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1955: Stephen Paul Jobs is born on February 24.
1972: Jobs enrols in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but drops out after a semester.
1974: Jobs works for video game maker Atari and attends meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak, a high school friend.
1976: Apple Computer is formed on April Fools’ Day, shortly after Wozniak and Jobs create a new computer circuit board in a Silicon Valley garage. The Apple I computer goes on sale by the summer for $666.66.
1977: Apple is incorporated by its founders and a group of venture capitalists. It unveils Apple II, the first personal computer to generate colour graphics. Sales soar to the rate of $1 million a year.
1978: Jobs’s daughter Lisa is born to girlfriend Chrisann Brennan.
1979: Jobs visits Xerox PARC and is inspired by a computer with a graphical user interface.
1980: Apple goes public, raising $110 million in one of the biggest initial public offerings to date.
1982: Annual sales climb to $1 billion.
1983: The Lisa computer goes on sale with much fanfare, only to be pulled two years later. Steve Jobs lures John Sculley away from Pepsico Inc. to serve as Apple’s CEO.
1984: Iconic “1984” Macintosh commercial directed by Ridley Scott shows during the Super Bowl. The Macintosh computer goes on sale.
1985: Jobs and Sculley clash, leading to Jobs’s resignation. Wozniak also resigns.
1986: Jobs founds NeXT Inc., a new computer company making high-end machines for universities. He also buys Pixar from Star Wars creator George Lucas for $10 million.
1989: First NeXT computer goes on sale at $6,500.
1991: Apple and IBM Corp. announce an alliance to develop new PC microprocessors and software. Apple unveils PowerBook portable Macintoshes.
1993: Apple introduces the Newton, a hand-held, pen-based computer. The company reports quarterly loss of $188 million in July, and CEO Sculley is replaced by Apple president Michael Spindler. Apple restructures and Sculley resigns as chairman. At NeXT, Jobs focuses on software instead of whole computers.
1994: Apple introduces Power Macintosh computers based on the PowerPC chip it developed with IBM and Motorola. Apple decides to license its operating software, allowing other companies to clone the Mac.
1995: The first Mac clones go on sale. Microsoft Corp. releases Windows 95, which is easier to use and more like the Macintosh. Apple struggles with competition, parts shortages and mistakes predicting customer demand. Pixar’s Toy Story, the first commercial computer-animated feature, hits theatres and Pixar goes to Wall Street with an IPO that raises $140 million.
1996: Apple announces plans to buy NeXT for $430 million, for the operating system Jobs’s team developed. Deal closes in 1997. Gil Amelio replaces Spindler as CEO.
1997: Steve Jobs returns to Apple as an adviser, then appointed “interim” CEO after Amelio is pushed out. Jobs ends Mac clones.
1998: Apple returns to profitability and unveils the iMac, a blue-and-white computer and monitor in one that set Apple on the path to its comeback. Apple also discontinues the Newton.
2000: Apple removes “interim” label from Jobs’s CEO title.
2001: The first iPod goes on sale, as do computers with OS X, the modern Mac operating system based on NeXT software.
2003: Apple launches the iTunes music store with 200,000 songs at 99 cents each. It sells one million songs in the first week.
2004: Jobs undergoes surgery for a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer. Apple discloses his illness.
2005: Apple expands the iPod line with the tiny Nano and an iPod that can play video. The company also announces that future Macs will use Intel chips.
2006: Disney buys Pixar for $7.4 billion. Jobs becomes Disney’s largest individual shareholder, and much of his wealth is derived from this sale.
2007: Apple releases the iPhone. Crowds camp overnight at stores to be one of the first to own the new device.
2008: Speculation mounts that Jobs is ill, given his weight loss. In September he kicks off an Apple event and says, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” making a play off a famous Mark Twain quote after Bloomberg News accidentally publishes, then retracts, an obituary.
2009: Jobs explains severe weight loss by saying he has a treatable hormone imbalance. Days later he backtracks and announces he will be on medical leave. He returns to work in June. Later it is learned that he received a liver transplant.
2010: Apple sells 15 million iPads, its newest touch-screen gadget, in nine months.
January 17, 2011: Jobs announces a second medical leave. COO Tim Cook will fill in to run day-to-day operations. Jobs said he will continue as CEO.
August 24, 2011: Apple announces that Jobs is resigning as CEO. The company says he will be replaced by Cook and that Jobs will stay on as chairman.
THE MAC MAN'S QUOTABLE QUOTES
His letter of resignation
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
—Steve
