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Grace Hopper was born in New York city to parents Walter Fletcher Murray and Mary Cambell Van Horne -
Hopper earned her bachelors degree in Physics and Mathematics from Vassar College
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Grace goes onto pursue and earn both her Masters and her PhD in Mathematics. Yale currently holds a building with her name on it. -
Offers her computer skills to provide help after WW1 and persists besides being rejected her first time trying to join.
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Assigned to Howard Aiken’s Mark I project, contributing to one of the earliest electromechanical computers. -
Hopper writes one of the first programming guides, establishing ideas used in software documentation even today. -
Her team removes a moth from the Mark II computer relay which became the inspiration for the term debugging. -
Grace begins working on the UNIVAC I, the first commercially produced computer. -
The first working computer compiler, a major breakthrough in software history. Her compiler successfully converts written instructions into machine code. Modern compilers like GCC and LLVM were built upon Hopper’s idea in later years, adding optimization and multi-language support. -
Hopper works with the Navy and standards committees to unify COBOL across hardware systems. COBOL became important for businesses and government computing matters to succeed.
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The Navy reinstates her to help modernize its computer systems, applying her compiler and language standardization ideas. -
Hopper’s “English-like code” program inspires later languages such as BASIC and Python
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Due to her experitise she becomes responsable for unifying programming languages across Navy systems.
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During her time in the Navy, Hopper was promoted to Commodore and later to Rear Admiral. One of the first women to hold this rank in the U.S. Navy. She retires with the title of Rear Admiral after 43 years of service. -
Grace Hopper dies in 1992 and is buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.