Happy Midsum... No, happy Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine Day

June 21, 2011 · by Espen André Øverdahl

Today is Midsummer, Summer Solstice, Adonia, St. John's Feast Day, Līgo, Litha, Midsommar, Ivan Kupala Day, Juhannus, Alban Hefin, Gŵyl Ganol yr Haf or just plain old... Sankthans. Here at Opera, being a tech company and all, we don't celebrate Midsummer. No, we turn our attention and salute the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (nicknamed Baby) - the world's first stored-program computer which ran its first program on 21 June 1948!

Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine miniature

Replica of the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) at the Museum of Science and Industry in Castlefield, Manchester. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Readers' comments 15

Left under the original article, as archived.

DuckTuesday, June 21, 2011 11:53:22 AM
Paweł PawlakTuesday, June 21, 2011 12:13:47 PM
Looks like we need some spam report button here @ opera blog...
CoyoteeTuesday, June 21, 2011 1:03:52 PM
Happy Summer Solstice. Winter's just around the corner!
Charles SchlossTuesday, June 21, 2011 1:30:17 PM
What was its first program?
CarolTuesday, June 21, 2011 2:29:38 PM
at the University of Illinois?
easteinsteinTuesday, June 21, 2011 3:48:23 PM
hmmm! Wow 1948!
UtkarshTuesday, June 21, 2011 5:19:54 PM
But can it run Crysis?
d4rkn1ghtTuesday, June 21, 2011 10:18:02 PM
marlon ignacioWednesday, June 22, 2011 3:41:26 AM
Wow. . . Its amazing how our technology has gone so far.
JulianWednesday, June 22, 2011 5:01:59 AM
Hope One day Opera be exposed in a museum as the best innovation on the web
CeciliaWednesday, June 22, 2011 9:50:50 AM
Woo!this is splendid.we're moving forward n making tremendous progress.
CarolThursday, June 23, 2011 3:11:02 AM
university of Illinois right?
PTU WM 035511Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:36:25 PM
Fluff the country you come
from where? Thank you
already want to be friends with
me
Nathan RodriguezThursday, June 23, 2011 6:36:30 PM
CarolThursday, June 23, 2011 7:49:31 PM
Oops! not university of Illinois afterall