Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace (December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852), was one of the most picturesque characters in computer history. August Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815 the daughter of the illustrious poet, Lord Byron. Fearing that Ada might become a poet like her father, Ada's mother, herself quite a mathematician, tutored Ada in mathematics and science beginning at an early age. In November 1834, Ada first heard of Charles Babbage's ideas for a new calculating engine, the Analytical Engine. He conjectured: what if a calculating engine could not only foresee but could act on that foresight. Ada was touched by the "universality of his ideas." During a nine-month period in 1842-1843, Ada translated Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea's memoir on Babbage's Analytical Engine. With the article, she appended a set of notes which specified in complete detail a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the Engine, recognized by historians as the world's first computer program. Biographers debate the extent of her original contributions. In her article, published in 1843, Lady Lovelace's prescient comments included her predictions that such a machine might be used to compose complex music, to produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and scientific use. A software language developed by the U.S. Department of Defense was named "Ada" in her honor in 1980.