The 20th of September in 1954 marks a day in computing history when IBM’s developers completed translation of, and ran a programme successfully written in FORTRAN language. FORTRAN is an acronym coined for FORmula TRANslator (full name: IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System). The programme was developed at IBM by a group lead by John Backus (1924-2007).

FORTRAN’s purpose was to simplify the programming process. The intention was to allow programmers, then called coders, to use simple algebra-like expressions when writing software, and to have a language that could be used in scientific calculations with much more ease than assembly language. FORTRAN also took over keeping track of instructions stored in the memory, which is a procedure that requires meticulous care, and errors may easily occur if done by humans.

With time, FORTRAN became the first high-level programming language in computing history, which is still in use in scientific and engineering applications, making it the oldest one in its category, alongside with COBOL.