[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 25, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5373-S5374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 592--DESIGNATING OCTOBER 9, 2018, AS ``NATIONAL ADA 
 LOVELACE DAY'' AND HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ADA LOVELACE, THE 
                       FIRST COMPUTER PROGRAMMER

  Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mrs. Fischer) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 592

       Whereas Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace, now 
     known as Ada Lovelace, was born on December 10, 1815, in 
     London, United Kingdom;
       Whereas, from a young age, Lovelace displayed a gift for 
     mathematics, languages, and the sciences;
       Whereas, at the age of 17, Lovelace began to study 
     mathematics under the guidance of scientist and translator 
     Mary Somerville and, later, logician Augustus de Morgan;
       Whereas, in 1833, Lovelace was introduced to inventor and 
     mechanical engineer, Charles Babbage, and began to study his 
     designs for the Analytical Engine, a mechanical computer;
       Whereas Lovelace was the first person to recognize that the 
     Analytical Engine could be used to manipulate symbols and 
     letters and was the first person to theorize that the 
     Analytical Engine could be used to create music and graphics;
       Whereas, in 1843, Lovelace published step-by-step 
     instructions for using the Analytical Engine to calculate 
     Bernoulli numbers ``without having been worked out by human 
     head and hands first'';
       Whereas these insights gave Lovelace an unparalleled vision 
     of the future of computer science, and she stated that ``[a] 
     new, a vast and a powerful language is [being] developed for 
     the future use of analysis, in which to wield its truths so 
     that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical 
     application for the purposes of mankind'';
       Whereas the work of Lovelace went widely unrecognized until 
     the 1950s, when her papers were republished, and their 
     significance and her contributions to the fields of computer 
     science and mathematics were finally acknowledged;
       Whereas, in the 1980s, to honor the contributions of 
     Lovelace, the Department of Defense named its newly created 
     computer language ``Ada'' after Lovelace;
       Whereas the second Tuesday in October is annually 
     celebrated as Ada Lovelace Day

[[Page S5374]]

     and is intended to honor women in science, technology, 
     engineering, and mathematics and their accomplishments and 
     contributions to academia and the world; and
       Whereas Ada Lovelace died on November 27, 1852, leaving 
     behind a legacy of poetic science and reasoning, in which the 
     arts and sciences are woven together to find new insights: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) designates October 9, 2018, as ``National Ada Lovelace 
     Day''; and
       (2) honors the life and contributions of Ada Lovelace, a 
     leading woman in science and mathematics and the first 
     computer programmer.

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