On April 4, 1975, at a time when most Americans used typewriters, childhood friends Bill Gates (68) and Paul Allen (1953 – 2018) 
found Microsoft, a company that makes computer software.

Originally based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Microsoft relocated
to Washington State in 1979 and eventually grew into a major multinational technology corporation. In 1987, the year after
Microsoft went public, 31-year-old Gates became the world’s
youngest billionaire.

Gates and Allen started Microsoft—originally called Micro-Soft,
for microprocessors and software—in order to produce software
for the Altair 8800 (below) an early personal computer.

Historians will likely view Bill Gates as a business figure as important to computers as John D. Rockefeller was to oil.