September 9th: The Day an Actual Computer Bug Infected the System

1947 isn't really the year you would expect to be discovering computer bugs but September 9th of that year revealed a seriously deadly bug infecting the Harvard Mark II computer, under the name of.....a moth. Yes, an actual moth was the guilty criminal at the root of this technical disturbance! 

   Created by Howard Aiken at Harvard University, the Mark II was an electro-mechanical computer designed to complete mathematical problems. The Mark II could add up numbers in 0.125 seconds, and multiply in 0.750 seconds. Although the calculator function of a computer is a basic and expected device nowadays, back in 1947 it was groundbreaking. The machine used high-speed electromagnetic relays instead of electro-mechanical counters, which were used in the slower, outdated Mark I. 
   These relays were the exact problem that occurred on September 9th though. Computer pioneer of the Mark II traced an error in the machine due to a moth being stuck in one of the relays. The bug was removed and since then faults in computer systems have generally been referred to as 'computer bugs'.