- The first computer program was written by a woman named Ada Lovelace (1815-1852).
- Lovelace’s mother, Lady Byron, had mathematical training and insisted that Lovelace did too which was very unusual for women to do at the time.
- In 1833, Lovelace met Charles Babbage, the creator of the first computer, and was deeply inspired by his invention, the Difference Engine, which was essentially an automatic calculator.
- In 1843, Lovelace published a translation of a French paper about the Analytical Engine, Babbage’s latest invention at the time, that was written by an Italian mathematician.
- She also added her own notes to the paper. In these notes, she wrote a sequence of operations for calculating Bernoulli numbers; this became known as the first computer program.
- Moreover, Ada speculated that the Analytical Engine could be used to do operations on things other than numbers; she predicted that it could also be used to compose music. This revelation was way ahead of its time, just like Lovelace.
- She defied the gender norms of the time by proving that women can perform more than just domestic roles; they can also develop computer programs