Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. [16][18] These made her code incredibly reliable because they helped programmers identify and fix anomalies before they became major problems.[26]. This system played a crucial role just before the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. Dedication and commitment were a given. From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission. The mirrors at the Ivanpah plant were configured to create a picture of Hamilton and the Apollo 11 by moonlight. We had to find a way and we did. Related: Apollo Coder and 'Apollo 13' Actor Receive Presidential Medals of Freedom, SpaceX scrubs Crew-6 astronaut launch due to ignition-fluid issue, Experience SpaceX's Crew-6 astronaut mission with these amazing photos, DNA from 4 American presidents will launch to deep space, Asteroid Ryugu is rich in organic molecules that can be building blocks of life, On This Day In Space: Feb. 26, 1966: 1st launch of Saturn 1B rocket, Your monthly guide to stargazing & space science, Subscribe today and save an extra 5% with code 'LOVE5', Issues delivered straight to your door or device. A kindergarten teacher in her native Cleveland, Margaret Hamilton began her acting career there in community theatre and with the prestigious Cleveland Playhouse. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Hamilton-American-computer-scientist, Space.com - Margaret H. Hamilton: Apollo Computer Programmer, Wired - Her Code Got Humans on the Moon - And Invented Software Itself, Margaret Hamilton - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Margaret Hamilton - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 - May 16, 1985) was an American actress and educator. By Maia Weinstock | MIT News Office The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. President Barack Obama presents Apollo code developer Margaret Hamilton (at left) and "Apollo 13" actor Tom Hanks (right) with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Nov. 22, 2016. Hamilton had prepared for just this situation years before: There was one other failsafe that Hamilton likes to remember. Wizard of Oz 'witch' loved her Maine island - The Working Waterfront In 1965 Margaret was named responsible for the development of the flight software for the computers that would go on board the Apollo spacecraft. Her solution: when you see a priority display, first count to margaret-hamilton-bio-wiki-age-family-net-worth-height-nationality-and-facts.html. Margaret Hamilton - Trakt [47] In 1980, British-Israeli computer scientist David Harel published a proposal for a structured programming language derived from HOS from the viewpoint of and/or subgoals. August 17, 2016. Her husband is Paul Boynton Meserve (13 June1931 - 20 May1938)( divorced)( 1 child). Margaret Heafield Hamilton (born August 17, 1936) is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. marriedcelebrity; April 19, 2019; Celebrity Gossip; Born as Margaret Heafield, she is an American system engineer, computer scientist and a woman entrepreneur as well. We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 9 December. This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 16:40. Margaret HAMILTON - Scientific Women We had to find a way and we did. Mutual respect was across the board. The Opportunity of a Lifetime. From 1961 to 1963, she worked at MIT on an unknown aircraft trajectory tracking project. , money, salary, income, and assets. From 1961 to 1963, Hamilton worked on the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Project at the MIT Lincoln Lab,[14] where she was one of the programmers who wrote software for the prototype AN/FSQ-7 computer (the XD-1), used by the U.S. Air Force to search for possibly unfriendly aircraft. After graduating in 1958, she taught high-school mathematics for a short time. She studied mathematics at the University of Michigan in the 1950s and later earned a BA in mathematics with a minor in philosophy from Earlham College in 1958. Click here if you want to see this biography in Spanish translation. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. We had to find a way and we did. When she was 80 years old, on November 22, 2016, Margaret Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, for her work at NASA during the Apollo missions. She appeared in The Phil Silvers Show episode S2E20 Bilko Enters Politics (05 February 1957). Margaret Hamilton had no trouble reconciling her career at NASA with her mothering role. It was her code that enabled the human race to travel to the moon and back. She also wrote a program for the Cambridge Air Force Research Laboratory. Margaret Hamilton - IMDb In the early 1960s Hamilton joined MITs Lincoln Laboratory, where she was involved in the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) project, the first U.S. air defense system. For this Laboratory, she developed codes for new programming routines. [2], Margaret Elaine Heafield was born August 17, 1936, in Paoli, Indiana,[3] to Kenneth Heafield and Ruth Esther Heafield (ne Partington). [4] They divorced in 1967 and Margaret married Dan Lickly two years later.