Important ENIAC Dates

• The original press conference announcing the ENIAC was held on 1 February, 1946. The reporters were addressed by Major General Gladeon M. Barnes, head of Research and Development Service of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, Eckert, Mauchly, Brainerd, and Goldstine. Arthur Burks and Kite Sharpless conducted a formal ENIAC demonstration showing five simple problems:
  1. 5,000 additions in one second
  2. 50 multiplications in one second
  3. Generation of squares and cubes
  4. Generation of sine and cosine table, to be tabulated
  5. A more complicated computation
• The formal dedication and dinner held in Penn's Houston Hall. Penn President McClelland presided, the principal speaker was Dr. Frank Jewett, president of the National Academy of Sciences. General Barnes carried out the actual dedication; after giving a short speech, he pressed a button that turned on the ENIAC. Guests then went to the Moore school to see the actual demonstration. The date was 15 February, 1946.

[Both of these historical events are documented in Herman H. Goldstine, "The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann" , Princeton University Press, 1993 [ISBN 0-691-02367-0 (paperback)], pages 227 and following.]