Bill Gates

On October 28, 1955, William Henry Gates III was born. He was born into a family with a rich history

in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather was a state legislator and mayor. His

grandfather was the vice president of a national bank, and his father was a successful lawyer. At a young

age his parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in Lakeside, a private school known

for its intense academic program. This decision had positive effects on Bill Gates's life. At Lakeside, Bill

Gates was first introduced to computers.

In the Spring of 1968, the Lakeside prep school decided that it should introduce students to the world of

computers. Computers were too large and expensive for the school to purchase its own. Instead, the

school had a fund raiser. A few thousand dollars were raised which the school figured would buy more

than enough time to last into the next school year. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside

students became attached to the computer. They would stay in the computer room all day and night,

writing programs, reading computer literature and anything else they could to learn about computing.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen and, two other students from Lakeside formed the Lakeside Programmers Group in

late 1968.

The Lakeside Programmers Group began searching for new chances to apply their computer skills in the

real world. Their first opportunity came early the next year when Information Sciences Inc. hired them to

program a payroll program. As a result of the business deal signed with Information Sciences Inc., the

group also had to become a legal business Gates and Allen's next project involved starting another

company entirely on their own, Traf-O-Data. They produced a small computer which was used to help

measure traffic flow. From the project they grossed around $20,000. The Traf-O-Data company lasted

until Gates left for college. During Bill Gates' junior year at Lakeside, the administration offered him a

job computerizing the school's scheduling system. Gates asked Allen to help with the project. He agreed

and the following summer, they wrote the program. In the fall of 1973, Bill Gates left home for Harvard

University. He had no idea what he wanted to study, so he enrolled as prelaw. Gates took the standard

freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest math courses. After

locating the school's computer center, he lost himself in the world of computers once again. Gates would

spend many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next days asleep in class. Paul Allen

and Gates remained in close contact even with Bill away at school. They would discuss ideas for future

projects and the possibility of one day starting a business. At the end of Gates's first year at Harvard, the

two decided that Allen should move closer to him so that they may be able to follow up on some of their

ideas.Allen began to push Bill harder with the idea that they should open a software company. Within a

year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed.

In April, 1975, Gates and Allen founded the Microsoft Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Microsoft would sell its BASIC system to MITS, NCR and Intel. On January 1, 1979, Bill Gates moved

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