December 29, 1997: Jobs Gets Permission to Build Heliport

While speculation raged over who was going to be the next CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs was dropping strong hints that he was planning on staying a while.

It turns out that the commute from Apple to Pixar took about an hour if you drove a Kia or a Beamer. When your time is worth a lot, an hour wasted commuting is a sin. The commute between the two businesses could be reduced to a mere 25 minutes by avoiding the traffic and taking to the air.

Steve Jobs thought that 25 minutes in the air beat the hell out of an hour spent in traffic and petitioned the city council of Richmond for the permit to build a helicopter landing pad. Steve's request was approved this month in 1997.