58 Things You Didn't Know About Bill Gates
Get more familiar with the PC visionary on his 58th birthday.
Oct 28, 2013
Complex Original
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Business magnate, devoted philanthropist, software pioneer, and the world’s richest man—Bill Gates carries numerous titles. Viewed as the Henry Ford of the modern day, the Microsoft tycoon became a leader of the PC revolution and remains arguably the most influential tech figure to have the biggest impact on the industry. We’ve been fortunate enough to bask in the computer mogul’s accomplishments and innovations over the past several decades from the Windows OS launch to the creation of his global non-profit, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Truth is that's only a fraction of what we really know about the man. So in celebration of his 58th birthday, we gathered some fun facts on the Microsoft founder. Here are 58 Things You Didn't Know About Bill Gates.
Gates sold his first computer program at 17, a time-tabling system for his high school priced at $4,200.
He once agreed to invest $150 million in Apple, along with other incentives back in 1997.
The Microsoft tycoon was once hit in the face by four fresh cream tarts hurled by actor and writer Noel Godin at a reception in Brussels, Belgium in 1998.
A survey conducted by the City University of Hong Kong showed Gates was more idolized than communist leader Mao Tse
According to an industry executive, Gates was “notorious" for "not being reachable by phone and for not returning phone calls” during his tenure at Microsoft.
He came from a upper-middle-class family with his father being a wealthy lawyer and mother serving as a member of the University of Washington’s Board of Governors.
Supposedly, he once dropped $421 million on a Microsoft development to protect Windows marketshare against Linux.
He prefers physical books over eBooks, but believes digital reading will “completely take over.”
Gates practically coined the term centibillionaire when his net worth surpassed $100 billion for a brief moment in 1999.
He has a Porsche collection including a Porsche 911 convertible and a ’88 Porsche 959 Coupe, which due to its unkno
Originally contracted to port over its BASIC programming software onto the Atari 800, Atari programmer Alan Miller took over the project and stands as the only person to fire Gates from a job.
Gates once said he would rather rescue Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester notebook from his burning house than "ha
Future Microsoft co-founders Gates and Paul Allen would go dumpster diving for computer data as teenagers.
He's founded several companies since leaving Microsoft: including a digital imaging license business (Corbis), nuclear reactor design imprint (TerraPower), and social network for scientists (Research Gate).
Like Steve Ballmer, Gates has restricted his wife and three children from using all Apple devices.
He's active on Twitter, but not Facebook "because the friend requests got out of hand."
When it comes to bargaining for the best prices on vaccines, he's the king.
He, Julia Roberts, Brad Paisley, and Frank Ocean all share the same birthday.
He foolishly predicted that users would never need more than 640 kilobytes of memory on their PC.
Then claimed that Microsoft would “never make a 32-bit operating system” and released its first 32-bit OS with Windows NT in 1992.
And finally, he said spammed email messages would be eliminated in two years around 2004.
He met future wife Melinda at a Microsoft press event in NYC when she was working for the company back in 1987.
Gates 66-thousand-square-foot mansion is nicknamed Xanadu 2.0 and features a 17-by-60-foot swimming pool with under
Gates and Allen originally trademarked the company name as "Micro-Soft", then dropped the hyphen and registered it as "Microsoft" a year later.
He would instill fear amongst Microsoft's product teams by making comments such as "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" during meetings.
The foursome of Ric Weiland, Kent Evans, Paul Allen, and Gates were all banned from computer usage by the Computer
Steve Jobs once left Gates waiting in the lobby of the NeXT offices for an hour out of spite.
The Gates house is appraised at $150 million and its yearly taxes are est. at over $1 million.
Before entering college, he scored a 1590 on the SATs.
He believes his wealth would have a "meaningless impact" if invested in curing cancer rather than treating malaria.
Gates was never fond of Warren Buffett, but after scheduling a half hour conference with him, the two became besties during what turned out to be a 10-hour meeting.
Upon losing a game 35 out of 37 times to an Atari executive, Gates "studied the game until he solved it" and either tied or beat his adversary during their second meeting.
He admits the Control-Alt-Delete key combination to log into a PC was a mistake and blamed the decision on an IBM engineer who refused to give Microsoft a "Single" button.
According to Gates, people in Third World countries don’t know who he is: "They don't know who I am, because it doesn't relate to their world. I went to one place with the chief minister and someone said, 'Who is this guy?', and the chief minister said, 'This is a white-skinned guy I brought with me.'"
While promoting the company's software across the nation, he would bring his mother Mary along because of her corporate connections at companies like IBM.
The man loves Diet Coke and spray cheese out of a can.
Granted he told university professors he would become a millionaire by 30, Gates managed to reach billionaire status at the age of 31.
Both Gates and Jobs used to go on double dates in the '80s with the women they were dating at the time.
He mistakenly disclosed that Mark Zuckerberg was engaged to long-time girlfriend Priscilla China during an intervie
The first computer program Gates ever created was a tic-tac-toe game.
Statistically, Gates makes $250 per second, $15,000 every minute, nearly $20 million a day, and close to $7 billion a year.
Some of his favorite hobbies include playing golf and bridge.
He paid $30.1 million for one of Leonardo da Vinci’s original sketchbooks, which contains the theorist’s observations on astronomy and more.
In 2005, Gates was knighted by the Queen of England and bestowed with the KBE Order for his charitable contributions across the globe.
Paranoid over the security of his company, legend has it that Gates' assistant came in early one day to find him under a desk, shortly after she considered calling the police.
Contrary to popular belief, he's not richer than 140 countries, but only 40.
When asked by his high school to write a program for increasing schedule efficiency, Gates did so, but not before placing himself in classes with all girls.
During an interview with CBS' Charlie Rose, Gates admitted to wishing he had Jobs' sense of design: "The fact that he, with as little engineering background as he had, it shows that design can lead you in a good direction."
Occasionally, his kids tease him by singing Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars “Billionaire”.
His first official venture was a business he started with Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data—a company that made traffic
After dropping out of Harvard University in 1975, he returned 32 years later to obtain an honorary degree bestowed to him by the college in 2007.
Though he continues to hold the crown sporatically, Gates was the richest man in the world from 1995 all the way to 2008 until dethroned by Warren Buffet.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over $28 billion in charity.
Carnegie Mellon University opened a building in his name called the Gates Building of Computer Science.
He goes to India every year to monitor his charity's progress in the country and uplift the poor.
In 1977, Gates had been arrested in New Mexico for allegedly driving without a license.
During his last days, Jobs kept an appreciate letter written by Gates near his bed, which touched on their friendship and the success of Apple.
All three of his children will reportedly inherit a small percentage of the billionaire’s fortune ($10 million each
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