Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world. He was born in 1955 in Washington D.C. and showed an early aptitude for computer programming. He dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen. Microsoft released its first operating system in 1983 which became very successful. Gates focused on philanthropy later in life through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has donated over $28 billion to issues like health and education globally.