Timeline of Microsoft

This is a timeline of Microsoft, a multinational computer technology corporation.

Full timeline
YearMonth and dateEvent typeDetails
1972 N/A Company Bill Gates and Paul Allen first founded Traf-O-Data[1], which it only exists from 1972 until 1975.
1975April 4CompanyBill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft.[2] The company, Traf-O-Data became defunct when Microsoft was founded.
1975 April 4 Product Microsoft released its first product which is called the Altair BASIC.
1978November 1InternationalThe company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").
1980AugustProductMicrosoft signs a contract with IBM to develop an operating system for IBM's first personal computer. This, in turn, was the beginning for both the Bundling of Microsoft Windows, and Wintelism, as IBM personal computers and Intel were also bundled with each other.
1981July 27ProductMicrosoft buys the rights for QDOS from Seattle Computer Products (without telling SCP that it had a lucrative contract with IBM). This would later become MS-DOS.[3]
1981August 12CompanyIBM announces the release of the IBM Personal Computer, which becomes the dominant personal computer. As DOS was the only operating system available on the PC when it was introduced in New York City, this paves way to the future domination by the MS-DOS operating system.[4][5]
1982AprilInternationalMicrosoft formally launches its International Division and sets up subsidiaries in Europe and elsewhere, finding local agents to handle its business interests [5]
1983JanuaryProductsCompaq releases its first PC-compatible machine with IBM compatible clones, which hurt IBM but helped Microsoft (as it had to license DOS from Microsoft), but any application developed to run on the PC could still run on Compaq machines.[5]
1983January 26CompetitionLotus Software releases Lotus 1-2-3, a spreadsheet program that becomes the IBM PC's first killer application, and which established the spreadsheet standard for the PC. By the late 1980s, it would eventually lose out to Microsoft Excel.[5]
1983May 30ProductsMicrosoft announces Multi-Tool Word, which later becomes Microsoft Word.[5]
1983 November 10 Products Bill Gates first introduced the first version of Microsoft Windows and it is planned to be released 2 years later.[6]
1984January 24CompetitionSteve Jobs introduces the original Macintosh, the first mass-market computer with a graphical user interface. Microsoft would later adopt many of its features into Windows.
1985SeptemberProductsMicrosoft releases Microsoft Excel, which would compete with, and later overtake, Lotus 1-2-3.[5]
1985November 20ProductsMicrosoft launches the first version of its Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, which runs on top of MS-DOS and had a primitive GUI.[7]
1986FebruaryCompanyMicrosoft moves its headquarters to a suburban campus in Redmond, Washington.[7]
1986March 13CompanyMicrosoft goes public with an IPO, raising $61 million at $21 a share.[7]
1987April 2ProductsMicrosoft announces OS/2.
1987 December 9 Products Microsoft releases Windows 2.0.[8]
1988MarchCompetition, LegalApple sues Microsoft, contending that Microsoft's Windows 2.03 program violated Apple's copyrights on the Macintosh interface.[9]
1990May 22ProductsMicrosoft launches Windows 3.0. It gives the user virtual memory, improved graphics, and the ability to multitask.
1990November 19ProductsMicrosoft releases Microsoft Office, which bundles together Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint for the first time.[10]
1991SeptemberCompanyMicrosoft creates Microsoft Research. It declares that it would support research without regard to product cycles.[11][12]
1992April 6ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows 3.1.
1993March 22ProductsMicrosoft releases Microsoft Encarta, the first digital multimedia encyclopedia.
1993July 27ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows NT 3.1, the first version of Windows available only to business users.
1994September 24ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows NT 3.5.
1995May 30ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows NT 3.51, the last version of Windows to not have a Start Menu.
1995August 24ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows 95, which features a new interface with a novel start button.[7] Microsoft also debuted The Microsoft Network, a search engine and web portal for a wide variety of products and services.[13]
1995December 15ProductsMicrosoft announces partnership with NBC (National Broadcasting Company) to create a new 24-hour cable news television station, MSNBC.[14]
1996October 22CompanyMicrosoft launches Expedia, an online travel company, as its first Internet property.[15]
1996MayProductsMicrosoft launches the Internet Gaming Zone, which would later become the MSN Gaming Zone.[16]
1997August 6Competition, PartnershipsApple Inc announces that it will enter in a partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft releases Microsoft Office for Macintosh, ships Internet Explorer as the default browser for the Macintosh, and invests $150 million in Apple.[17]
1998June 25ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows 98.[18] It includes support for USB devices, back and forward navigation buttons, the address bar in Windows Explorer, and the Windows Driver Model.
1998InternationalMicrosoft launches its Indian headquarters, which becomes its second-largest after its US headquarters.[19]
1998May 18LegalUnited States v. Microsoft Corp., an Antitrust trial, begins against Microsoft, with the US Department of Justice suing Microsoft for illegally thwarting competition in order to protect and extend its software (for reasons including bundling Internet Explorer with Microsoft Windows and requiring personal computer manufacturers to agree to adopt a uniform "boot-up" or "first screen" sequence specified by Microsoft).[20]
