-
Birth of Bill Gates.
William Henry "Bill" Gates III was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington. He was born to William Henry Gates II, an attorney, and Mary Gates, a schoolteacher and chairwoman of United Way International. -
Period: to
Education at the Lakeside School
When Bill Gates was 13 years old, he enrolled in an exclusive preparatory school, the Lakeside School. In eighth grade, the school accumulated an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of time on a GE computer. Gates took interest in programming the GE in BASIC and was excused from his math classes to pursue his interests. -
First Time Using a Computer
In the spring of 1968 at Lakeside Prep School, Gates was in 8th grade and it was the first time he used a computer. Computers at the time were too expensive to buy but the school held a fundraiser and acquired time on DEC PDP-10 owned by General Electric. Through this, he met Paul Allen who would later become one of his business partners. -
Enrolls at Harvard University
Bill Gates graduated from the Lakeside School in 1973. He scored a 1590 of 1600 on the SAT and went on to enroll at Harvard University for the fall of 1973. -
Mirco-Soft
While at Harvard, Gates remained in contact with Paul Allen, who he had met at the Lakeside School. They saw the release of the Altair 8800 and they saw it as an opportunity to start their own software company. They partnered with MITS to create an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer and with great success, they released the Altair BASIC. Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to locate to Albuquerque with Allen and opened their first office for their partnership of "Micro-Soft". -
"Open Letter to Hobbyists"
Bill Gates wrote his open letter, "Open Letter to Hobbyists" in early 1976 to express his frustration with computer hobbyists who were using his company's program software without paying for it. In his letter, he wrote that the hobbyists were not stealing from his company, but they were stealing from him. -
First International Office in Japan
Microsoft opened its first international office in Japan in November of 1978 titled "ACS II Microsoft" but is now called, "Microsoft Japan". -
Microsoft moves to Washington
In 1979, Microsoft moved its headquarters to Bellevue, Washington. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976 and continued to developing programming software for various systems, The company moved its headquarters from Albuquerque to Bellevue, a suburb of Gates' hometown, Seattle. -
Microsoft and IBM
In 1980, Allen and Gates, co-founders of Microsoft, were approached by IBM (International Business Machine) with the proposal that Microsoft could write the BASIC interpreter for what would be IBM'S new personal computer, the IBM PC. Microsoft created the PC DOS operating system in exchange for $50,000. -
Gates Becomes President of Microsoft
Gates became the President of Microsoft as he oversaw the company's restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington. He also became Chairman of the Board. -
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows in late 1985 and the company also worked out a deal with IBM to create a separate operating system called OS/2. The partnerships ended on May 16, 1991 because of creative differences between the companies. -
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office debuted in 1989; this package included several applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel all in one system that was compatible with all Microsoft products. -
Windows 3.0
Once Windows launched version 3.0, it sold 10 million copies within 2 years, making Windows the dominant PC operating system. -
Bill Gates Marries Melinda French
Bill Gates married Melinda French on January 1, 1994. Together they have 3 children, Jennifer Katharine (1996), Rory John (1999) and Phoebe Adele (2002). -
United States v. Microsoft Trial
An antitrust lawsuit was filed against Microsoft alleging that the company had abused its monopoly power in the operating system and Web browser markets. The case, which remains open for tracking Microsoft's compliance with the consent decree, also spawned a slew of other legal actions, including class-action lawsuits in numerous states. -
Gates Steps Down
In early 2000, Gates stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft although he remained the Chairman of the Board. He created a new position for himself; Chief Software Architect. -
Gates' Last Day on the Job
Bill Gates stepped down from CEO of Microsoft in 2000. He then transitioned from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as a non-executive chairman.
