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History of Computing

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Mechanical The design of the first mechanical computer is accredited to Charles Babbage who in 1822 designed the first prototype for the difference engine. Babbage invented two machines the Analytical and Difference engines. Both were too complicated to be built although the theory worked. The Analytical Engine involved processes similar to early electronic computer with the use of punch cards.
First Programmable Electric Computer The earliest programmable electronic computer first ran in Britain. It contained 2400 vacuum tubes for logic and was called 'Colossus'. It was built by Dr Thomas Flowers and was built in December 1943. It was housed at Blechley and was used to crack the German Lorenz (SZ42) Cipher used by the Enigma machines.
First Commercial Computer The first successful commercial computer was designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly in 1951. The computer UNIVAC 1 was delivered to the U.S. Bureau of Census. This machine used magnetic tape for input but still used wires and valves.
Second Generation Computers This applies to computers built between 1959-1964 and are regarded as second generation. These were based on transistors and printed circuits. They accepted English-like commands thus making them more flexible in their applications.  
Third Generation Third generation computers were built between 1964-1972 and had the first integrated circuits creating smaller machines. Typical of this was the IBM 360 series mainframe, while smaller minicomputers began to open up computing to smaller businesses.
Fourth Generation This applies to computers built after 1972. These use large scale integration of circuits (such as microprocessors) with modern circuits now containing many millions of components. This has led to very small, very powerful computers. By the late 1990's many people began to feel that technology was reaching its' limits and are now trying to predict what the fifth generation will be.