On this day in 1975 Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen first contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) with an idea for a BASIC interpreter for MITS’s Altair 8800 computer. The computer was featured on the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, which inspired Allen to suggest programming a BASIC interpreter for it. Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates worked on the interpreter, and in March 1975 they were able to successfully demonstrate the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico. MITS agreed to distribute the interpreter, and Gates and Allen officially established their company, originally named by Allen as “Micro-Soft”.
