Paul Gardner Allen (Allen, Paul)

1953 - Paul Allen was born 21st of January in Seattle, Washington.

1968 - Attended Lakeside School where he met Bill Gates.

1969 - Attended Washington State University but dropped out after two years.

1975 - Together with Bill Gates, he co-founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1980 - Headed the deal for Microsoft to buy an operating system called QDOS for $50,000.

1983 - He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease and resigned from Microsoft.

1988 - Purchased the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team for $70 million.

1993 - Funded the two-year lawsuit in which the family of rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix regained the rights to his music.

1997 - Purchased the Seattle Seahawks NFL team.

2000 - Resigned from the Microsoft Board but became a senior strategy advisor to Microsoft executives.

2003 - Paul Allen's 127m (416ft) Octopus secured its position as one of the world's largest yachts.

2004 - Allen was the sole investor behind Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne suborbital commercial spacecraft.

2006 - According to Forbes magazine, Allen is the fifth richest with an estimated value of $22 billion.