Founded in 1976 on Aprils fool day the company we now know as Apple was setup with a business plan to produce a Computer to help people and business with the very new Computer technology. * Steve Wozniak (26) and Steve Jobs (21) finish their work on a preassembled computer circuit board. The first prototype has taken about six months to design and 40 hours to build. It has no keyboard, case, sound, or graphics. They call it the Apple I.
* The Apple I debuts at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California
* The Byte Shop computer Store orders 50 Apple I boards. Job sells his VW van and Woz sells his Hewlett Packard programmable calculator, raising $1,350 to finance production.
* Jobs meets executives of Regis McKenna Advertising
* On January 3, 1977, Apple Computer is incorporated by Jobs, Woz, and their new partners and chairman, Mike Markkula. In addition to plotting its marketing strategy, Markkula invests $250,000 in the fledgling enterprise. Additional financing will come later from a group of venture capitalists that includes Venrock Associates, Arthur Rock and Co., and Capital Management Corp.
* Apple moves from Job's garage to a building on Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino, California.
* Over a birthday lunch, Markkula asks Michael Scott (they share the same birthday) to accept the position of Apple's president. Scott declines at first, but eventually agrees and becomes the driving force behind Apple during its years of fastest growth.
* Monthly orders of the Apple II establish a $1 million annuals sales rate.
* First Apples are shipped to Europe through an independent distributorship called Eurapple.
More history will be added shortly.