Computing Pioneer Ada Lovelace Gets Deserved Google Doodle

Google does commemorative logos — called Google Doodles — pretty regularly now. But today, it’s a much-deserved tip-of-the-pen to celebrate the 197th birthday of Ada Lovelace, a woman who is one of computing’s earliest pioneers. She was a collaborator of Charles Babbage, designer of the ground-breaking mechanical computers — which he never actually built — the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. Lovelace’s notes on the Analytical Engine are considered to be among the first algorithms created; she also theorized about the larger potential of computers beyond mathematics, including to make music. All that with just a quill and some paper.