This appears in my book A history of the Internet and the digital future - see kind words from Cory Doctorow, Marc Benioff, and others here. On 12 February 1812, Lord Byron, perhaps the most outrageous and disreputable of the English poets, took the floor at the House of Lords to begin his maiden speech. … Continue reading 1840s – Ada Lovelace (Byron’s daughter!) becomes world’s first programmer