Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke Byron, was an English mathematician who is considered the first computer programmer. In 1833, through a mutual friend, Ada met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor known as the “father of the computer.” Babbage created the Difference Engine, a digital device that calculated equations and even had the ability to store previous equations. Ada was fascinated by this and began working with him.

In 1843, Ada translated a French paper about a new machine that Babbage was planning to create, the Analytical Engine. She added so many of her own annotations to the paper that her notes ended up longer than the original text. In these notes, she discussed the possibilities of what could be done with this device and how one could perform a sequence of calculations using Babbage’s invention. Her notes became more well-known than the paper itself; she had written the first computer program.