Frederic “FC” Williams (1911–1977) and Tom Kilburn (1921–2001) solved the memory problem that hampered early computing. Williams, a radar pioneer, discovered that a cathode-ray tube could store binary data, while Kilburn developed the circuits to make it a reality.
Their Manchester Baby was the first machine to run a program stored in its own memory. This breakthrough led to the Manchester Mark I (MADAM) and the Ferranti Mark I. Their collaboration turned the computer from a static calculator into a flexible vessel for software, establishing the “stored-program” reality we live in today.