1977

• The Apple Computer Company is incorporated.
• Apple employees move into an office on Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino, California.
• A working model of the first Radio Shack computer is demonstrated to company president, Charles Tandy.
• Commodore's Chuck Peddle shows the first PET to Radio Shack, hoping to have Radio Shack sell it.
• Xerox puts David Liddle in charge of developing the Alto computer into a marketable product.

• The first ComputerLand franchise is opened in Morristown, New Jersey, under the name Computer Shack.
• Apple Computer moves from Jobs' garage to an office in Cupertino.
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen sign a partnership agreement to officially create the Microsoft company.

• The First West Coast Computer Faire is held, in San Francisco's Brooks Civic Auditorium. Nearly 13,000 attended the weekend event.
• Commodore Business Machines Inc. unveils its PET computer at the West Coast Computer Faire. The PET includes a 6502 CPU, 4KB RAM, 14KB ROM, keyboard, display, and tape drive, for US$600.
• Apple Computer introduces the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire. The computer features a 6502 CPU, 4KB RAM, 16KB ROM, keyboard, 8-slot motherboard, game paddles, graphics/text interface to color display, and built-in BASIC, for US$1300. It is the first personal computer with color graphics.
• Apple Computer delivers its first Apple II system.

• 10 months after its introduction, 175 Apple I kits have sold.
• Pertec buys MITS and the Altair line for US$6 million in stock.

• Camp Retupmoc, the first week-long computer camp, is held in Terre Haute, Indiana.
• Apple II computers are shipped to Europe by independent distributor Eurapple.

• Microsoft ships "Microsoft FORTRAN" for CP/M-based computers.

• Radio Shack (a division of Tandy Corp.) announces the TRS-80 microcomputer, with Z80 CPU, 4KB RAM, 4KB ROM, keyboard, black-and-white video display, and tape cassette for US$600.

• One month after launching the TRS-80, 10,000 are sold, despite sales projections of only 3,000 in the first year.

• Radio Shack opens its first all-computer store, in Fort Worth, Texas.

• Apple Computer releases Applesoft, a version of BASIC with floating-point capabilities. It is licenced from Microsoft.
• Paul Terrell sells his chain of 74 Byte Shops, valued at US$4 million.

• At an executive board meeting at Apple Computer, president Mike Markkula lists the floppy disk drive as the company's top goal.
• Steve Wozniak writes the floppy disk controller software for use with the Apple II.
• Microsoft wins a legal battle with Pertec, on ownership of the BASIC Gates and Allen wrote and licensed to MITS.

• (fall) Microsoft grants Apple Computer a license to Microsoft's BASIC.

• Vector Graphic Inc. introduces the Vector Graphic I system.

• The first issue of Personal Computing is published, by David Bunnell.

• Compu-Serv changes its name to CompuServe Incorporated.

• Bally completes designs of a home computer.

• Dan Bricklin conseives the idea for the VisiCalc spreadsheet program.

• Heath Company introduces the H-8 personal computer kit, based on the Intel 8080.

• Officials of the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health first begin measuring radio-frequency radiation from display monitors. They report emmissions are too low for their instruments to measure.

• The Altair Software Distribution Company changes its name to Peachtree Software.

• IMSAI licences use of CP/M for its microcomputers for US$25,000.

• Atari introduces the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), later renamed the Atari 2600.

• Gilbert Hyatt adds a claim to a single-chip computer to his 1970 patent application.

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