Today in 1940, John Atanasoff completed the paper “Computing Machine for the Solution of Large Systems of Linear Algebraic Equations.”
“In this description, an effort will be made to strike an advantageous mean between vague generalities and the confusing detail of actual working plans,” wrote Atanasoff. The paper described what became to be known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), arguably the first machine built in the United States to compute at electronic speeds.