2273
I’m always looking for important dates in Macintosh history, for no good reason.
January 1, 1904: if you have an original Mac and the battery goes dead, this is the starting date.
August 11, 1950: birth of Stephen Gary Wozniak, better known as Steve Wozniak.
February 24, 1955: birth of Steven Paul Jobs, better known as Steve Jobs.
October 28, 1955: birth of William Henry Gates III, better known as Bill Gates.
August 27, 1956: birthdate of Ray Montagne, designer of the CUDA chip in old Mac. If your Mac displays this date, you have a Mac that has ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) chips and your battery is dead. An excellent example of a system-level Easter egg.
December 31, 1969 or Jan. 1, 1970: you have a dead battery on a machine that runs Mac OS X. Unix counts time in seconds, starting with one second past midnight on Jan. 1, 1970, is the start of the clock (the “zeroeth second”).
April 1, 1976: you have a dead battery and your machine has reverted back to the day that Apple, the company, was formed. Another stellar example of a system-level Easter egg.
January 1, 1983: Lisa introduced
January 1, 1984: Lisa 2 introduced
January 22, 1984: Macintosh introduced via a commercial during Super Bowl XVIII
January 24, 1984: Macintosh (original) for sale; System 1.0 released
May 5, 1984: System 1.1 released
September 10, 1984 Macintosh 512K introduced
January 1, 1985, Macintosh XL introduced
April 1985: System 2.0 released
September 1985: System 2.1 released
January 16, 1986, Macintosh Plus introduced
System 3.0 released
February 1986: System 3.1 released
April 14, 1986, Macintosh 512Ke introduced
June 1986: System 3.2 released
January 1, 1987, Macintosh Plus (Platinum) introduced
System 4.0 released
February 3, 1987, Macintosh SE introduced
March 2, 1987, Macintosh II introduced
System 4.1 released
October 1987: System 4.2 released
April 1988: System 6.0 released
September 19, 1988, Macintosh IIx introduced
System 6.0.1 released
January 19, 1989, Macintosh SE/30 introduced
March 7, 1989, Macintosh IIcx introduced
August 1, 1989, Macintosh SE FDHD introduced
March 19, 1990, Macintosh IIfx introduced
October 15, 1990, Macintosh LC introduced
Macintosh Classic introduced
Macintosh IIsi introduced
February 11, 1991, Macintosh Portable introduced
April 1991: System 6.0.8 released
June 1991: System 7.0 released
October 21, 1991, Macintosh Classic II introduced
Quadra 700 introduced
Quadra 900 introduced
PowerBook 100 introduced
PowerBook 140 introduced
PowerBook 170 introduced
System 7.0.1
March 23, 1992, Macintosh LC II introduced
May 18, 1992, Quadra 950 introduced
August 3, 1992, PowerBook 145 introduced
System 7.1 released
October 19, 1992, Macintosh IIvi introduced
Macintosh IIvx introduced
PowerBook 160 introduced
PowerBook 180 introduced
PowerBook Duo 210 introduced
PowerBook Duo 230 introduced
February 10, 1993: Macintosh LC III/III+ introduced
Macintosh Color Classic introduced
Centris 620 introduced
Centris 650 introduced
Quadra 800 introduced
PowerBook 165c introduced
March 22, 1993, Workgroup Server 80 introduced
Workgroup Server 95 introduced
June 7, 1993, PowerBook 145b introduced
PowerBook 180c introduced
June 28, 1993, Macintosh LC520 introduced
July 26, 1993, Workgroup Server 60 introduced
August 16, 1993, PowerBook 165 introduced
October 10, 1993, Macintosh Color Classic II (last “classic” Mac) introduced
October 21, 1993, Macintosh TV introduced
Quadra 605 introduced
Quadra 610 introduced
Quadra 650 introduced
PowerBook Duo 250 introduced
PowerBook Duo 270c introduced
PowerBook 520 introduced
PowerBook 540 introduced
System 7.1.1 released
February 2, 1994, Macintosh LC550 introduced
Macintosh LC 575 introduced
March 14, 1994, Power Macintosh 6100 introduced
Power Macintosh 7100 introduced
Power Macintosh 8100 introduced
System 7.1.2 introduced
April 26, 1994, Workgroup Server 6150 introduced
Workgroup Server 8150 introduced
Workgroup Server 9150 introduced
May 16, 1994, PowerBook 520c introduced
PowerBook 540c introduced
PowerBook 550 introduced
PowerBook Duo 280 introduced
PowerBook Duo 280c introduced
July 18, 1994, Quadra 630 introduced
PowerBook 150 introduced
September 1994: System 7.5 released
March 1995: System 7.5.1 released
March 1995: System 7.5.2 released
June 1995: System 7.5.3 released
September 27, 1996: System 7.5.5 released
January 7, 1997: System 7.6 released
April 7, 1997: System 7.6.1 released
July 26, 1997: Mac OS 8.0 released
January 19, 1996: Mac OS 8.1 released
October 17, 1998: Mac OS 8.5 released
December 7, 1998: Mac OS 8.5.1 released
March 16, 1999: Mac OS X Server 1.0 “Rhapsody” released
May 10, 1999: Mac OS 8.6 released
October 23, 1999: Mac OS 9.0 released
April 4, 2000: Mac OS 9.0.4 released
January 9, 2001: Mac OS 9.1 released
March 24, 2001: Mac OS X 10.0 “Cheetah” released
June 18, 2001: Mac OS 9.2 released
August 21, 2001: Mac OS 9.2.1 released
September 25, 2001: Mac OS X 10.1 “Puma” released
December 5, 2001: Mac OS 9.2.2 released
August 24, 2002: Mac OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” released
October 24, 2003: Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” released
April 29, 2005: Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” released
October 26, 2007: Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” released
August 28, 2009: Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” released
July 20, 2011: Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” released
[time passes…]
Tuesday January 19, 2038: the world ends, as the 32-bit versions of Unix reach the maximum number of seconds supported by the clock, and reset to zero. Or possibly the world starts again. This will happen at 3:14:07 UTC (seven seconds after 3:14 a.m. in Greenwich, England).
