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William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle Washington
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It was a private school in Seattle, and when he was age 13 he started showing interests towards computer programming. This is where he met Paul Allen, his friend and business partner.
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He enters Harvard as a pre-law major but then change courses to doing rigorous mathematics and graduate level computer courses
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Gates took his first leave of absence from school to start working on his first software venture, which he refers to as Micro-soft.
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Gates and Allen registered their trademark
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Microsoft is set up in Albuquerque, where MITS is headquarted
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Microsoft's year ends sales exceed 1 million
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Microsoft HQ is relocated in Seattle in a small suburb named Bellevue
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At age 31 Gates become the youngest billionaire ever. He also meets his future wife Melinda French.
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Gates founds Corbis, an archive of art and photography from public and private collections. Corbis later becomes one of the largest collections of visual information in the world.
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Gates marries Melinda French
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In July, at age 39 and with a fortune of $12.9 billion, Gates becomes the world’s richest man. Later that summer, Microsoft introduces Internet Explorer to the world, as part of Windows 95.
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Gates publishes a best selling book called, "Business @ the Speed of Thought".
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Gates steps down as CEO of Microsoft, and become the chief software architect. Bill & Melinda foundation is formed.
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Queen Elizabeth II bestows an honorary knighthood on Gates for his contributions to the United Kingdom. Time names him a “Person of the Year".
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Gates announces that his role as an executive at Microsoft will be phased out over the following two years, and that he will be focusing more on his foundation
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Gates finally graduates from Harvard and he also gives the commencement speech.
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Gates retires from Microsoft, but stays in the role of chairman and adviser on important development projects
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Bill Gates up to this date is still the richest man in the world, and his net worth sits at 87.4 billion.
