Bill Gates

Bill Gates was born William Henry Gates III on 28 October 1955 in Seattle, King, Washington. He was actually the fourth William Henry Gates in his family, but because his father had given up the "III" suffix to his name, he was called William Henry Gates III. He came from English, German, and Scotch-Irish descent. He came from a wealthy family; his father was a prominent lawyer and his grandfather a national bank president. He attended an elite private school, where he wrote his first computer program-a tic-tac-toe game that allowed you to play against the computer-in eighth grade. Along with Paul Allen and two other students, he was later banned from the school for manipulating the school's operating system to get free computer time.

After founding Microsoft with Paul Allen and becoming a software engineering magnate, he became a billionaire in 1987. He was the wealthiest individual in the world from 1995 to 2007, despite antitrust litigation that ensued in 1998 (a judge ruled that Microsoft had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act). He stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus on philanthropic work through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He and his wife Melinda are the second-most generous philanthropists in American, having given $27 billion to charity. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth 2005.

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