American business magnate Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world, the co-founder of one of the most successful tech companies ever, and a well-known philanthropist.
But there’s still a lot that many people don’t know about him.
Click start to play today’s Crossword, where Gates is featured in one of the clues.
Here are five quick facts about him that may surprise you:
1. His first program
Gates was only a teenager at Lakeside School, in Seattle, US, when he wrote his first computer program on a General Electric computer. What did the program do? It was a version of tic-tac-toe where a person could play against the machine.
2. He was a quintessential ‘nerd’
If you grew up in the 1970s or 1980s, you likely had a complete set of the World Book Encyclopaedia at home. But chances are, you never read all the volumes. The same cannot be said for Gates – he read the entire encyclopaedia during his teenage years. And when it was time to do his SATs (the standardised test for college admissions in US), he scored a near-perfect score of 1590 out of 1600.
3. He has one great regret
Gates wrote a series of Twitter posts, offering advice for today’s 20-somethings, in 2017. In it, he revealed that his biggest regret is not learning more about the world’s problems. He wrote: “I also have one big regret: When I left school, I knew little about the world’s worst inequities. Took me decades to learn.” He opened up about the issue during his commencement speech at Harvard University in 2007, when he said: “Taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret. I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world, the appalling disparities of health, and wealth and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.” The turning point in his life happened in 1993 when he faced deep poverty for the first time on a trip to Africa.
4. He was once arrested
Two years after he dropped out of the prestigious Harvard University, Gates was arrested in New Mexico for driving without a license and running a red light.
5. He is a big reader
Gates reads around 50 books a year, according to a November 2018 report in US-based business news website Business Insider. He is known to have said: “Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding.”
What do you think of Bill Gates? Play today’s Crossword and let us know at games@gulfnews.com.
