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Bill Gates was born in Seattle to William H and Mary Maxwell Gates
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At the age thirteen, Bill writes his first Computer Program in Basic on an old Teletype model 33 terminal at school.
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Bill starts a business with Paul Allen. Their main product is the Traf-o-Data. The program helped keep tabs on traffic programs
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Bill Gates graduates from Lakeside in June after scoring 1590 out of 1600 points on the SAT. Bill Gates is accepted into the pre-law program at Harvard University.
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Bill Gates Takes a summer job with electronics from Honeywell joining Paul Allen, who had dropped out of collage to work there.
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Bill Gates and Allen officially register Microsoft as a business organization.
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Bill Gates is arrested in Albuquerque for speeding.
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Microsoft opens its first international office, in Japan. Revenue hits $1 million.
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Microsoft moves its office to Bellevue, Washington. Twenty-five employees work full time for the company, which generates US$2.5 million in revenue that year.
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Microsoft launches Windows 98. Steve Ballmer becomes president of Microsoft.
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Microsoft launches two separate versions of Windows: 2000 and Me, short for Millennium Edition. Bill Gates passes his title of Microsoft CEO to Steve Ballmer; Gates officially becomes known as Chief Software Architect.
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Window XP and Xbox were released
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Bill Gates becomes a board member at Berkshire Hathaway, friend Warren Buffett’s investment business. The European Commission launches an anti-trust investigation against Microsoft.
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"Time” names Bill and Melinda gates and U2’sBono as its Person of the year because of their philanthropic work. Bill Gates receives an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
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Warren Buffett gives the bulk of his wealth, US$31 billion, to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. – Bill Gates announces that he will step down from his full-time job at Microsoft in 2008. – Bill Gates receives the 2006 James C Morgan Global Humanitarian Award.
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Bill Gates receives an honorary doctor of law degree from Harvard; he gives the commencement speech at the ceremony. – Microsoft introduces Windows Vista and Office 2007.
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The European Union fines Microsoft $1.4 billion – Bill Gates spends his last day at Microsoft. He stays on as chairman. (27 June) – The number of Microsoft employees hits 90,000.
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Despite losing US$18 billion in net worth, Bill Gates usurps friend Warren Buffett as Forbes’ number one billionaire in the world, retaining US$40 billion in personal wealth. – Bill Gates quits using Facebook because too many people wanted to friend him.
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Bill Gates attends the Sundance Film Festival to help promote “Waiting for Superman”, a documentary that he helped to found on America’s failing education system. – Bill Gates rejoins Facebook, and signs up for Twitter as well.
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Bill Gates loses the top spot on Forbes’ Richest Person in the World list because he’s given away so much money, but is still second on the list, with US$53 billion; Bill Gates still the wealthiest American. – Rumors swirl late in the year that Bill Gates would return to Microsoft. No dice, he says he likes his foundation work too much.
