COBOL, short for Common Business-Oriented Language, was designed in 1959 for business data processing. A meeting at the Pentagon in May 1959, organised on behalf of the United States Department of Defense, set up a committee of computer makers and users which became known as CODASYL. The committee drew on earlier work, especially Grace Hopper's FLOW-MATIC language, and Hopper is often called the mother of COBOL, though she was only one of many contributors. The language was meant to read like English, so that managers could follow the code. COBOL spread to banks, insurers and governments, and it still runs a large amount of financial software today, which is why programmers continue to be hired to maintain it.
Before and after
- 30 April 1959Birth of Stephen Harper
- 13 May 1959Establishment of Torres del Paine National Park
- from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975Laotian Civil War
- 27 May 1959Birth of Donna Strickland
- 28 May 1959Creation of COBOL
- 7 June 1959Birth of Mike Pence
- 17 July 1959Mary Leakey finds Zinjanthropus at Olduvai Gorge
- from 31 July 1959 to 20 October 2011Basque conflict
- 12 September 1959Launch of Luna 2
More in Science & technology
- 1945Invention of computer
- 1964Discovery of rutherfordium
- 29 October 1969Invention of Internet
- 18 February 1970Discovery of dubnium
- July 1974Discovery of seaborgium
- 1984Discovery of hassium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.