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Birth
Born in New York City -
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Adolescent Struggles
Richard went through many struggles through his childhood because of his abusive relationship with his parents. He described his parents as going on "tyrants" and struggling with alcohol and domestic abuse. -
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Early Participation at Columbia University
As a high school student, Stallman attended classes on Saturdays at Columbia University. His interests in computers and mathematics drove him to learn additionally on the weekends from an Ivy League school. -
Lab Assistant at Rockafeller University
During his time taking classes at Columbia University, Stallman also spent time as a lab assistant to his professor at his class at Rockafeller University. -
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Harvard University
Attended Harvard University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics. -
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Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT
After attending the Massachusetts Institution of Technology for graduate school and learning from experience in the labs, Stallman went on to work for the Artificial Intelligence Lab. During this time he began to work on a personal project of his that he went on to call the GNU operating system. -
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Graduate School at MIT
Attended Graduate school at MIT for little over a year and studied physics. This is where he started to develop a relationship with the MIT community, which would later prove to be prudent in his life. -
Lab Assistant at MIT
Came up with "the first extensible Emacs text editor" for the C computer programming language during his time as a lab assistant. -
Resignation From MIT
After a while in the labs at MIT, Stallman decided it was time to focus his attention full time on his GNU operating system, which was unique because it was a completely free, and user private software. Along with his resignation he also announced that he would be launching a Free Software Movement. -
Chalmers Computer Society
Received an honorary lifetime membership to this prestigious society. This is an enormous achievement. -
MacArthur Fellowship Award
Received a MacArthur Fellowship, which is also known in the coding community as the "genius award". This award includes a large financial backing with no strings attached. This gave Stallman the freedom to do what he wanted to do with his GNU operating system. -
"The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource"
Published a book regarding the need for the creation of an open-source encyclopaedia. -
GNUpedia
Developed GNUpedia or better known as "GNE", which was a free content encyclopedia. -
Internet Hall of Fame
Inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for being a pioneer in the free computing software and his GNU operating system.