Bill Gates The Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft William Gates III was born in October 28, 1955. He lived in Seattle with his father who is a Seattle attorney, his mother who was a chairwoman of United Way International, and his two sisters.

He began programming when he was 13 yrs.old. In 1973, while attending Harvard, Gates created BASIC- a version of a program language that can be used on the 1st microcomputer- MITS Altair. Two years later he & his childhood friend, Paul Allen and fourteen other people, they developed a company called Microsoft. His company made huge developments, for example they wrote BASIC that can be fitted into 12K of ROM, and created other software like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and computer systems like Windows ME. His job as The Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft; is to develop teams to turn great ideas into innovative software and services that makes it easier & cost-effective for the consumer.

Bill gates donated the proceeds of his book Business @ the Speed of Thought to non-profit organizations that support using computers in education and skills development. He also has a foundation that was created by him & his wife Melinda, the foundation donates money to schools so they can teach children about computers. He and his company is significant because they change the world of computers by creating many usage for the computer, for example, the internet, multi-media, programming & they contribute to schools so other people can learn computers and make a big difference in the computer world. Resources http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/other/museums/computing/pioneers.html http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist/gates.htm#tc10 http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist/gates.htm#tc1 http://www.americanheritage.com/scripts/redir1.asp?/i%26t/1503/peopleb.htm