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Born in Washington, United States. Born to William and Mary Gates.
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He was just 13 when he wrote his first software program on the school’s computer
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Attended Lakeside School graduating from high school scoring 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT.
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Bill Gates and Paul Allen collaborated to found Microsoft (initially called Micro-Soft) in 1975.
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Attended Harvard College
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He was approached by International Business Machine (IBM) with a proposal that Microsoft write the BASIC interpreter for IBM’s upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC.
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In 1980 Microsoft created the PC DOS operating system which they delivered to IBM in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000.
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Soon Microsoft’s operating systems became very popular and the company introduced an operating environment named Windows, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS. Over the following years Windows came to dominate the world’s personal computer market acquiring over 90% market share.
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The package integrated several applications like Microsoft Word and Excel into one system that was compatible with all Microsoft products.
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Bill Gates met Melinda French, a young woman working at Microsoft.
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Won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation Award
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Got married in 1994 to Melinda French. They have three children now named Jennifer Katharine Gates, Phoebe Adele Gates, and Rory John Gates
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In 1999, he donated US $20 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the construction of a computer laboratory which was named the "William H. Gates Building" in his honor.
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In January 2000, Gates stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft though he retained his position as chairman.
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Gates received the Bower Award for Business Leadership from The Franklin Institute in 2010 in recognition of his achievements at Microsoft and his philanthropic work.
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In 2010, Gates along with fellow billionaire investors Warren Buffett, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg signed the "Gates-Buffet Giving Pledge", committing to donate at least half of their wealth over the course of time to charity.
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2013 - Bambi - Millennium Award
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Recieving the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award
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He stepped down as Chairman of Microsoft in February 2014, and currently serves as technology advisor to support CEO Satya Nadella.
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Bill and Melinda Gates jointly received India's third highest civilian honor Padma Bhushan in 2015 for their foundation's philanthropic activities in India.
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As of 2015, Bill Gates has a net worth of US $79.3 billion
