20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Apple

By Tom Baker /

7. Apple Was Founded On April Fool's Day

Steves Jobs and Wozniak you probably have heard of, but it's unlikely you're as familiar with the third co-founder of Apple. And there's a good reason for that. Now 76 years old and living in the middle of nowhere, getting by on social security cheques he dumps into the local casino's one-armed bandits, Ron Wayne very nearly had it all. But then he threw it away. He is almost certainly the most unlucky man in Silicon Valley history, which is saying a lot. Wayne's 10% ownership stake in Apple, agreed upon right at the beginning of the company's history, would be worth about $22 billion today. Uninspired by Jobs and Wozniak's work style, however, he sold the shares back for $800. If this all seems like a horrible cosmic joke, maybe it is. After all Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne came together to found the company €“ the latter designed that original logo and wrote the manual for the Apple I €“ on April Fool's Day, 1976. Seems like a bad omen. It was for Ron Wayne, at least.