Briefly: Steve Jobs' 1996 return to Apple depicted in rare set of photos

The photos were taken on Dec. 20, 1996, the night when late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to the company he created after being forced out by the board eleven years earlier.

Captured by Mac OS Evangelist Tim Holmes on an Apple QuickTake camera and posted to Flickr (via Daring Fireball), the photos show Jobs' first night back at Apple HQ, which took place at the company's theater dubbed the Town Hall.

"I called Mitch, my wife who also worked there at the time, and told her meet me there," Holmes recalls. "We had no idea what was about to happenâ€¦"

Jobs claimed he was ousted from Apple by former Apple CEO John Sculley, who supposedly conspired with the company's board to force the tech guru out after the two had a "falling out." Sculley in 2012 said he never fired Jobs, and admitted that his positioning as Apple chief executive was a "big mistake."

In a commencement speech at Stanford in 2005, Jobs said that "getting fired" from Apple was "the best thing that could have ever happened" to him.

19 Comments

theunfetteredmind 505 comments · 12 Years

About 11 years ago

Gil Amelio probably had no idea what was about to happen either.

jaayco 46 comments · 11 Years

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheUnfetteredMind

Gil Amelio probably had no idea what was about to happen either.

From what I've read, Gil seemed to have a pretty reasonable idea what would happen if Steve came back. Steve never played "second fiddle" to anyone. Bringing him back was effectively Gil "falling on his sword" for the good of the company. Thankfully they had a leader at the time willing to make that sacrifice, or at least take that gamble...

philboogie 7669 comments · 15 Years

I read the bio, and IIRC there was no mention of Steve being fired. There was no hard line, saying this or that had happened. It was more about feelings, assumptions and such. I'll try to find the paragraph in question, where its detailed, but it might have been scattered throughout a whole chapter. If I have time tomorrow I'll post it.

john.b 2733 comments · 16 Years

"I tend to take a camera everywhere, so I had my Apple QuickTake camera, which Steve Jobs killed within the year. The colors are way off due to the poor quality of digital cameras in 1996, Steve's jacket was black in real life."

I wonder why Steve Jobs would've killed off a digital camera that rendered black as bright purple... Hmm...

tylerk36 1035 comments · 15 Years

Is that Steve on the left? eeehhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!