On April 7, 1964, Tom Watson stood before 200 reporters and
others at IBM's manufacturing facility in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,
and presented the new IBM System/360 as "the most important
product announcement in company history." While Watson,
seen here, was making the announcement in Poughkeepsie, IBM
also held press conferences in 63 U.S. cities and 14 countries.