About

Debra DalgleishWelcome to the Spreadsheet Day blog, which celebrates the joy and challenges of working with spreadsheets. The annual Spreadsheet Day is on October 17th, and was first celebrated in 2010.

I’m Debra Dalgleish, the founder of Spreadsheet Day, and owner of the Contextures Excel website and blog.

Spreadsheet Day – October 17th

In 2010, October 17th as was chosen as Spreadsheet Day, because VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet for personal computers, was released on October 17th, 1979.

The screen shot below is from the VisiCalc section of Peter Jennings’ website. He co-founded Personal Software, which became VisiCorp. (Read his bio)

The first copy of VisiCalc for the Apple ][ (Version 1.37) went out the door on October 17, 1979.

VisiCalc ship date

More Information re October 17th Date

For more information on the official VisiCalc launch date, go to the VisiCalc page.

Near the end of that page, there’s a Twitter discussion with Dan Bricklin.

Spreadsheet Day History

Here is a brief history of Spreadsheet Day:

2010

  • In February 2010, I proposed that we celebrate Spreadsheet Day, and asked for suggestions for an appropriate date.
  • In March 2010, I conducted a poll, to vote for the date, based on all the suggestions
  • October 17th was the winning date — it was the VisiCalc release date, in 1979
  • This Spreadsheet Day blog was created in July 2010, to serve as a coordination point for the annual event
  • In early October 2010, I reminded readers that the first Spreadsheet Day was only a week away
  • On the first Spreadsheet Day, Oct. 17, 2010, I posted announcements on this blog, and on my Contextures blog.

2011

2012 – 2013

2014 – Present

Spreadsheet Day Logo

The Spreadsheet Day logo was created in Excel, using the OCT column heading, and row 17.

Spreadsheet Day Logo

Sunflowers

Why are there sunflowers in the header image? Every day is sunny, when you’re working with spreadsheets!

Also, the sunflowers are lined up nicely, like a spreadsheet grid, and they look like they’re celebrating.

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