[80][82]. Margaret Hamilton | Biography & Facts | Britannica With only minutes to spare, the decision was made to go for the landing.". JWST finds galaxies that shouldn't exist! THE ALEXANDER HAMILTON READER margaret esther hall - PAPERBACK | eBay [59] Over time the term "software engineering" gained the same respect as any other technical discipline. Margaret Hamilton was born Margaret Heafield on August 17, 1936 in Paoli, Indiana. Soon after, Neil Armstrong radioed the expected message to Houston: The Eagle has landed, The Eagle has landed. Margaret Hamilton Biography, Facts & Life Story. "Hamilton contributed to concepts of asynchronous software, priority scheduling and priority displays, and human-in-the-loop decision capability, which set the foundation for modern, ultra-reliable software design and engineering," the citation for her medal read. I will return to work on one condition no more fireworks!" Hamilton was born in Cleveland, Ohio and practiced her craft doing children's theater while she was a Junior League of Cleveland member. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). She cofounded the company Higher Order Software in 1976 and established Hamilton Technologies 10 years later. Hamilton said: What they used to do when you came into this organization as a beginner, was to assign you this program which nobody was able to ever figure out or get to run. We knew that. "Kindergarten Lost Margaret Hamilton." She was portrayed by Fenella Woolgar in "Judy" (2019). In 1945, she played the domineering sister of Oz co-star Jack Haley in George White's Scandals, comically trying to prevent him from marrying actress Joan Davis, even going so far as to throw a hatchet at her. Starred in the live on-stage musical "A Little Night Music" (with actress Jean Simmons in the lead role) during the mid-1970s in San Francisco. Having started on the stage in the early 1930s, she began to work extensively in the theater after leaving Los Angeles. Moore Boeck. Her name was clearly visible when the entire Apollo 11 source code was released on GitHub in 2016; according to MIT, the first full line of the software read, "SUBMITTED: MARGARET H. HAMILTON DATE: 28 MAR 69 / M.H.HAMILTON, COLOSSUS PROGRAMMING LEADER / APOLLO GUIDANCE AND NAVIGATION.". She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented on November 22, 2016 by the President of the United States, for her brilliant work during the Apollo missions in the 1960s. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. [1], On November 22, 2016, Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from president Barack Obama for her work leading to the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Moon missions. Discover today's celebrity birthdays and explore famous people who share your birthday. [12] She developed software for predicting weather, programming on the LGP-30 and the PDP-1 computers at Marvin Minsky's Project MAC. As the alarms went off and priority displays replaced normal ones, the actual switchover to new programmes behind the screens was happening "a step slower" than it would today. It is ironic that her performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939) was so scary to children, because her first job was as a kindergarten teacher. According to Hamilton, this now-iconic image (at left, above) was taken at MIT in 1969 by a staff photographer for the Instrumentation Laboratory later named the Draper Laboratory and today an independent organization for use in promotion of the labs work on the Apollo project. Hamilton, now an independent computer scientist, described for MIT News in 2009 her contributions to the Apollo software which last month was added in its entirety to the code-sharing site GitHub: From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission. With the intention of pursuing graduate studies, Margaret moved to Massachusetts. [66], She met her first husband, James Cox Hamilton,[80] in the mid-1950s while attending college. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program. Early life [ edit] She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA 's Apollo program. Pres. The studio hired a new stunt double, Aline Goodwin, to finish the broomstick-riding scene for Danko.[9]. Her son, interviewed for the 2005 DVD edition of the film, commented that Hamilton enjoyed the line so much, she sometimes used it in her real life. Hamilton and Morgan never share any scenes in Oz. [81][14] The couple then moved to Boston, Massachusetts,[14] where they had a daughter, Lauren, born on November 10, 1959. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2018-2023, All Rights Reserved Super Stars Bio. Besides her work in Apollo, she was part of MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Semi-Automatic Ground Environment Air Defense System, or SAGE. Biography. Margaret Hamilton Full Biography | Broadway World