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This Week in Tech History: First General Use Computer

On this edition of "This Week in Tech History", Chris reminds us of the first general use computer, as well as the birth of the world's most popular video sharing site.

This week in 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone, the same day as Elisha Gray, who many people believe should actually be credited with inventing the telephone.

1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changed its name to a much simpler, International Business Machines , or the company we know as IBM.

1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1954 – British company, J. Lyons and Co. Used LEO 1, or “Lyons Electronic Office”, to produce a payroll report. It was the first time in history a computer was used in business.

2000 – Windows 2000 Professional Edition was released. Windows 2000 was an “the next generation NT operating system” that Microsoft said took four years and cost over $1 billion to develop.

And this week in 2005 – YouTube was launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and the main source for viral videos.

Written by Chris Graveline

Chris has covered consumer technology for over 20 years. He is the host of This Week in Tech History as well as a regular co-host on "Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline" and our Technical Director.

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