The history of the personal computer is inextricably linked to the life story of Bill Gates – the boy from Seattle who had the audacious vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home”.
Allen and Gates were fascinated by early computers
|
28 October 1955
Bill Gates is born to a wealthy Seattle family. He is the second child of William H Gates II, an attorney, and Mary Gates, a leading charity volunteer.
1968
Gates starts at Lakeside, an exclusive private school. He is two years junior to fellow student Paul Allen.
The Lakeside Mothers’ Club buys the school a Teletype machine – a special typewriter that can send electronic messages down a phone line to a primitive computer at the local university.
Gates and Allen develop a passion for the machine and frequently sneak into the school at night to write programmes on it.
1972
Gates uses the Teletype machine to devise the Lakeside School timetable. It is a complicated job but Gates ensures the girls he finds most attractive are scheduled to be in his classes.