1999July 22ProductsMicrosoft releases MSN Messenger, an IM client.[21]
2000January 13TeamBill Gates hands over his CEO position to Steve Ballmer.[22]
2000September 14ProductMicrosoft releases Windows ME. It has improved support for digital media.
2001MayAcquisitionsMicrosoft acquires Ensemble Studios.[23]
2001October 25ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows XP.
2001November 15ProductsMicrosoft launches the first Xbox.
2002February 13ProductsMicrosoft launches the .NET initiative, which creates an entirely new API for Windows programming, and includes a new programming language C#.
2002November 1LegalThe Department of Justice reaches an agreement with Microsoft to settle the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case. The proposed settlement required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and appoint a panel of three people who will have full access to Microsoft's systems, records, and source code for five years in order to ensure compliance. [24]
2003June 23ProductsMicrosoft announces Windows Mobile.
2005November 22ProductsMicrosoft launches the Xbox 360.[25]
2006May 14CompanyMicrosoft launches adCenter, an online advertising service that provides pay per click advertising. Until then, all the ads displayed on the MSN search engine were supplied by Overture (and later Yahoo!).[26]
2007January 30ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows Vista to the general public.[27] and was made available for purchase and download from Microsoft's website.[28]
2008June 27TeamBill Gates retires as chief software architect and devotes more of his time to philanthropy.[7]
2008September 2CompetitionGoogle launches Google Chrome, a browser that would cut into the web browser operating share of Internet Explorer.[29]
2009October 22ProductsMicrosoft launches Windows 7 to the general public.[30]
2009May 28ProductsMicrosoft unveils Microsoft Bing, a search engine to replace MSN.[31]
2010FebruaryProductsMicrosoft launches Microsoft Azure, its foray into cloud computing.[32]
2010MarchCompetitionGoogle lifts censorship on issues sensitive to the Chinese government, and is blocked by China, allowing the way for domination by alternative search engines, including Baidu.[33]
2010NovemberProductsMicrosoft announces Windows Phone, a family of mobile operating systems as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile.[34]
2011May 10AcquisitionsMicrosoft acquires Skype for $8.5 billion.[35]
2012October 26ProductsMicrosoft launches Microsoft Surface, a series of Windows-based personal computing devices designed and manufactured by Microsoft under its hardware division.[36]
2013SeptemberAcquisitionsMicrosoft acquires Nokia in an attempt to expand its presence in mobile.[37]
2013November 22ProductsMicrosoft launches the Xbox One.[38]
2013December 13CompetitionValve announces SteamOS, an operating system to compete with Windows.[39]
2014February 4TeamSatya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft.[40]
2014AprilProductsMicrosoft announces Cortana, an intelligent personal assistant.[41]
2014SeptemberCompanyMicrosoft reassigns half of its staff in Microsoft Research to a new group called MSR NeXT, to focus on products with greater impact to the company rather than pure research.[42]
2014SeptemberProductsThe Windows Insider program is announced, which allows users to test Windows 10 and provide feedback to Microsoft developers.[43] As of 2015, the program had over 7 million users.[44]
2014 October 31 Services Microsoft discontinued the MSN Messenger[45] because the service does not survive any changes and led users the loss of using this service. So, Microsoft replaced MSN Messenger as Skype.[46]
2015January 21ProductsHoloLens, the world's first holographic headset is announced and Microsoft announces that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for customers with Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1 (excluding enterprise).[47][48]
2015July 29ProductsMicrosoft releases Windows 10 - what it describes as its "last operating system" - and which acts as an "universal" application architecture across multiple Microsoft product families.[49]
2015September 23InternationalMicrosoft announces partnership with Baidu, making Baidu the default homepage for users of its Microsoft Edge browser in China, and which introduces Baidu search applications to Windows 10.[50]
2015October 26RetailThe first flagship Microsoft Store opens in New York City[51]
2015November 19CompanyMicrosoft, alongside ARM Holdings, Dell, Intel, Cisco Systems, and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium, to promote interests and development in fog computing.[52]
2016February 3AcquisitionsMicrosoft announced to buy SwiftKey, a startup based out of London that makes keyboard apps for Android and iOS devices.[53]
2016February 24AcquisitionsMicrosoft announces to buy Xamarin, a company that allows developers to build fully native apps across several platforms from a single shared code base.[54]
2016June 13AcquisitionsMicrosoft announces the acquisition of LinkedIn at $26.2 billion ($60 per user).[55][56][57]
2016October 26ProductsThe Surface Studio and Surface Dial are announced[58]
2016November 2ProductsMicrosoft Teams, a cloud-based team collaboration tool, is launched as part of Office 365[59]
2017June 29AcquisitionsMicrosoft bought Israeli cloud startup Cloudyn, a company that helps customers manage their cloud billing across multiple clouds.[60]
2018 August Company Microsoft was partnered with a Japanese company, Toyota Tsusho to create fish farming tools using the Microsoft Azure application suite for IoT technologies that are related to the management of water.
2019 November 2 Services Microsoft releases a new version of Microsoft Edge.[61] Also, a new logo of Microsoft Edge was introduced.[62]
2020 February 12 Products Microsoft announced the beta version of Windows 10X.[63]

References
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