1964
BASIC is created
At around 4:00 a.m. on 1 May 1964, the first programs written in BASIC were successfully run at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA.
Developed by mathematicians John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz, with the help of Dartmouth undergraduate students, BASIC was designed to make computers accessible to people who had little or no previous programming experience.
BASIC — Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code — was created as part of the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS). Two terminals were used to run programs simultaneously on a General Electric GE-225 computer, demonstrating the potential of interactive, shared computing.
The language went on to spread far beyond Dartmouth. During the 1970s and 1980s, versions of BASIC became a standard feature of many personal and home computers, allowing a new generation to write and experiment with their own programs.
For millions of people, BASIC was their first introduction to programming — including generations of home-computer users who would later encounter machines such as the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.
Developed by mathematicians John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz, with the help of Dartmouth undergraduate students, BASIC was designed to make computers accessible to people who had little or no previous programming experience.
BASIC — Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code — was created as part of the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS). Two terminals were used to run programs simultaneously on a General Electric GE-225 computer, demonstrating the potential of interactive, shared computing.
The language went on to spread far beyond Dartmouth. During the 1970s and 1980s, versions of BASIC became a standard feature of many personal and home computers, allowing a new generation to write and experiment with their own programs.
For millions of people, BASIC was their first introduction to programming — including generations of home-computer users who would later encounter machines such as the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.