Bill Gates Unknown Facts

The pioneer of Microsoft and the second richest man in the world, Bill Gates is certainly a name we all grew up hearing.  This man needs no introduction, but did you know these things about him? Keep reading to find out some unknown facts about Bill Gates.

Unknown facts about Bill Gates 

1) The first program written by Bill Gates was in the BASIC programming language, which allowed users to play tic tac toe against the computer.

2) Though Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975, he still managed to get a degree.  The University gave him an honorary degree in 2007. Bill Gates also received honorary degrees from Cambridge University, Tsinghua University in China and Waseda University in Japan.

3) It may come as a shock, the man who mastered almost every programming language in the world, can speak only one human language—English.  He often says not learning another language is his biggest regret. 

4) Just like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates is also colour blind.  In an interview in 2006, Gates revealed about his colour blindness to the world. 

5) Despite his busy schedule, Bill Gates is an avid reader and is known to read around 50 books a year, that is, at least 1 book per week. 

6) Bill Gates used to fly coach until he bought his own plane in 1997.  He often refers to his plane as the ‘big splurge.’

7) In 1994, Gates acquired the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, in an auction for $ 30 million.  This was one of his biggest splurges, before he bought the plane.

8) Gates is a sports enthusiast and is often seen playing bridge, golf and tennis in the very little free time he gets.

9)  Bill Gates has three children and though his net worth is more than $ 100 billion, his children will inherit only $ 10 million each.  Gates often says, “Leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favor to them.”

10) Bill Gates shared a love-hate relationship with fellow tech genius Steve Jobs.  The duo shared a friendly relationship initially, when Microsoft wrote software for the Apple II computer.  However, graphical user interface (GUI) conflicts fractured their relationship. Steve Jobs was often seen taking digs at Gates publicly. 

Which of these facts about Bill Gates surprised you the most?  Comment below and let us know.