585 BC: A total solar eclipse abruptly interrupts the Battle of the Halys (modern-day Kizilirmak River, Turkey) between the Lydians (led by Alyattes) and the Medes (led by Cyaxares). Stricken with terror by the sudden darkness, the combatants laid down their arms and concluded a peace treaty. This eclipse remains famous as it was purportedly predicted by the philosopher Thales of Miletus; while modern historians still debate the feasibility of this, the narrative symbolically marks the rise of astronomical calculation over superstition.

1936: The British mathematician Alan Turing submits his revolutionary paper On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem to the London Mathematical Society. Officially presented on 12 November 1936 and published in 1937, this text formalises a theoretical machine (the Turing machine) that rigorously captures the notion of effective computation and demonstrates the existence of a universal machine capable of simulating any programmable calculation.

Image credits : Unknown author, ca. 1938