[TomWhitwell]

From Wikipedia: In 1961, an IBM 7094 at Bell Labs was programmed to sing "Daisy Bell" in the earliest demonstration of computer speech synthesis... Science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke witnessed the IBM 704 demonstration during a trip to Bell Labs in 1962 and referred to it in the 1968 novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the HAL 9000 computer sings "Daisy Bell" during its gradual deactivation.[13]

[tomcam]

The earliest demonstration of electronic speech synthesis was actually at the 1939 world’s fair. I think it was keyboard operated, though, and not driven by a computer.