Ada Lovelace Day is an annual event whose goal is to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815 - 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron and now commonly known as Ada Lovelace is widely held to have been the first computer programmer. Close friends with inventor Charle Babbage, Lovelace was intrigued by his Analytical Engine and in 1842, she translated a description of it by Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea.
Babbage asked her to expand the article, 'as she understood so well', and this was when she wrote several early 'computer programs.' Ada Lovelace died of cancer at 36, her potential tragically unfulfilled.