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LIfe of Bill Gates
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Birthdate
William Henry Gates III, on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. -
Began to show interest in computers.
Gates began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13 at the Lakeside School. He became entranced with what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working on the terminal. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer language that allowed users to play against the computer. Bill Gates graduated from Lakeside in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the college SAT test. -
Started his career
After only attending Harvard for one year, in the summer of 1974, Gates went to work with Paul Allen at Honeywell. -
Birth of MIcrosoft
In 1975, Gates and Allen formed a partnership they called Micro-Soft, a blend of "micro-computer" and "software."
Microsoft (Gates and Allen dropped the hyphen in less than a year) started off on shaky footing. -
The Invention of Microsoft Windows
In November 1985, Bill Gates and Microsoft launched Windows. -
Microsoft goes public...
In 1986, Bill Gates took Microsoft public with an initial public offering (IPO) of $21 per share. Gates held 45 percent of the company's 24.7 million shares and became an instant millionaire at age 31. Gates' stake at that time was $234 million of Microsoft's $520 million. -
Gates reaches billionaire status in 1987.
In 1987, Bill Gates became a billionaire when the stock raised to $90.75 a share. Since then, Gates has been on the top or near the top of Forbes' 400 list of the world's wealthiest people. In 1999, with stock prices at an all time high and the stock splitting eight-fold since its IPO, Gates' wealth briefly topped $101 billion. -
Beginning of Microsoft Office.
In 1989, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office which bundled office productivity applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel into one system that was compatible with all Microsoft products. -
Gates marries...
In 1989, a 28-year-old Microsoft executive named Melinda French caught the eye of Bill Gates, then 37. The very bright and organized Melinda was a perfect match for Gates. On January 1, 1994, Melinda and Bill were married in Hawaii. -
First daughter, Jennifer, was born.
In 1996, their first daughter, Jennifer, was born. A year later, Gates moved his family into a 55,000 sq ft. $54 million house on the shore of Lake Washington. Though the house serves as a business center, it is said to be a very cozy home for the couple and their three children. -
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2000, the couple combined several family foundations to form the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They started out by making a $28 billion contribution to set up the foundation. -
His last full day at Microsoft.
In 2006, Gates announced he was transitioning himself from full-time work at Microsoft, to devote more quality time to the Foundation. His last full day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008.