Fifty-six years ago today, the first commercial computer in the United States was put into service for the U.S. Census Bureau. Dubbed UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I), the 13-ton behemoth used 5,200 vacuum tubes and could perform more than 1,000 calculations per second. It was the fastest in the world at the time. The following year a UNIVAC correctly predicted Eisenhower would be elected president.

But taking up a whopping 350 square feet of floor space, the UNIVAC was hardly your average PC. And I thought my laptop was too big.