Bill Gates' life, achievments, and influences on the world throught his donations.

"Microsoft has always been focused on unlocking the power of computing to help people realize their full potential," said Bill Gates at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show. William (Bill) H. Gates is not only the chief software architect of the Microsoft Corporation, he is also the most charitable man alive. Gates has donated money to charities and those in need all around the world, from Las Angeles to India.

Bill Gates is the founder and the owner of the Microsoft Corporation. He is the youngest self-made billionaire in history. Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with two sisters. He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather had been a state legislator and mayor and his grandfather was the vice president of a national bank. His father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney and his mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher and chairwoman of United Way International.

Bill and Melinda Gates during their visit to the O...

English: Melinda Gates in World Economic Forum (Cr...

English: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at the age of 13. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside students immediately became inseparable from 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. In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer, the MITS Altair. In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by...