There must be over 20 million pages written on the Civil War, double that on World War II. A safe guess would be that over 500,000 pages have already been written on database history. As fascinating as history buffs might find a historical look at databases to be, I will devote only a few pages to the topic. I'll give you my version of the three most significant dates and events. If you're a history buff, I encourage you to delve further. For most of you, though, a few pages will be enough. I hope you will see that the development of the RDBMS (relational database management system) and SQL (Structured Query Language) was not a smooth, clinical event. Rather, it was filled with radical thinking, corporate dissension, competition, market pressures, and ultimately the persistence of a very small group of scientists who dared to challenge the status quo. |