November 10, 1983: Gates Announces Microsoft Windows

Bill Gates took one look at the Mac and knew the future of computing was the GUI interface, and he wanted Microsoft to be a part of it one way or another. So Gates agreed when Steve Jobs pressured him to hold off making any business programs that used a mouse for non-Apple computers until 1983.

Oddly, the agreement didn't preclude Microsoft from working on a GUI operating system, something Bill Gates noticed and got the company working on while it was developing Mac applications.

Knowing the Mac was on the way, Bill Gates cannily decided to let the public know that if it just waited they would have a Windowed solution for their PC when Gates announced Windows 1.0 on this day in 1983.