Apple’s multimedia foundation, QuickTime, was released to the public 20 years ago today.

Initially provided as an Extension for the classic Mac OS – folk were running System 6 back then – QuickTime’s ability to show tiny windows of video was premiered in May 1991 at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple released the software on 2 December 1991, and made it possible for computers to show video clips with synchronised sound out of the box. QuickTime 1.0 was first made available on a third-party CD-Rom, From Alice to Ocean a book-on-disk about a journey across Australia.