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

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

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.