1887
Harry Bates Th'79 designs an electrical punch-card machine for
the 1890 United States Census. He goes on to found the Tabulating
Machine Company, which evolves into I.B.M.
1940
Bell Laboratories mathematician George Stibitz conducts the first
public demonstration of remote computing. He connects a terminal at
Dartmouth to his headquarters' "automatic calculator" in New York.
1956
The term "artificial intelligence" is coined by Dartmouth
mathematician John McCarthy.
1959
Dartmouth gets its first real computer: the LGP-30.
1964
The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) is born at 4:00 a.m.
on May 1 when it solves the problem submitted by two terminals
simultaneously: "Print 2+2." The system fails an average of every five
minutes.
1968
Results of a swimming competition are computerized for the first
time. A student keyboards data at poolside using a teletype and a
modem. Applause for an especially good dive disrupts the terminal's
acoustic link, crashing the program and eliminating all of the
accumulated scores.
1972
First computer scientist hired
Larry Harris. Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell
1975
A survey reports that 73 percent of the student body is enrolled
in a course that uses computing. There are 184 such offerings.
1977
Thirteen thousand volts pass through the body of a small squirrel.
Kiewit is shut down for ten hours.
1978
Second computer scientist hired
Scot Drysdale. Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford.
Computer Science major established
(during John Kemeny's presidency).
First degree was awarded in 1979.
1981
The Dartmouth College libraries develop an experimental on-line
catalog.
1984
Macintosh introduced campus-wide
This was a 128k machine.
Department name changed to
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
First senior hire
Professor Donald Jonson (Ph.D. Cornell. 1973).
His startup funds were used to purchase for
CS faculty the first Sun workstations at Dartmouth.
1985
Ph.D. Program in Computer Science established
There were five Computer Science faculty at this time.
1986
Xerox awards a University Grant to Dartmouth
The grant consisted of $1,000,000 of workstation
equipment and provided the impetus to connect
the Thayer School by a fiber optic link to the rest
of campus.
Six hundred years' worth of scholarship on Dante's Divine Comedy
are offered through an on-line database. Other new networked
databases include alcohol-related writings, and a compilation of all
1,623 concerts given by the Grateful Dead.
1990
KeyServer, a Dartmouth innovation, allows controlled access to
commercially available programs for the Macintosh. Students and
faculty get to use the programs for free.
1991
First Ph.D. degree in Computer Science awarded
There were 10.5 regular plus 5 associated faculty.
Second senior hire
Associate Professor Fillia Makedon
(Ph.D. Northwestern. 1982).
1992
Dartmouth Institute for Advanced Graduate
Studies established
First summer symposium held: 100 attendees.
1993
First massively parallel computer acquired at Dartmouth
The 2048-processor DECmpp was obtained with funding
from Digital Equipment Corporation, the National
Science Foundation, and the Kiewit Computation Center.
Sudikoff Laboratory for Computer Science
finished.
The College announces that it will pull the plug on the Dartmouth
Time Sharing System.
1994
Independent Department of Computer Science formed
Dartmouth puts a home page
on the Internet's World Wide Web.
1999
11:59pm, December 31: DCTS is shut down for the last time.
2000
12:01am, January 1: Original founders decide to re-write DTSS as an emulator.
This project is born.
2004
May 11: TrueBasic-based emulator available for Mac and Windows here.
Portions reprinted without permission from the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, March 1995.
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