One hundred years before the first computer was built, a woman named Ada Lovelace came up with ideas for how these machines would someday operate. She’s considered the world’s first computer programmer. To honor her and other women’s contributions to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), the second Tuesday in October has been designated Ada Lovelace Day.
Born in England in 1815, Lovelace was the daughter of famous poet Lord Byron. Instead of following in her father’s footsteps, she became a mathematician. When Lovelace was 18, she met British inventor Charles Babbage. He had an idea for a device called the Analytical Engine—an early computer. Lovelace wrote a series of instructions the computer could follow. This program would allow it to calculate a specific sequence of numbers. Although Babbage’s Analytical Engine was never built, Lovelace saw its potential long before anyone else.