36 photos showing how Silicon Valley went from prune orchards to the center of the tech world

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vintage silicon valley

Courtesy History San José

Everyone knows that Silicon Valley is the center of the tech universe.

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Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, and probably half the apps on the App Store all call Silicon Valley home.

So how did a collection of sleepy suburbs on a peninsula to the southeast of San Francisco become such an attractor to the tech elite?

It's a tale that goes back to before World War II, to an era when the Santa Clara Valley was better known for its prunes than its venture capitalists and on-demand startups.

Here's how Silicon Valley went from prune orchards to aerospace research labs to the capital of the connected world.

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