually lead to vacuum tube computers.
1924 CE
First Electronic AND Gate
Walther Bothe invented the first modern electronic AND gate, a fundamental component of digital logic. This innovation earned him part of the 1954 Nobel Prize in physics for his contributions to electronic circuits.
1931 CE
Digital Electronics for Computing Proposed
C. E. Wynn-Williams published 'The Use of Thyratrons for High Speed Automatic Counting of Physical Phenomena,' the first recorded idea of using digital electronics for computing, marking a conceptual breakthrough.
1936 CE
Switching Circuit Theory Published
NEC engineer Akira Nakashima, Claude Shannon, and Victor Shestakov published papers introducing switching circuit theory, using digital electronics for Boolean algebraic operations. This work became fundamental to digital computer design.
Alan Turing's 'On Computable Numbers' Published
Alan Turing published his seminal paper 'On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,' introducing the concept of the Universal Turing machine and establishing theoretical foundations for computation.
1939 CE
First Digital Electronic Computer Developed
Arthur Halsey Dickinson developed the first digital electronic computer at IBM Patent Department in Endicott, New York. This computer featured a keyboard, processor, and electronic output display, establishing key components of modern computers.
Atanasoff-Berry Computer Completed
John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry completed their experimental model of the Atanasoff-Berry computer (ABC), the first binary digital electronic computing device. Though not programmable, it executed addition and subtraction in binary code.
1941 CE
Z3 Computer Built
German inventor Konrad Zuse built the Z3 computer, the first programmable, fully automatic computing machine. Though not electronic, it demonstrated the feasibility of programmable computation and influenced future computer development.
1946 CE
ENIAC Announced
The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was announced to the public as the first electronic general-purpose computer. It was Turing-complete, digital, and capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.
1947 CE
Transistor Invented
William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs invented the first working transistor, the point-contact transistor. This revolutionary device would eventually replace vacuum tubes and enable miniaturization of computers.
1948 CE
Manchester Baby First Program Run
The Manchester Baby, the first electronic stored-program computer, ran its first program. Built at Victoria University of Manchester by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, it demonstrated the stored-program concept.
1950 CE
First Computerized Weather Forecast
The first computerized weather forecast was performed by a team including American meteorologists Jule Charney, Philip Duncan Thompson, Larry Gates, Norwegian meteorologist Ragnar Fjørtoft, and mathematician John von Neumann using ENIAC.
1953 CE
First Transistorized Computer Built
At the University of Manchester, a team under Tom Kilburn designed and built the first transistorized computer, called the Transistor Computer. This machine used newly developed transistors instead of vacuum tubes, marking a major technological shift.
1964 CE
CDC 6600 Supercomputer Built
The Control Data Corporation (CDC) 6600, built by Seymour Cray, became the first widely acknowledged supercomputer. With a maximum speed of 40 MHz and 3 million FLOPS, it established the foundation for high-performance computing.
1968 CE
Silicon-Gate MOS Integrated Circuit Developed
Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor developed the silicon-gate MOS integrated circuit. This breakthrough technology enabled the creation of high-density integrated circuits and led directly to the development of microprocessors.
1970 CE
Intel 4004 Microprocessor Developed
The Intel 4004, the first single-chip microprocessor, was developed by Intel's Federico Faggin, Marcian Hoff, and Stanley Mazor, along with Busicom's Masatoshi Shima. This innovation launched the microcomputer revolution.
1976 CE
First 16-bit Microprocessor Released
Texas Instruments released the TMS9900 processor, the first fully 16-bit microprocessor. They used this advanced processor in the TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A computers, demonstrating increased processing capabilities.
1983 CE
Apple Lisa Released
Apple released the Lisa, one of the first personal computers with a graphical user interface (GUI) sold commercially. Running on the Motorola 68000 CPU with 1MB of RAM and dual floppy drives, it pioneered user-friendly computing interfaces.
1989 CE
Macintosh Portable Released
Apple released the Macintosh Portable, weighing 16 pounds and costing $7,300. Despite being one of the most powerful laptops available at launch, its high price and weight led to poor sales and discontinuation after two years.
1998 CE
First Linux Supercomputer Built
David Bader developed the first Linux supercomputer using commodity parts at the University of New Mexico. The prototype used eight dual 333 MHz Intel Pentium II computers, leading to the development of 'RoadRunner' for national scientific use.
1999 CE
RoadRunner Supercomputer Deployed
RoadRunner, the first Linux supercomputer for open use by the national science and engineering community, was put into production use. At deployment, it was considered one of the 100 fastest supercomputers in the world.