May 23, 1985: Bitter about being ousted from his position running the Macintosh division, 30-year-old Steve Jobs attempts to stage a coup to seize control of Apple from CEO John Sculley.

He plans to overthrow Sculley while he is away on a business trip in China. Unfortunately for Jobs, he makes the mistake of trying to recruit the support of Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée, who informs Sculley of the plot.

It’s the beginning of the end for Steve Jobs’ first tenure at Apple.

The fall from grace

What is amazing about Steve Jobs’ ouster from Apple is just how rapidly it all happened. Just two years earlier Sculley had joined Apple as its third CEO, handpicked by Jobs. The idea was that Jobs, who was Chairman at Apple, would run the company hand-in-hand with Sculley.

By 1985, however, tensions were already frayed. Jobs was a disruptive force at Apple, who regularly got involved with projects that had nothing to do with him. His brusque managerial style contained flashes of the greatness he’d show later in his career, but without a lot of the other skills which turned him into a great leader. After a strong start, Macintosh sales were also proving disappointing — which added fuel to the fire.

Jobs’ clashes with Sculley got so bad that, during an April 1985 board meeting, Sculley threatened to resign unless Jobs was stripped of his role as executive VP and manager of the Macintosh division. As a result, Jobs lost operating power inside Apple but — partially because Sculley genuinely respected him — he was allowed to stay on as Chairman.

Jobs wasn’t happy, though. He pleaded with Sculley to get his old job back and, when this didn’t work, he flat-out suggested that Sculley quit. Sculley refused. Jobs then began to secret plan a takeover of Apple, and started trying to recruit people to help him. Jobs had some supporters inside Apple, but he was warned that the majority of the board wouldn’t side with him.

Nonetheless, he ignored that advice and continued with his attempted coup.

A failed takeover

One of the people Jobs told about what he was doing was Jean-Louis Gassée, an executive nine years his senior, who was in charge of Apple’s European Operations division. Gassée then relayed the information to Apple’s Chief Legal Officer Al Eisenstat and Sculley, who immediately cancelled his planned trip to China.

Sculley went on to call a meeting on May 24, at which both he and Jobs were in attendance. Jobs made his case by saying that he thought Sculley was bad for Apple, and the wrong person to run it.

“You really should leave this company,” Jobs told Sculley. “I’m more worried about Apple than I have ever been. I’m afraid of you. You don’t know how to operate, and never have. John, you manage by monologue! You have no understanding of the product development process.”

Despite this, Apple’s board made it clear that they were supporting Sculley. After a few more days of back and forth, Jobs was removed even further from power. He moved to an out-of-the-way office at Apple, which he labelled Siberia because of its distance from what was going on.

A few months later, Jobs resigned to start another company, called NeXT. Unlike the events depicted in the movie Steve Jobs, he and Sculley never spoke to one another again.