Grace Hopper

Grace Brewster Hopper was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and used this theory to develop the FLOW-MATIC programming language and COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today. She was also one of the first programmers on the Harvard Mark I computer. She is credited with writing the first computer manual, “A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator.”

9 December 1906

Born on the same birth date (9 December 1906): Freddy Martin

Born on the same birth day (9 December): Allan Jones (cricketer) • Antoine Étienne de Tousard • Bob Hawke • Buck Henry • Carlo Azeglio Ciampi • Dave Harold • Donny Osmond • Gemma Frisius • Germain Gagnon • Hermione Gingold • Stefen Fangmeier • Vénuste Niyongabo • Ángel Guirado • Íñigo López de Mendoza, 4th Duke of the Infantado

Born in the same month (December 1906): Alziro Bergonzo • Erika Fuchs • Fernando Lopes-Graça • Jules Ladoumègue • Laurens van der Post • Leonid Brezhnev • Lew Grade • Oscar Levant • Russell C. Newhouse