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In 1954, the brilliant mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing passed away after consuming an apple laced with cyanide—echoing the tale of Snow White and the poisoned apple.
It has long been believed that Turing’s death was suicide, possibly driven by the anguish of undergoing chemical castration imposed by the British government after he confessed to having a romantic relationship with another man, an act that was illegal at the time. However, some have speculated that his death may not have been deliberate. Known for being careless with his experiments, Turing could have accidentally inhaled cyanide or perhaps dropped an apple into a cyanide spill. Another theory suggests that British Security Services, viewing Turing as a security threat due to his homosexuality, might have deliberately sabotaged him to prevent the potential blackmailing of Turing for state secrets by foreign agents.
Regardless of the circumstances surrounding his death, a half-eaten apple was discovered by Turing’s bedside. Fast forward two decades, and a group of men working in a garage on personal computers needed a logo for their new product. Aware of Turing’s groundbreaking contributions to computing and his tragic fate, they chose to pay tribute to him by incorporating a bite mark into the apple graphic they had selected to represent their company. And that’s how the iconic Apple logo, seen on our phones, computers, and watches, came to be.
That’s the tale, at least. But while it’s an intriguing story, it’s simply not accurate, according to Rob Janoff, the designer behind the logo. In 2009, Janoff clarified, saying, “I’m afraid it didn’t have a thing to do with it. It’s a wonderful urban legend.” The bite mark in the Apple logo was actually a practical design choice: it helped make it clear that the shape represented an apple, not a cherry or any other round fruit. Other theories—like the one suggesting the logo is a reference to Eve’s bite of the forbidden fruit or Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity—are also off the mark.
If you're wondering about the multicolored stripes in the early versions of the logo, there's a practical explanation for that as well: “The Apple II was the first personal computer capable of displaying color images on a monitor. So the stripes symbolize the color bars seen on the screen,” Janoff explained.
However, that doesn’t mean the Apple creators were opposed to the idea of honoring Turing. When actor Stephen Fry once asked his close friend Steve Jobs whether the iconic logo was inspired by Turing, Jobs replied, “God, we wish it were.”
