The answer to this question depends of your definition of a computer.

The first known counting devices or tools were Tally Sticks from about 35,000 BC.

The Abacus was then invented by the Babylonians in 2400 BC.

In 1837, Charles Babbage, a British professor of mathematics described his idea for the Analytical Engine, the first stored-program mechanical computer. The Analytical Engine was designed to be powered by a steam engine and was to use Punched Cards, which was used to program mechanical looms at the time.

What made the Analytical Engine unique was that it was designed to be programmed.

It was because of this and the fact that it would be more than 100 years that any similar devices would be constructed, Charles Babbage, would be considered by many as the “father of computing”. Because of legal, financial, and political obstacles, the Analytical Machine would never be completed. Charles Babbage was also difficult to work with and alienated the supporters of his work.

In 1939, John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry developed the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) at Iowa State University, which was regarded as the first electronic digital computer. The ABC was built by hand and the design used over 300 Vacuum Tubes and had capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory.

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), constructed in the US in 1943, is widely regarded as the first functionally useful electronic general-purpose computer. Influenced by the ABC, it was a turning point in the history of computing and was used to perform ballistics trajectory calculations and used 160 kW of power. World War II is known to be the driving force of computing hardware development and one of such use of computers was in communications encryption and decryption.

The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) was the first commercially available, “mass produced” electronic computer manufactured by Remington Rand in the USA and was delivered to the US Census Bureau in June 1951. It used 5,200 vacuum tubes and consumed 125 kW of power. 46 machines were sold at more than $1 million each.

The microprocessor eventually led to the development of the microcomputer, small, low-cost computers that individuals and small businesses could afford.

By the 1990s, the microcomputer or Personal Computer (PC) became a common household appliance, and became even more widespread with the advent of the Internet.

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How was the Computer Invented and When?

Imagine the world without computers. You’d have no internet to help you with your homework, and just think of all that post, photocopying and filing.

The first computer was invented in 1834, long before TV, telephones and even electricity. The inventor, Charles Babbage, called his computer the Difference Engine. It was essentially a calculator and since there was no electricity, it was mechanical. And very complicated.

In fact he never quite managed to finish it. Babbage spent a further 37 years designing the Analytical Engine, a pre-cursor to the first working general-purpose computers.

Computers really got going in the 20th century: Konrad Zuse’s Z3 was the first programmable computer, invented in 1941.

The Colossus computer was the first completely electronic computer. It was used to crack German codes during the Second World War.

By the end of the 1950s computers had become smaller and cheaper. (They were still about the size of a double-decker bus, though.)

Microprocessors, programmable components measuring just a few millimetres, were invented by Intel employee Ted Hoff in 1971. Just one of them was as powerful as the huge 30-tonne computers of the 1940s.

By the 1980s computers were small and cheap enough for individuals to buy and use at home. And today, computers are everywhere and most modern electronic devices, from washing machines to cars, contain one.

Finished Engine: Although Charles Babbage never completed the Difference Engine himself, the Science Museum in London did manage to build one in 1991, to mark the 200th anniversary of Babbage’s birth. And it worked!

Computers have taken over almost all aspects of our lives, from schoolwork and homework to keeping in touch with your friends. But not so long ago computers didn’t even exist.

Can you live without using one for at least a week? Sign the declaration and see if you have the will power to give it up.

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One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone towards something better.