In the early 1960s, computers filled entire rooms. They cost millions of dollars, and only trained experts could operate them. Most people never touched one. Two professors at Dartmouth College wanted to change that. John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz believed every student should learn to use a computer. So they created a new programming language called BASIC. The name stood for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. On May 1, 1964, the first BASIC program ran successfully. What made BASIC special was its simplicity. Older programming languages required long strings of confusing numbers and symbols. BASIC used everyday English words like PRINT, GO TO, and IF. A student could learn to write a simple program in just a few hours. Dartmouth also did something radical. The college let students share one computer at the same time through connected terminals. Before this, people had to wait in line to use a machine. BASIC spread quickly beyond Dartmouth. By the 1970s, young innovators like Bill Gates and Paul Allen were writing their own version of BASIC. It became the language that introduced millions of people to computing.