Happy Spreadsheet Day!
17 October 2020
It was October 17, 1979 when VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program for personal computers, was released. To commemorate this “historic” event, fellow MVP Debra Dalgleish created Spreadsheet Day back in 2010 (so this is the 10th anniversary, so to speak). This day has become synonymous with celebrating both the pros and cons of working with spreadsheet software.
VisiCalc was released on this day 41 years ago for the Apple II, to help “…organize (sic) and compute massive amounts of data...”. If my Vic-20 was anything to go by, that could be up to 3.5kb worth! What made VisiCalc so important was its ability to be the first time such a tool could be used on a personal computer, finally putting this power into the hands of small businesses and others that could afford such things back in 1979.
So, if like me, you are stuck inside today trying to get those damned numbers to reconcile for that urgent board report, sit back for a moment and think how your life would be without the humble spreadsheet – would you still be born to Excel (get it)? On second thoughts…
Happy Spreadsheet Day!
