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Professor Charles Babbage was a British mathematician, an original and innovative thinker and a pioneer of computing.

• 1791 - Born on December 26 in London
• 1811 - Entered Trinity College, Cambridge
• 1812 - Transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge
• 1814 - Received an honorary degree without examination from Peterhouse
• 1814 - Married Georgiana Whitmore, they had eight children, but only three lived to adulthood
• 1816 - Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and founded the Astronomical Society
• 1817 - Received MA from Cambridge
• 1820 - Founded the Analytical Society with John Herschel and George Peacock
• 1821 - Began work on the Difference Engine, intended to compile and print mathematical tables
• 1822 - He first discussed the principles of calculating engine in a letter to Sir Humphrey
• 1827 - Published a table of logarithms from 1 to 108000
• 1827 - Babbage’s father, wife, and one son died
• 1828 - Appointed to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge
• 1831 - Founded the British Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1832 - A small portion of the Difference Engine, completed by Babbage’s engineer, Joseph Clement
• 1832 - The British government suspended funding for his Difference Engine
• 1832 Published “Economy of Manufactures and Machinery”
• 1833 - Began work on the Analytical Engine, intended to perform any mathematical task
• 1833 - Ada Augusta Lovelace begins documentation of Babbage’s calculating machines
• 1834 - Founded the Statistical Society of London
• 1842 - “Sketch of the Analytical Engine” by Luigi F. Menebrea published
• 1843 - In the “Notes” Ada described how the Analytical Engine could be programmed
• 1854 - George Schertz, constructed a machine based on the designs for the Difference Engine
• 1856 - Design of the Analytical Engine completed, uses Jacquard’s punch card idea for programming
• 1864 - Published “Passages from the Life of a Philosopher”
• 1871 - Charles Babbage Died on October 18, 1871 in London, England
• 1985 - Science Museum of London launched a project to build a complete Babbage Engine

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