Today in 1947, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was founded as the Eastern Association for Computing Machinery at a meeting at Columbia University in New York.
The notice for the first meeting of the association stated: "The purpose of this organization would be to advance the science, development, construction, and application of the new machinery for computing, reasoning, and other handling of information."
In 1992, ACM sponsored a five-part television series on the history of computers entitled The Machine That Changed the World. The series, which was shown on public television, was part of ACM’s efforts in education and outreach.
Episodes moved from the origins of modern computing in World War II through modern efforts in the area of artificial intelligence and social computing. The episodes were entitled “Giant Brains,” “Inventing the Future,” “The Paperback Computer,” “The Thinking Machine,” and “The World at Your Fingertips.”