Bill Gates' 65th Birthday: Facts About The Founder Of Microsoft Corporation

Tuesday, October 27, 2020, 8:37

Bill Gates (William Henry Gates III) was born on 28 October 1955 in Seattle, Washington. He is an American business tycoon, investor, philanthropist, author, humanitarian and the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation.

Bill Gates is the son of William H Gates Sr, who is the co-chairman of the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and Mary Maxwell Gates, who was the first woman on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank of Washington and served in the boards of major corporations like Unigard Security Insurance Group; Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company, which became U.S. WEST Communications; and KIRO Incorporated.

On Bill Gates' birthday, here are some facts and quotes you should know.

Facts About Bill Gates

When Bill Gates was a student at Lakeside Prep School, he wrote his first computer program on a General Electric computer. It was a version of tic-tac-toe where you could play against the machine.

He was a national merit scholar when he graduated from Lakeside School in 1973.

Gates left Harvard University in 1975 to fully devote himself to Microsoft.

In 1975, Gates launched Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico; it went on to become the world's largest personal computer software company.

In July 1980, IBM, the leading supplier of computer equipment to commercial enterprises at that time, approached Microsoft for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC.

From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of US$89.9 billion as of October 2017.

In 1996, Gates was elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering "for contributions to the founding and development of personal computing".

He was named Honorary Member of the American Library Association in 1998.

In 2000, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an American private charitable foundation.

Time magazine named Bill Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006.

In 2005, Bill Gates was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2009, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, which works to save lives and improve global health, and is working with Rotary International to wipe out polio.

In 2010, Bill Gates received the Bower Award for Business Leadership from The Franklin Institute for his achievements at Microsoft and his philanthropic work.

During his career at Microsoft, Bill Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO and chief software architect till May 2014.

In 2015 Gates, along with his wife Melinda, received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award for their social work in the country.

On 6 August 2018, Gates had a net worth of $95.4 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world, behind Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

Bill Gates doesn't know any foreign languages.

In 2019, Bill Gates became an Advisory Board Member of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.