Happy Spreadsheet Day! Be they a pivot table pro or an entry-level novice, spreadsheet users worldwide have one person to thank: Dan Bricklin released the first electronic spreadsheet program on this day in 1979. The day celebrates the sophisticated grids that have reshaped businesses from accounting and engineering to project management. But data handling did not begin in the digital age. Ancient civilizations had their own ways of recording and tracking the world around them, as seen in our homepage image.