When a floating moth shorted out an early supercomputer, what new phrase was born?

In the early days of computing, when machines were enormous, room-filling contraptions built with thousands of mechanical relays, unexpected problems were a constant headache. These complex electro-mechanical devices were prone to all sorts of failures, from wiring issues to component breakdowns. Operators often spent hours meticulously troubleshooting to pinpoint the source of a malfunction.

One particularly famous incident occurred on September 9, 1947, at Harvard University. Operators working on the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator were baffled by an inexplicable error that brought the massive machine to a halt. After a thorough investigation, they discovered the unlikely culprit: a moth, attracted by the warmth and light, had flown into the computer and become trapped between the contacts of an electromechanical relay, causing a short circuit.

Naval officer and pioneering computer scientist Grace Hopper, who was part of the team, famously removed the insect with tweezers and taped it into the computer's logbook. She then made a note, "First actual case of a bug being found." While the term "bug" had already been used informally in engineering to describe mechanical faults or problems, this literal discovery cemented its place in the lexicon of computing. It was a tangible "bug" that disrupted the system, giving birth to the phrase we still use today to describe errors or defects in software and hardware.