Today In History: First Computer Bug

Legend has it that, when an early U.S. navy computer named Harvard Mark II was malfunctioning, a female pioneer in programming quietly stepped in; on September 9th, 1947, American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral Grace Brewster Hopper removed a moth which jammed an electromechanical switch and taped it to her log book. Hopper identified the dead insect as a "computer bug"  and the rest is history. We draw attention to "Amazing Grace" -- someone who believed that programming should be simplified with an English-based computer programming language and who was especially known for her work on FLOW-MATIC and COBOL.

Born in New York, New York on December 9th, 1906, Grave Brewster Murray would go on to have an illustrious career.  She received numerous awards for her outstanding contributions to service in the military (1943-1986), including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among the institutions she attended or served were Vassar College (also an alumna, AB), Yale University (alumna, PhD, mathematics and physics), Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, Remington Rand, and Digital Equipment Corporation.

Computer bugs today tend to originate from mistakes in design or coding, and they can lead to crashes, freezes, or other malfunctions on your device. De-bugging is the process of resolving the computer error,  but perhaps not always the moth!

The following articles are drawn from Proquest Historical Newspapers, which informs and inspires classroom teaching and learning.

• Pauley, G. (1975, Sep 22). She's in Love with Computers. Chicago Defender (Daily Edition) (1973-) 
• Glossary: 'Bug'. (1981, Aug 31). Boston Globe (1960-) 
• Orr, L. (1982, Dec 10). Computer Pioneer High on High-Tech Generation. Chicago Tribune (1963-1996) 
• Ronald Rosenberg, G. S. (1984, Dec 01). The Commodore Got . ..and Also Gave. Boston Globe (1960-) 
• Dowden, S. (1987, May 29). Former Admiral Tells Graduates Not to Be Afraid to Make Waves. The Hartford Courant (1923-) 
• Markoff, J. M. (1992, Jan 03). Rear Adm. Grace M. Hopper Dies; Innovator in Computers Was 85. New York Times (1923-) 
• Pearson, R. (1992, Jan 04). Adm. Hopper Dies; Pioneer in Computers. The Washington Post (1974-) 
• Grace Murray Hopper. (1992, Jan 05). Boston Globe (1960-) 
• Weatherby, W. J. (1992, Jan 06). Among the Bugs and Bites. The Guardian (1959-2009) 
• Zuckerman, L. (2000, Apr 22). Think Tank: If There's a Bug in Etymology, You May Never Get It Out. New York Times (1923-) 

Tips:

• Cohen, I. Bernard, et al. Makin’ Numbers : Howard Aiken and the Computer. 1st ed., MIT Press, 1999.  e-book.
• Marino, Mark C. Critical Code Studies. 1st ed., MIT Press, 2020. e-book.
• Wallmark, Laurie. Grace Hopper : Queen of Computer Code. Illustrated by Katy Wu, Sterling Children’s Books, 2017.   Juvenile ; V63.H66 W35 2017.
• Wheeler, Jill C., et al. Grace Hopper : Computer Scientist. Essential Library, an imprint of Abdo Publishing, 2018. e-book.

Images:

• Grace Hopper and UNIVAC, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
• Poster Image: Moth, Courtesy of Canva.
• Vintage Moth, PublicDomainPictures.net.