# Steve Jobs life and work timeline — source-card summary

- **1955** — Steven Paul Jobs is born in San Francisco and adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.
- **1972** — Attends Reed College, then drops out while continuing to audit classes; Jobs later describes this period in his 2005 Stanford address.
- **1976** — Co-founds Apple with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.
- **1977** — Apple II helps popularize personal computing.
- **1983** — Apple launches Lisa; Jobs speaks at the International Design Conference in Aspen about personal computers as a new communication medium.
- **1984** — Apple launches Macintosh.
- **1985** — Jobs leaves Apple after a boardroom conflict.
- **1986** — Acquires the computer graphics division that becomes Pixar.
- **1985–1996** — Builds NeXT, whose software later becomes central to Apple’s return.
- **1997** — Returns to Apple after Apple acquires NeXT; later becomes CEO again.
- **1998** — iMac marks Apple’s design-led comeback.
- **2001** — iPod launches and Apple opens its first retail stores.
- **2005** — Gives the Stanford commencement address: “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
- **2007** — iPhone launches.
- **2010** — iPad launches.
- **2011** — Jobs dies on October 5, 2011. Apple’s board states that his “brilliance, passion and energy” were the source of innovations that enriched and improved lives.

This timeline is a concise public-history guide, not a complete biography.