1955 – Bill Gates is born on 28 October in Seattle, Washington; his father, Bill Gates Sr., is a well–known lawyer, while his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, serves as a University of Washington regent and sits on First Interstate Bank’s board.
1967 – At twelve he joins Lakeside School, where a parent–teacher fundraiser buys PDP–10 time; Gates and classmate Paul Allen quickly burn through the hours writing code.
1973 – He posts 1 590 on the SAT, fuelling talk of a Bill Gates IQ near 160.
1974 – Sells a BASIC payroll package to Information Sciences for roughly 15 000 dollars, pocketing his first five–figure payment.
Education
1973–1975 – Studies applied mathematics at Harvard College, publishes a pancake–sorting paper, and spends nights in the Aiken computer lab – a favourite Bill Gates education anecdote.
1975 – Leaves Harvard at nineteen, declaring a “leave of absence” to launch Micro–Soft in Albuquerque; the diploma never follows.
2007 – Returns to Harvard to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws and deliver commencement remarks.
Career & Business
1975–1985 – Co–founds Micro–Soft, ships Altair BASIC, relocates to Bellevue, and in 1980 signs the landmark MS–DOS licence with IBM.
1986 – Lists Microsoft on Nasdaq; his stake is instantly worth 350 million dollars.
1990–1999 – Oversees Windows 3.0, unveils Microsoft Office, and publishes two prominent Bill Gates books: The Road Ahead (1995) and Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999).
2000 – Becomes chairman and chief software architect; folds earlier charities into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, now the largest private philanthropy.
2008 – Steps back from day–to–day duties and spins up new Bill Gates organizations founded: TerraPower (advanced reactors), bgC3 – today Gates Ventures – and Breakthrough Energy.
2014 – Gives up the Microsoft chair but remains technical adviser until 2020.
2021 – Publishes How to Prevent a Climate Disaster and scales Breakthrough Energy Catalyst into a 15–billion–dollar vehicle.
2024 – Gates Ventures adds AI drug–discovery start–ups, lifting the health–and–climate portfolio to two dozen companies.
Politics
1995–2000 – Faces the U.S. government in the Microsoft antitrust case; the consent decree rewrites software–bundling rules.
2002–2024 – Channels over 2 billion dollars into U.S. school reform, global–health lobbying, and pandemic planning; confers with every president from Clinton to Biden.
2021–2025 – Presses for a national carbon price and a standing epidemic–response fund; critics highlight frequent private–jet flights, yet he remains welcome at COP and G–20 health tables.
Wealth
1987 – Debuts on the Forbes list with 1.25 billion dollars, the youngest self–made billionaire on record.
1995–2017 – Holds or shares the world–richest title in 18 of 23 years.
2020 – Divorce transfers about 12.5 billion in assets to Melinda French; Bill Gates net worth slips to roughly 114 billion.
2025 – Bloomberg estimates his fortune near 128 billion dollars – fifth globally – tied to 1.37 percent of Microsoft, Cascade stakes in rail, waste, and agriculture, plus private holdings such as TerraPower and Impossible Foods.
Family & Personal Life
1955 – Birth in Seattle; father Bill Gates Sr. later leads civic campaigns, and mother Mary heads United Way drives.
1994 – Marries Microsoft product manager Melinda French on Lanai, Hawai‘i; together they will run the foundation.
1996–2002 – The children arrive: Bill Gates daughter Jennifer (1996), son Rory (1999), and daughter Phoebe (2002).
1996 – Jennifer Katharine is born; she will later pursue medicine after a biology degree at Stanford.
1999 – Son Rory John is born.
2020 – “Xanadu 2.0,” the flagship Bill Gates house on Lake Washington, is valued at 131 million dollars; ranches in Wyoming and California round out the real–estate list.
2021 – Jennifer weds Olympic show–jumper Nayel Nassar, widely cited as Bill Gates daughter husband; that May, Bill and Melinda announce their divorce yet keep joint control of the foundation.
2002 – Younger daughter Phoebe Adele arrives.
2023 – Gates snaps up a 13–million–dollar Del Mar beach home and expands farmland holdings to 242 000 acres.
2025 – Continues bridge, e–biking, and mentoring cleantech start–ups via Gates Ventures.
2025 – Bill Gates age: 69; he still plays bridge with Warren Buffett, cycles Seattle’s trails, and road–tests cleantech prototypes.
Charity & Philanthropy
2000 – Launches the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with 5 billion dollars, concentrating first on childhood vaccines.
2002 – Commits 750 million to create Gavi; by 2025 total support exceeds 5.3 billion.
2006 – Warren Buffett’s pledge doubles annual grant–making almost overnight.
2010 – Co–founds the Giving Pledge, now signed by 241 billionaires.
2018 – Launches Breakthrough Energy Ventures II, a 1–billion–dollar climate fund; TerraPower’s Natrium reactor enters U.S. licensing.
2020 – Directs 1.75 billion to Covid–19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and COVAX; funds mRNA plants on three continents.
2023 – Issues How to Prevent the Next Pandemic and earmarks 150 million for a global health–data grid.
2024 – Announces a 500–million–dollar Nutrition Moonshot for biofortified staples in Africa and South Asia.
2025 – Lifetime giving surpasses 76 billion dollars; foundation endowment stands near 70 billion after new Cascade transfers.
Scandals
1998–2001 – The U.S. antitrust trial brands Gates combative; the settlement imposes middleware–disclosure rules but stops short of breaking up Microsoft.
2019 – Media disclose several meetings with Jeffrey Epstein (2011–2013); Gates calls the link a “huge mistake.”
2021 – Microsoft board probes a two–decades–old office affair; Gates steps down as director.
2022 – Public criticism escalates over his 275 000–acre farmland empire.
2023–2024 – Anti–vaccine activists allege profiteering from mRNA; audited statements show zero personal royalties.
Honors & Recognition
1992 – Receives the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
2005 – Awarded an honorary KBE by Queen Elizabeth II for global development.
2010 – Wins the Franklin Institute’s Bower Award for Business Leadership.
2016 – Accepts the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside Melinda.
2017 – Granted the Grand–croix of France’s Légion d’honneur.
2022 – Appears on TIME 100 for the eleventh time.
2024 – Earns an honorary doctorate in global health from Imperial College London.
Awards
2007 – Receives Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle.
2013 – Honoured with the Lasker–Bloomberg Public Service Award.
2015 – Accepts India’s Padma Bhushan for sanitation work.
2018 – Awarded Pakistan’s Hilal–e–Pakistan for polio–eradication support.
2025 – Shares UNESCO’s Equatorial Guinea Prize with Melinda for climate–resilient agriculture research.
