Celebrate this milestone of the worlds first all electronic, programmable computer!
Celebrating the 80th Anniversary
February 15, 2026 - ENIAC's 80th Anniversary
Imagine Seeing ENIAC on the day of launch...
See ENIAC Demonstration Reenactment Here
On February 15, 1946, the ENIAC was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania. As part of that unveiling, the machine was demonstrated to those present. Watch a reenactment of that demonstration based on a press demonstration given and oral history collected by the ENIAC Programmers Project.
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Shutdown Your Computer for 1 Minute in Honor of ENIAC
Statement from Jim Scherrer, CEO Compuseum
Shutdown Your Computer for 1 Minute in Honor of ENIAC
I'm requesting that all citizens of the world turn off their computers for one minute at two fifteen o'clock (2:15PM) Eastern Standard Time on February 15th (2/15) as a tribute to the ENIAC, the world's first all electronic, programmable computer. ENIAC Day celebrates this great computer's memory and its essential role in the march of the computer age. Similar interruption of web servers, data centers and critical host computers is deemed too dangerous since so many essential services rely on this computer power. A one minute shutdown of all non-essential computing devices is a fitting demonstration of the debt owed to the ENIAC and the unique efforts of its founding creators Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and founding programmers Betty Jean Jennings (later Bartik), Kay McNulty (later Mauchly Antonelli), Frances Bilas (later Spence), Marlyn Wescoff (later Meltzer), Betty Snyder (later Holberton) and Ruth Lichterman (later Teitelbaum) (see www.ENIACDay.org for details).
Power down your computer for one minute in honor of ENIAC on February 15th at 2:15PM
Suggested Reading
Order this book, now!
Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer – ENIAC - July 26, 2022
by Kathy Kleiman (Author)
All there is to know about the women of ENIAC!
If you loved Hidden Figures or The Rise of the Rocket Girls, you'll love Kathy Kleiman's breakthrough book and documentary on the women who brought you the computer age--written out of history, until now -- and she shares this story around the world!
Over the course of a decade, Kathy Kleiman met with four of the original six ENIAC Programmers and recorded extensive interviews with the women about their work. Proving Ground restores these women to their rightful place as technological revolutionaries.
Discover a fascinating look into the lives of six historic trailblazers in this World War II-era story of the American women who programmed the world's first modern computer.
"Kleiman’s persistence in sleuthing out the story of the ENIAC 6 programmers has resulted in an admirable contribution to the historical record and a labor of love." ―Wall Street Journal
After the end of World War II, the race for technological supremacy sped on. Top-secret research into ballistics and computing, begun during the war to aid those on the front lines, continued across the United States as engineers and programmers rushed to complete their confidential assignments. Among them were six pioneering women, tasked with figuring out how to program the world's first general-purpose, programmable, all-electronic computer—better known as the ENIAC—even though there were no instruction codes or programming languages in existence.
While most students of computer history are aware of this innovative machine, the great contributions of the women who programmed it were never told—until now.
Order this book, now!
All there is to know about the history of computing!
A highly recommended book about how the computer became universal.
Over the past fifty years, the computer has been transformed from a hulking scientific supertool and data processing workhorse, remote from the experiences of ordinary people, to a diverse family of devices that billions rely on to play games, shop, stream music and movies, communicate, and count their steps. In A New History of Modern Computing, Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi trace these changes. A comprehensive reimagining of Ceruzzi's A History of Modern Computing, this new volume uses each chapter to recount one such transformation, describing how a particular community of users and producers remade the computer into something new.
Authors Haigh and Ceruzzi ground their accounts of these computing revolutions in the longer and deeper history of computing technology. They begin with the story of the 1945 ENIAC computer, which introduced the vocabulary of "programs" and "programming," and proceed through email, pocket calculators, personal computers, the World Wide Web, videogames, smart phones, and our current world of computers everywhere--in phones, cars, appliances, watches, and more. Finally, they consider the Tesla Model S as an object that simultaneously embodies many strands of computing.
Celebrate ENIAC!
ENIAC Day - February 15th, Annually
ENIAC's birthday is February 15th of each year. This is celebrated annually all over the world. Feel free to use this cake graphic image for your celebration.
The Compuseum helps coordinate ENIAC Day celebrations every 5 years. The current is the 80th Anniversary on February 15th, 2026. Post on your Social Channels with hashtag #ENIACDay.
OVERVIEW OF 80TH ANNIVERSARY
Here’s a clear, engaging overview of the ENIAC 80th anniversary, drawing on the latest information and giving you a sense of why this milestone matters.
What the 80th Anniversary Represents
The year 2026 marks 80 years since the public unveiling of ENIAC on February 15, 1946, a moment widely recognized as the birth of the modern computer age. ENIAC - the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer - was the world’s first all-electronic, programmable, general-purpose computer, and its debut fundamentally reshaped science, engineering, and society.
Why ENIAC Was Revolutionary
ENIAC was developed at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. It was originally designed to compute complex ballistic trajectories for the U.S. Army during World War II - calculations that previously took human mathematicians days or weeks.
Key breakthroughs included:
• Fully electronic operation using vacuum tubes
• Programmability (though rewiring was required)
• Massive speed improvements over mechanical calculators
• A design that inspired generations of computer architectures
Many historians consider ENIAC one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century.
How the 80th Anniversary Is Being Celebrated
Several organizations and communities are marking the anniversary with events, exhibitions, and educational programs:
World Computer Day 2026
The global theme for 2026 is - ENIAC 80th Anniversary: The Computer That Changed the World.
Details at www.WorldComputerDay.org
Event highlights:
• ENIAC’s global impact
• The stories of its founders and their families
• How wartime innovation shaped modern computing
Local Celebrations in Pennsylvania
Given ENIAC’s Philadelphia roots, regional institutions are especially active. For example, the Helicopter Museum in West Chester, PA hosts exhibits commemorating the unveiling and exploring ENIAC’s legacy in the digital age.
ENIAC Day - February 15
Each year, ENIAC Day raises awareness of the machine’s contributions and honors the people who built and operated it. The 80th anniversary gives this annual celebration special significance.
Why This Anniversary Matters Today
The ENIAC anniversary isn’t just nostalgia - it’s a reminder of how quickly computing has evolved. In 1946, ENIAC filled a room and consumed massive amounts of power. Today, your phone outperforms it by orders of magnitude. But the conceptual leap ENIAC represented - that machines could be fully electronic, programmable, and general-purpose - is the foundation of everything from laptops to AI.
Help Make ENIAC Day a Smashing Success!
Your support as a sponsor or partner will enable us to put your logo on this website, broaden outreach, and recognize the heroes of the computer generation! Your generous donation in any amount will fund the mission for ENIAC Day celebrations, year after year.
