Date in year · 1959 · The 1950s

April 8, 1959

On April 8, 1959, a team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL. The year's #1 song was "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton. John Middendorf, Susan Faludi, Perry Haddock would arrive in the same year.

Events

2

Births

0

Deaths

0

Year

1959

1950s

Around 1959

The year in brief

1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1959th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 959th year of the 2nd millennium, the 59th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1950s decade.

Read the full year of 1959 →

What happened

On April 8, 1959

  1. 1959 A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper meets to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL.

    U.S. naval officer and computer scientist (1906–1992)

    Grace Brewster Hopper was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and used this theory to develop the FLOW-MATIC programming language and COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.

  2. 1959 The Organization of American States drafts an agreement to create the Inter-American Development Bank.

    International organization

    The Organization of American States is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1959

The class of 1959

Others born in 1959

John Middendorf 1959– American mountain climber (died 2024)
Susan Faludi 1959– American journalist, author and feminist
Perry Haddock 1959– Australian rugby league player
Tim Jacobus 1959– American illustrator and painter
Robert Smith 1959– English singer-songwriter and guitarist
Terry Francona 1959– American baseball player and manager

Step through

Nearby

Keep going

More to explore