Image: First Computer Bug, 1945

Description: The First "Computer Bug" Moth found trapped between points at Relay # 70, Panel F, of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University, 9 September 1947. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the entry: "First actual case of bug being found". (The term "debugging" already existed; thus, finding an actual bug was an amusing occurrence.) In 1988, the log, with the moth still taped by the entry, was in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Computer Museum at Dahlgren, Virginia, which erroneously dated it 9 September 1945. The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History and other sources have the correct date of 9 September 1947 (Object ID: 1994.0191.01). The Harvard Mark II computer was not complete until the summer of 1947. Removed caption read: Photo # NH 96566-KB First Computer "Bug", 1945
Title: First Computer Bug, 1945
Credit: U.S. Naval Historical Center Online Library Photograph NH 96566-KN The above link is no longer valid on 13.04.2017, the image available here.
Author: Courtesy of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, VA., 1988.
Permission: This file is a work of a sailor or employee of the U.S. Navy, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain in the United States.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No