WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
SERIOUS DEBUGGING
Profile America — Wednesday, September 9th. The first instance of debugging a computer was recorded on this date in 1947. The early Mark II computer being developed at Harvard University was balky, and a programming team — which included Navy Lieutenant Grace Hopper, a pioneer in computer history — found and fixed the problem. A moth had wedged into a relay board, causing a short circuit. The deceased moth was extracted and preserved. The log card containing notes on the debugging, and the appended remains of the moth, was preserved for a time by a Navy museum in Virginia, and more recently, by the Smithsonian Institution. With moths and other bugs banished from circuits and chips, nearly 84 percent of U.S. households have computers, and almost 75 percent of households access the Internet. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.
Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 2527
Hopper life and service summary: http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/bios/hopper-grace.html#transcript
Grace Hopper's attainments: http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/bios/hopper-grace.html#assignments
The bug: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=harvard+grace+hopper+computer+bug&view=detailv2&qpvt=harvard+grace+hopper+computer+bug&id=4B9DFAAD1F727BB98C1C23FA6B20CDDF7FC9C608&selectedIndex=0&ccid=E9KwOgU0&simid=608024532034325525&thid=JN.eTF%2bg0pu7CEGQmw%2bfNcQdA&ajaxhist=0
Smithsonian exhibit: http://partners.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/120497bug.html
Computers and internet/page 2: http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-28.pdf
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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