Spreadsheet

The first spreadsheet program Visicalc (for "visible calculator") was released for the Apple II on October 17, 1979. It was developed by Dan Bricklin of Software Arts, and was then produced for distribution by Personal Software.

An example VisiCalc spreadsheet on an Apple II

Sales were initially brisk, with about 300,000 copies sold. It eventually sold over 700,000 copies in six years, and as many as 1 million copies over its history.

VisiCalc is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later.

Spreadsheet Day commemorates on October 17 every year the date that VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program for personal computers, was released.

Excel now has the largest market share on the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and then ported it to Windows two years later. 

The video game Solitaire was created by Wes Cherry, a Microsoft intern that was working for the company in 1988, who wasn't paid for the game. Bill Gates liked the idea but complained it was too difficult to win at this game. The original version also included a fake Excel spreadsheet to hide the game from your boss.

It takes 9 hours, 36 minutes, and 10 seconds to reach the 1,048,576th row of an Excel spreadsheet by perpetually pressing the down arrow.