One of America’s greatest strengths has always been its ability to innovate. Sure, everyone knows about Thomas Edison and the light bulb, Henry Ford and the Model T, and more recently, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. But Americans have also been behind many of the less-celebrated (and in some cases less controversial!) major advancements in technology and computing. With help from our friends around the world, we’ve built some pretty amazing things. Real language comes to programming, 1952 In the early days of computing, everything was done in binary. New York-born mathematician, programmer, and military leader Grace Hopper decided that should change. Hopper was part of the team that built the first compiler for computer languages, which turned written instructions into code. This led to the development of COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) and made made it easier for people to become developers. Every year, female engineers from around the.