The first electronic spreadsheet. It was introduced in 1978 for the Apple II. Conceived by Dan Bricklin, a Harvard student, and programmed by a friend, Bob Frankston, it became a major success. It launched an industry and was almost entirely responsible for the Apple II being used in business. Thousands of $3,000 Apples were bought to run the $150 VisiCalc.

VisiCalc was a command-driven program that was followed by SuperCalc, MultiPlan, Lotus 1-2-3 and a host of others, each improving the user interface. Spreadsheets have also been implemented on minis and mainframes, and it all started with VisiCalc.