Steve Jobs allegedly denied knighthood by UK’s Gordon Brown

By Andrew Couts March 1, 2011

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown allegedly blocked Apple chief executive Steve Jobs from being knighted the Queen of England in 2009, reports the Telegraph. Brown’s denial of knighthood, an unnamed former senior Labour Party minister tells the Telegraph, was because Jobs turned down an invitation to speak at the Labour Party conference.

Apple’s revolutionary effects on the technology industry are said to have been the reason for Jobs’ recommendation for knighthood.

“Apple has been the only major global company to create stunning consumer products because it has always taken design as the key component of everything it has produced,” the MP said. “No other CEO has consistently show such a commitment.”

Despite the MP’s claims that Brown arranged for Jobs to not to be knighted, a spokeswoman for the former prime minister told the Telegraph: “Mr. Brown did not block a knighthood for Steve Jobs.”

Regardless of who or what stood in Jobs’ way, his lack of knighthood stands in stark contrast to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who was knighted in 2005.

As Apple Insider points out, Gates does not carry the title of “Sir” because he is not a citizen of the British Commonwealth. Had Jobs received the honor, he would not have been titled “Sir,” either. Instead, the letters “KBE” are used. They stand for Knight of the British Empire.

Other Americans to receive the KBE honor include evangelist Billy Graham, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, actor Bob Hope and director Steven Spielberg.

Assuming the rumor is true, Steve Jobs would likely have had more pressing matters on his mind than receiving a symbolic honor in another country — regardless of that honors awesomeness. Remember, in 2009, Apple was in the pre-launch stages of the iPad, which has already changed the modern PC as we know it — a more amorphous achievement than being knighted, yes. But also far more impressive.

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Fifty-nine years ago today, a baby boy was born to Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Scheible, an unmarried couple living in San Francisco, California.
That baby turned out to be Steve Jobs, a man we know today as a technological revolutionary who passed on way too soon.
In 1955, however, there was little to indicate he would become a colossus in Silicon Valley. He was put up for adoption because his birth mother’s family objected to Joanne’s relationship with Abdulfattah, and the Armenian couple that adopted him, Paul and Clara Jobs, was not particularly well-off or well-educated.
Mr. and Mrs. Jobs cared deeply about their adopted son, however, and did everything they could to encourage his natural curiosity. Paul Jobs, a mechanic and carpenter, often had broken radios and other early electronics in his workshop, and taught Steve how to repair them. As Steve grew, so did his curiosity, and in his early teens, he made friends with neighborhood kids who shared his love of gadgets. These friends included Steve Wozniak, and through these innocuous beginnings, the foundation of what would become Apple was laid.

While both Jobs and Wozniak had some technical knowledge, it was clear from the beginning that Jobs was interested in more than just tinkering with electronics. For instance, when Wozniak created a rendition of Pong in 1972, Jobs took it to Atari. Atari assumed that Jobs had created the copycat and offered him a job, which he took. He repeated this duplicity several years later, when Atari offered Jobs $100 for each chip he could eliminate from the circuit board of the arcade game Breakout. Jobs took the problem to Wozniak, who managed to cut away an astounding fifty chips, but Jobs lied to Wozniak and told him that Atari had paid only $700. Of that $700, Wozniak received exactly half: $350.
After attending and dropping out of Reed College, Steve went on a journey through India in 1974. This experience transformed him, both physically and mentally. He shaved his head, began wearing traditional Indian clothing, and started to practice Buddhism. He also experimented with LSD and in 1978, fathered a child, Lisa, with his girlfriend, Chris-Ann Brennan. However, Jobs denied being Lisa's father for several years and didn’t meet her until 1986.
While his personal life became complicated, his professional career became a resounding success. In 1976, Wozniak invented the Apple I, which Jobs suggested selling; the pair soon founded Apple Computer with Ronald Wayne, who provided some early advice but soon bowed out.
The company grew at an astounding rate through the late 70s and early 80s thanks to the Apple II, again invented by Wozniak, and Jobs’ relentless promotion. Then, in 1980, Apple went public, with the company's shares initially valued at $22 each. From there, Apple soon became one of the most recognized brands in the early PC industry.