Welcome 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.
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
- For the second Spreadsheet Day, I challenged readers to create a spreadsheet that would be useful to students and reminded them that the day was coming
- There were a few participants in the event, who posted student spreadsheets or tips on their blogs
2012 – 2013
- Celebrations were low key in 2012, and I posted Excel tips on my blog, along with a few tweets
- In 2013, I posted a link of my favourite spreadsheet articles for the year, and there were a few more tweets than the year before
- I submitted Spreadsheet Day to a couple of event calendar websites, and it was picked up by the Days of the Week site.
2014 – Present
- Spreadsheet Day got more publicity in 2014, which was the 35th anniversary of the VisiCalc release.
- Even Dan Bricklin re-tweeted a Spreadsheet Day announcement, so that must make it an official celebration!
- The Mirror posted a Spreadsheet Day 2014 article — The five worst spreadsheet mistakes… Ever
- On Spreadsheet Day 2016, LifeHacker’s Australian team shared their best spreadsheet hacks.
- In 2016, the Budgets are Sexy blog encouraged everyone to celebrate Spreadsheet Day
- On Spreadsheet Day 2017, Centage named their new training centre in honour of VisiCalc creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston
Excel Wall of Fame
In December 2025, I was honoured as Spreadsheet Day founder, in the Microsoft Excel Wall of Fame, at the Microsoft Excel World Championships, held in Las Vegas.
- Top row: Charles Simonyi, Sumit Chauhan, Brian Jones, and Debra Dalgleish.
- Bottom row: Past and current Excel World Champions – Andrew Ngai (Australia), Michael Jarman (Canada), and Diarmuid Early (Ireland),
Spreadsheet Day Logo
I created the Spreadsheet Day logo in Microsoft Excel, using the OCT column heading, and row 17.
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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