Microsoft Events

1975 Apr 4 Bill Gates and Paul Allen form partnership called Micro-Soft
While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. He also met computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou at Harvard, with wh...
1978 Nov 1 Microsoft opens first international office in Japan
The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, titled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan"). Microsoft Japan, officially Microsoft Compa...
1979 Jan 1 Microsoft moves headquarters to Bellevue, Washington
Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.[27] The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home i...
1980 Microsoft partners with IBM to wrtie the BASIC for the IBM PC
In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to write the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system,...
1981 Jun 25 Microsoft becomes incorporated and Bill Gates becomes President
Gates oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington and made Gates President of Microsoft and the Chairman of the Board.[26] ...
1985 Nov 20 Microsoft Releases Windows Version 1.0
On November 20, 1985, two years after the initial announcement, Windows ships Windows 1.0. Now, rather than typing MS‑DOS commands, you just move a mouse to point and click your way throu...
1994 Sep 19 Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation is Decided in Favor of Microsoft
Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation, 35 F.3d 1435 (9th Cir. 1994) was a copyright infringement lawsuit in which Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) sought to prevent Microsoft...
1998 May 18 United States v. Microsoft Trial
United States v. Microsoft was a set of consolidated civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation pursuant to the Sherman Antitrust Act on May 18, 1998 by the United States Departmen...
2000 Apr 3 Microsoft Is Declared A Monopoly
Over 1999 and early 2000, the U.S. Federal Reserve had increased interest rates six times, and the economy was beginning to lose speed. The dot-com bubble burst, numerically, on March 10,...
2001 Nov 15 Microsoft Releases Xbox in North America
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console produced by Microsoft. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market, and competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Drea...
2005 Nov 22 Microsoft Releases Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seven...
2006 Jan 24 "Developers" - Steve Ballmer Pumps Up the Volume
Footage featuring Ballmer's flamboyant stage appearances at Microsoft events have been widely circulated on the Internet, becoming viral videos. The most famous of these is commonly title...
2008 Jun 27 Bill Gates Steps Down from Daily Duties
William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is r...
2009 Jun 1 Microsoft announces motion control at E3 2009
A planned camera controller for Xbox 360 promises 3-D motion recognition that will turn your entire body into a game controller. Code-named Project Natal, the camera controller will si...
2009 Jun 2
to 2009 Jun 4
 E3 2009
LOS ANGELES — Taking a videogame franchise to the next level is a proven draw at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. At this year’s show, developers hope to catch gamers’ attention with...
2009 Jul 8 Google plans to introduce PC operating system
In a direct challenge to Microsoft, Google announced late Tuesday that it is developing an operating system for PCs that is tied to its Chrome Web browser. The software, called the Goo...
2010 Jun 16 Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett Announce 'The Giving Pledge'
Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett are asking the nation's billionaires to pledge to give at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death. If their cam...
2010 Oct 11 Windows Phone 7 Launch
Windows Phone 7 is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform. It is aimed at the consumer market instead of the enterprise mark...
2010 Nov 4 Microsoft Kinect Launches in North America
Microsoft is gearing up for a massive marketing push to launch Kinect -- a controller-free Wii-killer for the Xbox -- and blow away the competition come Christmas. Backed by a half-bil...