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 January 1, 1970: January 1, 1970, is the start of the Unix epoch (the beginning of time for Unix. Unix counts time in seconds, and one second past midnight on Jan. 1, 1970, is the start of the clock, the “zeroeth second”). If Mac OS X has problems determining the validity of a file, it will frequently display either December 31, 1969, or January 1, 1970. Tip: This is also a hint you may have a dead battery on your motherboard.
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
March 27, 1995: Radius System 100 (first Macintosh clone)
April 17, 1995: PowerComputing Power 100 released
June 1995: System 7.5.3 released
September 27, 1996: System 7.5.5 released
January 7, 1997: System 7.6 released
January 12, 1997: HAL 9000 becomes operational at Urbana, Illinois. [In Arthur C. Clarke’s short story, The Sentinel. In the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the date is given as January 12, 1992. And yes, HAL plays a major role in Apple history.]
April 7, 1997: System 7.6.1 released
July 26, 1997: Mac OS 8.0 released
January 19, 1998: Mac OS 8.1 released
March 20, 1997: Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh releaseds
August 29, 1997: Skynet becomes self-aware
August 15, 1998: iMac G3 began shipping.
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. This version of Mac OS X, while it has the same name as the current operating system, was internally and externally very different.
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
July 19, 2000: Power Mac G4 Cube 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
January 7, 2002: iMac G4 released.
April 29, 2002: eMac released.
August 24, 2002: Mac OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” released
October 24, 2003: Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” released
August 31, 2004: iMac G5 released
January 20, 2005: Mac Mini G4 released
April 29, 2005: Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” released
January 10, 2006: First Intel-based Macs released, the 15″ MacBook Pro and iMac Core Duo.
August 7, 2006: Mac Pro released
January 9, 2007: iPhone released
October 26, 2007: Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” released
August 28, 2009: Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” released
January 27, 2010: iPad released
July 20, 2011: Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” released
October 5, 2011: Steve Jobs dies at home of respiratory failure brought on by pancreatic cancer.
July 24, 2012: OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) released. Mac OS X is officially renamed OS X.
October 22, 2013: OS X Mavericks (10.9) released.
December 19, 2013: Mac Pro (late 2013 edition) released.
October 16, 2014: OS X Yosemite (10.10) released.
September 30, 2015: OS X El Capitan (10.11) released.
September 16, 2015: macOS Server 5.0 released.
September 20, 2016: macOS Sierra (10.12) released.
September, 25, 2017: macOS High Sierra (10.13) released.
September 24, 2018: macOS Mojave (10.14) released.
October 7, 2019: macOS Catalina (10.15) released.
November 10, 2020: M1-based MacBook Air and Mac mini released.
November 12, 2020: macOS 11 Big Sur released.
October 25, 2021: macOS 12 Monterey released.
March 18, 2022: M1 Ultra-based Mac Studio released.
October 24, 2022: macOS 13 Ventura released.
September 26, 2023: macOS 14 Sonoma projected release.
[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).