Maverick To Moghul: The Bill Gates Success Saga

1967: Bill goes to Lakeside School

1968: Lakeside School decides to invest in computer time for its students

1969: Bill teams up with Paul Allen and two other classmates to form The Lakeside Programmers Group

1971: The Lakeside Programmers Group writes a payroll program for a local business, Information Sciences, Inc. This is its first real business deal

1973: Bill goes to Harvard University, Massachusetts

December 1974: Paul Allen sees an article about a home computer kit, the Altair 8800, in Popular Electronics. Paul Allen and Bill contact Ed Roberts of MITS to say they have a form of the computer language, BASIC

 

February 1975: BASIC is finished. Later in the year, Bill and Paul Allen sign a deal with MITS.

January 1977: At the age of 21, Bill drops out of Harvard University. Microsoft is released from its contract with MITS and owns BASIC outright. Bill and Microsoft make an agreement with Kuzuhiko Nishi for future development in Japan

January 1, 1979: Due to the growth of the company, Microsoft moves to new premises in Seattle

1980: Microsoft and IBM make a deal regarding languages and operating systems for IBMs new range of personal computers

1981: Microsoft signs a deal with Seattle Computer Products to license Q-DOS, later buying the operating system outright.

1981: Microsofts MS-DOS is introduced onto IBM personal computers.

1981: Bill decides that Microsoft should be in the applications market.

1982: Paul Allen is diagnosed as having Hodgkins disease.

September 1983: Microsofts first applications program, WORD 1, is launched

November 1983: Bill Gates announces that Microsoft will launch a new way to use a computer with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) known as Windows

March 13, 1986: Microsoft is launched on the stock exchange; Bill and Paul Allen become instant millionaires

August 1986: Bill and Paul Allen donate $2.2 million to Lakeside School for a new science and mathematics building, which becomes known as the Allen Gates Hall

1986: With over 1,200 employees, Microsoft has to move again to bigger premises

1990: May Microsoft Windows 3.0 is launched to great acclaim

July 1990: The Microsoft Corporation becomes the first personal computer software company to exceed over $1 billion in sales in a single year

April 1992: Microsoft is successful in its lawsuit with Apple. The final judgment is made, in support of Microsoft, in June 1993

June 1992: Bill accepts the National Medal of Technology from President George Bush

January 1993: Microsoft becomes the worlds largest computer-industry company based on the total value of its stock, a measure known as market value

March 1993: Microsoft moves forward in the educational computer software market by announcing five new multimedia titles; each one intended to promote the use of multimedia in education

January 1, 1994: Bill, aged 38, marries one of Microsofts marketing managers, Melinda French, on Lanai, Hawaii

August 24, 1995: Windows 95 is launched in the US, and a few days later, in the rest of the world. Windows 95 might be Microsofts most important software product

April 26, 1996: Bills wife, Melinda Gates, gives birth to Jennifer Katherine Gates.