Happy Spreadsheet Day 2025!
Happy Spreadsheet Day 2025! And a very happy 46th anniversary to VisiCalc!
Spreadsheet Day Year 16
The first time that we celebrated Spreadsheet Day was on October 17, 2010, so this is our 16th year of spreadsheet celebrations.
And way before Spreadsheet Day started, there were Lotus 1-2-3 parties, with singing and dancing!
I hope you have something equally enthusiastic planned for today!
How Spreadsheet Day Started
Back in February 2010, I proposed that we celebrate Spreadsheet Day, and asked for suggestions for an appropriate date.
In March 2010, I set up a poll, based on the suggested dates, and the winning date was October 17th.
That date is a tribute to VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet for personal computers. It was released on October 17th, 1979, according to Peter Jennings’ notes.
- Note: To read more about how Spreadsheet Day got started, you can go to the About page.
Spreadsheet Day 2010
While getting ready for this year’s celebration, I looked back at my blog post for the first Spreadsheet Day, on October 17, 2010.
It included the “grid filled” photo below, from one of my long-ago birthday parties, and this note:
- I convinced several of my friends to sport grid-patterned dresses, and we posed on the front lawn, in front of the grids that my dad had built to adorn the house.
- I’m at the right, in the back row, wearing glasses — the result of too much staring at grid paper.
Yes, that photo was taken long before computer spreadsheets were invented!
VisiCalc Creators
In my 2010 blog post, there was also a photo of VisiCalc creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, who also wore grid-patterned clothes!
- Bob Frankston (standing) and Dan Bricklin, co-founders of Software Arts, Inc.
- Credit: © www.jimraycroft.com 1982
And for a fun activity today, you can download a copy of VisiCalc from Dan Bricklin’s website, and remember the good old days of spreadsheets!
Video: VisiCalc Creators in 2015
Before you head out to your Spreadsheet Day party, take 5 minutes to watch this short interview with Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, in 2015.
They share their memories of working on VisiCalc, and the moment they realized it was a success!
Tag Your Tweets
Have fun with your spreadsheets today, and if you tweet about it, you can include this hashtag:
- #SpreadsheetDay
That way, I can find your contributions, when I’m doing the Spreadsheet Day 2025 roundup later.
To see the tweets from last year, go to the Spreadsheet Day 2024 Roundup post.
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Happy Spreadsheet Day 2025!
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