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UNIVAC Predicts an Eisenhower Win!

Walter Cronkite is shown the UNIVAC

Preparing for CBS to use a UNIVAC in its 1952 election coverage, UNIVAC designer J. Presper ("Pres") Eckert and operator Harold Sweeney show the machine to American news icon Walter Cronkite.

UNIVAC Predicts an Eisenhower Win!

Polls gave the 1952 Presidential election to Adlai Stevenson. UNIVAC, star of CBS’ election coverage (alongside Walter Cronkite), predicted an Eisenhower landslide. UNIVAC was right.

The computer’s TV debut captivated an audience already enthralled by technology and confronting new tools—and new terminology—almost daily. Before long, any computer was called “UNIVAC.”

UNIVAC predicts the election results

A printout from UNIVAC’s early prediction on election night favors Eisenhower. The margin was so big that his odds of winning appeared as “00 to 1” instead of “100 to 1” because programmers had never anticipated needing three digits.

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Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane, comic featuring UNIVAC on the cover

“UNIVAC” became synonymous with “computer” to the American public in the 1950s. This comic book combines computerized matchmaking, which began in the late 1950s, with a popular television dating show format.

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