January 22: Apple's 1984 commercial was aired (1984)

Apple Macintosh

Apple Macintosh computer was introduced during the Super Bowl XVIII with its legendary "1984" commercial directed by Ridley Scott. The commercial adopted a metaphoric situation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - Apple is liberating the world ruled by Big Brother (IBM). The commercial was not originally approved by the Board of the Directors of Apple and it was very controversial, however, it is now proven to be a big success and the commercial played a very important role in making Apple's corporate image of the cultural leader and technical innovator. Two days after the commercial, Macintosh was on sale and it became the first commercially successful personal computer equipped with a computer mouse and a graphic user interface. Both technologies were originally developed by Xerox at its Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) and Apple improved the technology and made a commercial success. The introduction of these technical features to the market changed the computer industry forever.