The first virtual machine (an *(abstract VM)) successfully designed to embody universal computations is the Turing Machine.

Check Turing's seminal 1936 article for details: _("On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" | http://www.abelard.org/turpap2/turpap2.htm). The principle of Turing Machines is also described (often with variations) in any book on the principles of Computing Theory.

_("Busy Beaver Turing Machine" | http://grail.cba.csuohio.edu/~somos/bb.html).