The manual sets out the historical path of the development of computer technology, the development of computers and the formation of computer science as a science. Examples of the use of computer technology in production and the surrounding life are given. Materials on the history of inventions from the simplest computing tools to the development of supercomputers in non-CIS countries, the former USSR and Belarus are presented; history of the development of means of "communication" between a person and a computer (programming languages, information input and output devices), etc. This information can be useful for graduate students, undergraduates and students during independent research, writing diploma and term papers in computer science, as well as during the period of passing pedagogical practice when conducting optional computer science classes with students of colleges, gymnasiums and secondary schools.