Augusta Ada Byron was born in London on December 10, 1815. Her father was Lord Byron, a famous poet. Her mother was Annabella Milbanke, who loved math. Ada's parents split up when Ada was only five weeks old. Her father left England and Ada never really knew him. He died when she was eight years old. Even so, Ada always felt curious about him. She later asked to be buried next to him.
Ada's mother did not want Ada to be like her father. So she made sure Ada studied math and science instead of poetry. Smart teachers helped Ada learn. One teacher, named Mary Somerville, was a scientist who became a good friend to Ada. She introduced Ada to many smart people.
In 1833, when Ada was seventeen, she met a man named Charles Babbage. He was building a machine called the Difference Engine. This machine could do math problems automatically. Ada thought the machine was amazing. She and Babbage became close friends and wrote to each other for many years.
Babbage later planned an even bigger machine called the Analytical Engine. This machine could follow instructions to do many different kinds of math. It used cards with holes punched in them, kind of like the cards used in weaving machines. This engine was never fully built, but it worked like an early computer.
In 1842, a man named Luigi Menabrea wrote about the Analytical Engine in French. Ada translated his words into English. Then she added her own notes, which ended up much longer than the original paper! In her notes, she wrote steps for the machine to figure out special numbers called Bernoulli numbers. Many people say this was the first computer program ever written. This is why people call Ada the first computer programmer.
Ada also had a big idea. She said the machine could work with more than just numbers. She thought it might even create music someday! This idea was way ahead of her time. She also said the machine could not think on its own. It could only do what it was told. This idea is still talked about today when people study computers and artificial intelligence.
In 1835, Ada married William King. He became the Earl of Lovelace, so Ada became a Countess. They had three children together. Even with a busy family life, Ada kept working on math and writing to Babbage.
Ada was sick a lot during her life. As a child, she could not walk for a while after being sick with measles. As an adult, she loved horse racing and tried to use math to win bets. This got her into money trouble. Sadly, in 1852, she became very sick with cancer. Doctors at the time used a treatment called bloodletting, which made her feel worse instead of better. Ada died on November 27, 1852. She was 36 years old, the same age her father was when he died. She was buried next to him, just like she wanted.
For a long time, people forgot about Ada's work. But later, computer scientists found her old notes and realized how smart she really was. In 1980, a computer programming language was named "Ada" in her honor. Today, people celebrate Ada Lovelace Day every October to celebrate women in science and technology. Ada is remembered as one of the most important people in the history of computers.
