By Paul Edward Parker
Publication Date: 2026-04-15 09:03:00
April 15, 2026, 5:03 a.m. ET
- Herman Hollerith’s punch-card machinery, created for the 1890 census, became the foundation for the company later known as IBM.
- IBM secured a major government contract to process the first Social Security checks in 1937, establishing its presence in businesses nationwide.
- IBM played a crucial role in the U.S. space program, providing computers and software that helped land Apollo 11 on the moon.
This story is part of the Iconic Brands series, a USA TODAY network project showcasing the companies and brands that helped shape the nation’s identity, economy and culture. The series celebrates American ingenuity with a deeply reported examination of how brands intersect with history, community and everyday life in celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
America was going to have a big problem on its hands.
It had taken census workers almost a decade to tabulate the results of the 1880 census, which had counted some 50 million people living in…
