On this day in 1991 Apple released the very first version of QuickTime, an extensible multimedia framework for playing various formats of digital video. It was a move that changed the capabilities of personal computers at that time. Before QuickTime only specialized computers could play color video, but with QuickTime just about anyone could do so on their personal computer.
The first version of QuickTime was released as a multimedia add-on for System 6 and later. It was first publicly demonstrated by lead developer Bruce Leak at the May 1991 Worldwide Developers Conference, where Leak played Apple’s famous 1984 advertisement on QuickTime in 320×240 pixels resolution.