The First Apple Presentation: April 11, 1976, at the Homebrew Computer Club

Apple presentations have been important events for almost 40 years. The company set the standard for large, carefully staged product launches and updates.

But the very first presentation in Apple’s history did not take place at the Moscone Center or the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. It happened in a computer club.

On April 11, 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak presented the Apple I computer at a regular meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club. These meetings were held at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, where engineers and enthusiasts gathered to show their latest experiments and prototypes.

It is important to understand that the Apple I was not a computer in the way we think of one today. It was essentially a circuit board. You could connect a keyboard and a television to it, type commands, and immediately see the output on the screen.

That Homebrew Computer Club meeting became one of the key moments in Apple’s early history. Paul Terrell, the owner of the computer store The Byte Shop, was present at the demonstration. Shortly after the presentation, he placed an order with Jobs and Wozniak for 50 fully assembled boards. This order marked the beginning of Apple’s commercial business.

See also April 2, 1973: The Birth of the First Search Engine — Lexis.