On October 4, 1903, American physicist and inventor John Vincent Atanasoff was born. He is best known for being considered as one of the inventors of the electronic digital computer. Even computer scientists most probably haven't heard anything of this computer pioneer. Of course you will have heard about Alan Turing or John von Neumann, which are traditionally references as being the father of the computer. Maybe, when you are European or even German, then you will have heard of Konrad Zuse, who in near total intellectual isolation constructed the first universal computer Z3, which became operational in May 1941. So why is it, we havent heard of John Atanasoff? Although, he came up with the idea of a binary digit universal computer in the late 1930s and constructed his ingenious device little later on, he never secured a patent for his device and lots of the concepts he pioneered were incorporated into the breakthrough ENIAC computer that evolved into the legendary UNIVAC.