Sep 9, 1947 CE: World’s First Computer Bug
On September 9, 1947, a team of computer scientists and engineers reported the world’s first computer bug.Today, software bugs can impact the functioning, safety, and security of computer operating systems. “Debugging” and bug management are important parts of the computer science industry.
This bug, however, was literally a bug. “First actual case of bug being found,” one of the team members wrote in the logbook. The team at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found that their computer, the Mark II, was delivering consistent errors. When they opened the computer’s hardware, they found … a moth.
The trapped insect had disrupted the electronics of the computer.This bug was logged in Harvard Mark II computer’s log book by Grace Murray Hopper, but was actually found by others.