1. William Henry Bill Gates III (better known as Bill Gates), co-founder of the largest PC software company Microsoft, was born on Friday, October 28, 1955 in Seattle Washington. 28 October is also the date of birth of famous American actress Julia Roberts, country singer Brad Paisley and actor Ben Harper.
Bill Gates Facts – Biography
2. Bill Gates belonged to a financially sound family. His father, William Henry Gates Sr., was an influential and wealthy lawyer. His mother Mary Maxwell Gates was a member of the University of Washington’s Board of Governors for nearly 18 years, the same university from where she completed her education. Bill Gate’s family was actively involved in business, social service and politics.
3. Bill Gates must have complete faith in “consistency”. May be that is why Gates has been consistently ranked as the World’s richest man from 19995 -2009, except in 2008, a year in which he ranked third. He was the richest American citizen and the second richest man worldwide in 2011 and 2012.
4. It would come as a surprise that Bill Gates, someone that today’s generation look up to, never graduated from Harvard College. However, that does not mean he was not a bright student. He got an admission to Harvard after scoring 1590 out of a possible 1600 on his SAT. His love for computers made him drop out of Harvard during junior year. Bill Gates was given an honorary degree from Harvard during the commencement event in 2007.
5. Bill Gates children, Phoebe, Jennifer and Rory, enjoy teasing their father with Travis McCoy and Bruno Mars’ song “Billionaire”. However, there is no room for any bad words. They replace the F word with ‘freaking’ while singing him the song.
6. All three children of Bill Gates, 2 daughters and 1 son, do not own an Apple product.
7. Bill Gates’ mother Mary Gates passed away in 1994 due to Breast Cancer.
8. Bill Gates is an individual who needs no introduction. He is well known around the world. However, people living in the Third World countries often do not know who Bill Gate is. This was evident when he visited Uttar Pradesh, India. While giving charity, he was asked by a local about his identity, which did not really alarm him.
9. Have you wondered how much money Bill Gates makes every year, every day, or every second? It must be a lot of money indeed that consistently puts him on the World’s richest man’s list every year. Well on an average, he makes $250/ second, making around $15000 every single minute.
10. During his university year, Bill Gates used to tell his professors that by the age of 30, he would stand before them as a millionaire. Years later, he became a millionaire at the age of 31 thanks to his never-ending love for computers and innovation.
11. With countries around the globe fighting for economic power, it is quite astonishing to realize that only 10% of the countries are richer than Bill Gates.
12. People earn so that their children can have a better life. Bill Gates holds a different frame of mind. Bill has promised to donate 95% of his wealth to charitable causes, leaving his children with a mere 5% of his wealth. Gates believes that his children should be able to make their own life, given the education they are being provided with.
13. Bill Gates, along his friends Paul Allen, Ric Weiland and Kent Evans were banned from using computers at the Computer Center Corporation (CCC), after they were found hacking into systems and crashing them, just for the sake of pleasure. However, the ban was lifted after some time and Bill Gates and his friends were offered unlimited use of computers on the condition that they help CCC find weaknesses in their system.
14. Bill Gates is married to the former Microsoft project manager for Expedia, Microsoft Bob and Microsoft Encarta, Melinda French. They got married in Hawaii in a ceremony that was attended only by close friends and family, thus not making it a lavish affair. After their wedding, wife Melinda left Microsoft to focus on her new family.
15. Bill Gates’ home, also known as Xanadu, is one home that any person in the world would love to own. It is located in Medina, Washington. What is so special about his home? Well, the house was built over duration of 7 years, costing $63 million. As of 2009, the land and house value is approximately calculated to be $147.5 million and $1.63 million is paid annually as property tax. The house is spread over 66,000 square feet, it is embedded with the latest technology, is earth-sheltered, has an aquarium wall, swimming pool, underwater music system, gym, a large dining room, heated floors and many other luxuries.
16. It was only after 1997, when Bill Gates bought a private jet for himself, that he gave up on travelling coach.
17. In 2008, Bill Gates retired from Microsoft and focused his complete attention on The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a foundation funded by Gates and his wife. The foundation is the world’s largest private foundation, contributing towards social causes within America and around the globe. The foundation has three trustees, namely Mr. and Mrs. Bill Gates and their dear friend, Warren Buffet.
18. Bill Gates’ wife Melinda Gates is more qualified than he is. Melinda graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics and has an MBA degree from Duke University. On the other hand, Gates never graduated from the college.
19. The relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates has received immense attention over the years. They have been termed as “Frenemies” due to their competitive businesses. They have worked together as well and always held on to their personal distinctive style of operating things. However, the bond between the two frenemies became strong during the last days of Steve Jobs’ life. Jobs apparently kept a letter, sent to him by Bill Gates, by his bedside during his final days. The letter appreciated the efforts of Steve Jobs in making Apple so successful and had a lot to say about Steve’s kids.
20. In order to promote Microsoft, Bill Gates has made appearances in a series of ads in 2008. Seinfeld star Jerry Seinfeld was also a part of these commercials. Apart from this, Bill has been a part of a number of documentaries namely “The Virtual Revolution” and “Waiting for Superman.” He has also been featured in the 1999 movie, “Pirates of Silicon Valley”, which depicts the story of Apple and Microsoft during the 1970s to 1997.
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