Joining the elite private Lakeside School in Seattle, which already had a computer in 1968, allowed him to discover the world of computing, learning to program very young and develop a love for the "machines" that would determine the course of his life.
It was also at Lakeside where she met Paul Allen, who years later founded Microsoft.
His time at Harvard was brief. Two years after his arrival in 1975, he decided to leave the prestigious academic center to found Microsoft with Allen.
The university would grant him years later, in 2007, an honorary doctorate.
That same year would joke during Harvard graduation ceremony, which was invited to speak, it was a bad influence on students.
"I'm a bad influence. That is why I invited to speak at graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation may mean that fewer that were here today, "he said then.
Microsoft, based in Seattle, launched in 1985 its Windows operating system, which would become pervasive and operates at present, over 90% of computers worldwide.
In 1995 he became the richest man in the world, a position from which it has been superseded sometime but resumed today, as ranked by Forbes magazine, estimated at 79,200 million dollars fortune .
The billionaire left the direction of Microsoft in July 2008 to devote himself to philanthropic causes of the Bill and Melinda Gates, his wife, with whom he has three children Foundation.
The foundation, which gives priority to projects related to global health and education, the fight against malaria, began in 2000 and is the largest private charity in the world, valued at more than 34,000 million assets dollars.
Bill and Melinda Gates to appear as head of philanthropy in the United States, with donations exceeding 28,000 million.
His wife, a former employee of Microsoft with whom he married in 1994, today congratulated him publicly through his wall of the social network Facebook, which recalled the first time they went out together.
"When I asked out said, 'I was thinking we could be in two weeks,'" he recalled today Melinda Gates, who claims to have then said today that her husband was not spontaneous enough for her, which led to Microsoft co-founder to ask her out that night.
"Bill, after two amazing decades together, your humor, enthusiasm, intelligence, curiosity, consideration, optimism and also spontaneity, are better than ever and I'm happy to have you at my side. Happy, happy birthday, "said Wednesday the wife of Gates.