December 10, 1815 - The Birth of Ada Lovelace

On December 10, 1815, Ada (Augusta Ada) Byron was born in Piccadilly Terrace, Middlesex (in London). Her father, “the bad boy of the 19^th century” was Lord Byron, the famed poet who “had just achieved rock-star status in England for his poetry” at the age of 27 (Wolfram).

According to Stephen Wolfram, Lord Byron named her Ada because “It is short, ancient, [and] vocalic.”

In 1815, when Ada was born no one could imagine that she would grow up to be one of the brightest minds in science. Still today, over 170 years later, her theories on artificial intelligence and her view that a computer cannot think creatively, but rather only do what they are programmed to do has not been proven wrong.

She only lived 36 years, imagine what she could have accomplished had she lived longer.