Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle to American philanthropist and civic leader William Henry Gates Sr. and businesswoman and civic activist, Mary Ann Maxwell Gates. While he was initially told by his family to pursue a law degree, his exposure to the General Electric (GE) computers in Lakeside Prep school got him interested in programming. It is also where he wrote his first program which was a digital method of playing tic-tac-toe against the computer. Photo: AFP

Before Gates started Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen, they started a venture at 17 called Traf-O-Data, through which they made traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. It was only the start for the duo, as they later worked together at American multinational company Honeywell in 1974. A year later, they saw the opportunity to start their own company after the launch of the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer and contacted the company saying they are working on a BASIC interpreter, used to help users run programs on the microcomputer. While they weren’t at the time, they eventually got the deal and started ‘Micro-Soft', a combination of ‘microcomputer’ and ‘software’, a name given by Allen. In 1976, they dropped the hyphen and officially registered the company and hired their high school friend, Ric Welland, who was their first employee. Photo: AFP

For Microsoft, it was the IBM collaboration that gave them the fame. Gates and Allen were contacted by IBM after the former’s mother mentioned their company to then CEO John Opel. It was during this time that the American multinational was developing a Personal Computer (PC) and needed an operating system for it, which was eventually made by them in 1980. The operating system was called 86-DOS at first but changed to PC DOS and eventually MS-DOS, which was sold to people other than IBM. It was during this time, when they were showcasing the functionality of the system that Gates co-wrote the game Donkey, with fellow programmer Neil Konzen. Photo: AFP

Gates became the face after Allen left the company when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1983. While their relationship was reportedly strained before that, it is said Gates mended it over the years before Allen passed away in 2018. After that, Gates launched the popular Microsoft Windows with the company in 1985. It was at a time when Apple’s Macintosh was getting really popular and Windows was launched to compete with it. His success as a businessman over five decades made him the richest man in the world till 2017. Currently, he is the fourth richest in the world at a net worth of 129 billion dollars. Photo: AFP 

Gates has been a successful business magnate over the years but he has also faced criticism for the way he works including blocking competition and monopoly. Beyond Microsoft, he started a charitable organisation called the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, which focuses on healthcare and reducing poverty around the world. However, the organisation has also been involved in controversy including past work which came under the scanner for the processes being used for their programmes. Apart from work done by the foundation, his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has also been responsible in changing the way he has been perceived over the last decade. In photo, Melinda Gates and Bill Gates. Photo: AFP

Earlier this year, Gates’ comments about Covid-19 vaccinations and sharing related technology have also been a cause for concern and did not go down well with people. He said the intellectual property rights of Covid-19 vaccines shouldn’t be given to developing countries like India, especially at a time when the country was struggling to deal with the number of cases. However, he has been recently complimenting India by tweeting about the milestones reached in its vaccination efforts too. Photo: AFP