APPLE’S FIRST TEN YEARS

1976 April 1

Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne start Apple Computer. Later that month, Wozniak unveils the first Apple I build-it-yourself computer kit to the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto.

1977

Designer Rob Janoff creates Apple’s soon-to-be-famous logo.

Jan. 3

Apple Computer incorporates.

March

Apple moves from Jobs’ home into an office in Cupertino.

June 10

The Apple computer goes on sale. II

1978 July

Apple introduces its Disk II floppy-disk subsystem, which provides a much more convenient way to store data than on cassette tapes — the standard method for Apple, Commodore and Radio Shack computers.

1979 July

Apple begins work on a new high-end computer, code-named Lisa.

September

Work begins on the Macintosh project, aimed at being a low-cost “PITS” — person in the street — computer.

December

Jobs visits the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center to investigate PARC’S work on a graphical user interface.

1980 May 19

Apple releases the Apple III computer.

September

Jobs is removed from the Lisa project.

Dec. 12

Apple goes public. That first day, Apple stock rises 32%, making 40 Apple employees instant millionaires.

1981 February

Jobs assumes leadership of the Macintosh project.

Aug. 12

IBM releases its first personal computer, the IBM PC. Apple buys a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal that says, “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.”

1982 December

Apple becomes the first personal computer company to reach $1 billion in sales.

1983 Jan. 19

Apple unveils the Lisa computer and the Apple IIE. The latter becomes the most successful Apple computer to date.

May

Jobs recruits Pepsico President John Sculley to be Apple’s CEO.

May 6

Apple enters the Fortune 500 and becomes the fastestgrowing company in history.

1984 Jan. 22

The first Macintosh TV commercial airs during the Super Bowl.

Jan. 24

The first Macintosh goes on sale after a gala shareholders meeting in which Jobs unveils a Mac that speaks to the audience.

April 24

The Apple IIC goes on sale.

1985 March 1

Apple introduces the Laserwriter. “Desktop publishing” is born.

May 31

Jobs, who’s become involved in a power struggle with the CEO he recruited two years before, is stripped of his duties by the Apple board.

Sept. 17

Jobs leaves Apple. He’ll return in 1996 after co-founding Pixar studios and developing what will become the core of the next Mac operating system, OSX.