1948 - Reunites with his wife, fathers his first child and joins the U.S. Army, which assigns him to repairing office equipment in New York.

1955 - Moves to Toronto to open a typewriter shop carrying the name Commodore Business Machines International. The company grows from importing typewriters to manufacturing the devices as well as adding machines. Tramiel becomes chief executive officer.

1962 - Commodore goes public.

1968 - Moves to Silicon Valley to capitalize on the developing electronics revolution and starts developing electronic calculators.

1976 - Acquires chip manufacturer MOS Technology to produce chips for his calculators. Introduces a Commodore Computer at Comdex.