Sixty years ago the "modern computer" was born in a lab in Manchester.
The Small Scale Experimental Machine, or "Baby", was the first to contain memory which could store a program.
The room-sized computer's ability to carry out different tasks - without having to be rebuilt - has led some to describe it as the "first modern PC". Using just 128 bytes of memory, it successfully ran its first set of instructions - to determine the highest factor of a number - on 21 June 1948. "We were extremely excited," Geoff Tootill, one of the builders of Baby told BBC News.
Compare that to what we have now!
SeasideMan
Pro 
Strictly speaking, EDVAC was the first stored-programme computer, and the design for Baby was in fact copied from that for EDVAC. But Baby did indeed run a programme before EDVAC did. To say that the modern computer was "born" in Manchester isn't really accurate. It was actually born in Pennsylvania, but first started walking in Manchester.
Sorry, 25 years in the computer industry means I can't help but jump on things like this!
Tom.