Grace Murray Hopper: A mathematics PhD who joined the Navy during WWII, Grace Hopper worked on the Harvard Mark I and became one of the first programmers of the digital age. Her true genius was making computers accessible. She pioneered the first compiler and helped establish COBOL, using English-like commands instead of machine code. By the 1970s, COBOL was the most extensively used computer language in the world.

Hopper retired as a Rear Admiral at 79 and was affectionately known as “Grandma COBOL.”

Fun Fact #1: Grace coined the term a “computer bug.” At one time, her team was working on a computer glitch, and discovered the problem was an actual bug—a live moth stuck in an electrical switch.

Fun Fact #2: