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HistorySurprise 5/5Difficulty 4/5Reviewed on September 13, 2026

Ada Lovelace wrote the first algorithm to be executed by a machine in the 19th century.

Why it is true

Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician, wrote in 1843 a series of notes on Charles Babbage's analytical engine. In those notes she included an algorithm to calculate Bernoulli numbers, considered the first computer program in history. The machine was never built.

Source: Computer History Museum

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