In a paper submitted in 1936, 'On Computable Numbers', the 23-year-old Cambridge mathematician Alan Turing described an imaginary device that could read and write symbols on an endless tape according to a table of rules. He showed that a single universal machine could imitate any other, and that there are well-defined problems, such as the halting problem, which no machine can solve. This provided the mathematical definition of computation and the theoretical basis of the programmable computer. In the war Turing led the breaking of the German Enigma cipher at Bletchley Park, and in 1950 he proposed the Turing test of machine intelligence.
Before and after
- 1936Construction of Fallingwater
- 1936Origins of American Hockey League
- 1936Establishment of Jim Corbett National Park
- 1936Inge Lehmann discovers the Earth's inner core
- 1936Alan Turing defines the universal machine
- 28 January 1936Birth of Ismail Kadare
- 27 February 1936Death of Ivan Pavlov
- 4 March 1936First flight of LZ 129 Hindenburg
- 10 March 1936Birth of Sepp Blatter
More in Science & technology
- 15 September 1917Launch of Forbes
- 11 January 1922Insulin is first used to treat diabetes
- 1923Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory
- 1927Hubble–Lemaître law
- from 1939 to 1946Manhattan Project
- from c. 1940s to 1960sGreen Revolution
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.