Five Things to Know About Ada Lovelace

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The “Countess of Computing” didn’t just create the world’s first computer program—she foresaw a digital future.

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It’s Ada Lovelace Day—a day to celebrate the accomplishments of women in science, technology, engineering and math. But aside from remembering her fabulous headdress and association with computers, how much do you know about the groundbreaking woman? Here are five things worth understanding as you celebrate:

She had some infamous relatives

Augusta Ada Byron was the only legitimate daughter of George Gordon, Lord Byron, the hedonistic poet who was famously called “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” by one of his many mistresses. Byron's other daughter, Allegra, was born from an affair with Claire Clairmont, who is the stepsister of Mary Shelley. The child was shunted off to a convent in Italy and died at age five after Byron refused to recognize her.

Ada was only slightly luckier: Though Byron married her mother, Annabella, in 1815, he did so only to escape public condemnation for his ongoing obsession with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Ada’s mother was well-educated and such an accomplished philosopher and mathematician that Byron fondly called her his “Princess of Parallelograms.”

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