Family and Early Childhood

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. The father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. The mother, Mary Gates, was a school teacher. 

He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service. In elementary school he was distinguished in all subjects, especially math and science. His parents decided to enroll him in Lakeside, a private school known for its academic environment.  

First computing Experience
In the spring of 1968, the Lakeside School decided that it should introduce their student to the computer. The school had a fund raiser and bought a computer owned by General Electric. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside students became addicted to the computer. They would stay in the computer room all day and night. In late 1968, they formed the Lakeside Programmers Group.  Their dream was to find a way to apply their computer skills in the real world. The first opportunity to do this was when the Computer Center Corporation decided to hire the students to find bugs in the computer system. In return, the students would get unlimited computer time.

Roots of Business Career

Computer Center Corporation went out of business in March of 1970. The Lakeside Programmers Group had to find a new way to get computer time. Their first opportunity came when Information Sciences Inc. hired them to program a payroll program. Once again the group was given free computer time and for the first time, a source of income. Gates and Allen’s started another company on their own, Traf-O-Data. They got around $20,000 to produce a small computer which was used to measure traffic flow.
In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman. Gates developed a  programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer.

The Birth of Microsoft

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics , Gates had called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems). He told the company that he and Allen had developed a BASIC that could be used on the Altair. Though this was a lie, eight weeks later their program was ready and worked perfectly the first time. MITS arranged a deal to buy the rights to BASIC.  Within a year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and on November 26, 1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was registered with the USPTO.

In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft. They needed an operating system. A few weeks later, Microsoft delivered 86-DOS (QDOS) to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000.

On June 25, 1981, Microsoft moved to Washington and made Gates President and the Chairman of the Board. Microsoft launched its first version of Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985.

In 1999, Gates wrote “Business @ the Speed of Thought”, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in new ways. Gates' previous book, “The Road Ahead”, published in 1995, both books were listed on the best-seller lists.
Gates and his wife, Melinda, started a foundation in 2000 to help reduce inequities in the United States and around the world. The Foundation supports health and learning, by donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs.

Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor.

Bibliography

• Wallace, James. 1993. Hard Drive: Bill gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY.
• http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Gates.Mirick.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates
• http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/bio.mspx