Donald Trump was born into wealth and would spend most of his life getting his family name into the public eye through being a businessman, personality and President of the United States. This is a brief timeline of the life of the man who would have his businesses declare bankruptcy 6 times and yet remain known as a billionaire.

1946 – Donald is born the fourth child to real estate tycoon Fred Trump in Queens, New York, U.S.A. His mother is an immigrant from Scotland. They live in an upscale community. He would later have a younger brother. 

Age 13 – For misbehaving in school, he is sent off to a military academy. He does well there, becoming a star athlete and student leader. 

Age 18 – He graduates from the military academy and enrols into Fordham University. In summer, he works at his father’s real estate business, then uses college and medical reasons to get out of having to fight the Vietnam War.

Age 22 – He transfers to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and graduates with a degree in economics. He joins the family business.

Age 25 – Trump takes over his father’s company—Elizabeth Trump & Son—and renames it Trump Organization. 

Age 27 – The Justice Department alleges that the Trump Organization discriminates against African Americans wanting to rent apartments from them. The Trump Organization agrees to rent more apartments to African Americans and buys more property in other parts of the U.S.A.

Age 30 – Trump takes over the bankrupt Commodore Hotel and develops it into the Grand Hyatt. He gets a 40-year city tax abatement for this project.

Age 31 – Trump marries model Ivana Winklmayr. He makes her vice president of design in the Trump Organization. His first child Donald Jr is born. 

Age 33 – Trump builds Trump Plaza (an apartment) and Trump Tower (an apartment and luxury shopping centre) with The Equitable.

Age 34 – Trump opens the Grand Hyatt New York. He builds a casino in Atlantic City in partnership with Holiday Inns Corporation called Harrah’s at Trump Plaza.

Age 35 – Trump’s brother, a pilot, dies of alcoholism at age 43. Because of that, Trump decides never to drink alcohol or take drugs. His second child Ivanka is born.

Age 38 – His third child Eric is born. 

Age 39 – His businesses lose money for the year. They will continue to lose money for the next 9 years. He buys over Holiday Inn’s share of Harrah’s at Trump Plaza and renames it Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. He then buys over a Hilton Hotel casino and renames it Trump’s Castle. He also buys a resort in Florida called Mar-a-Lago Club and puts his wife in charge of running the property. 

Age 40 – Trump takes over the rebuilding of the Wollman Rink in Central Park and gets a lot of publicity for doing so while simultaneously screwing over the contractor who did it for him for free. He buys over The Equitable’s stake in Trump Tower.

Age 41 – He publishes The Art of the Deal about how he successfully makes business deals. 1-4m copies of this book will be sold.  

Age 42 – He acquires The Plaza Hotel.

Age 44 – Trump divorces Ivana, telling a reporter that he “doesn’t want to be married to a woman who’s had children.” His 3rd casino—the Trump Taj Mahal—opens and costs him a large amount of debt. 

Age 45 – The Taj Mahal declares bankruptcy and Trump has to sell his airline, yacht and large portions of his casino holdings.

Age 46 – His other 2 casinos declare bankruptcy, and The Plaza Hotel in New York too. 

Age 47 – Trump’s 4th child, Tiffany is born. He marries her mother, actress Marla Maples 3 months later. 

Age 49 – He forms a publicly traded company called Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts to protect himself from personal liability. He buys and renovates The Trump Building. Trump’s businesses finally stop losing money.

Age 50 – He becomes the owner of numerous beauty pageants including Miss Universe. 

Age 51 – He files for divorce from Marla Maples. His father transfers ownership of his buildings to his 4 surviving children, including Donald. 

Age 53 – Trump’s father dies and leaves behind an estate of $250-300m. 

Age 54 – Trump runs for president as a Reform Party candidate. Trump’s mother dies. 

Age 55 – He completes Trump World Tower and begins construction on Trump Place. He then plans to build Trump International Tower in Chicago as the tallest building in the world, but after 9/11, changes his mind and decides to make it the second tallest building in Chicago.  

Age 57 – The Apprentice—a reality show where contestants compete to work in Trump’s organisation—begins broadcast. Trump will go on to host the show for 14 seasons and get paid $213m for it. He also begins selling his name to real-estate businesses not built by himself and will end up with 30 such properties worldwide. 

Age 58 – Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts goes into bankruptcy. Trump and his siblings sell their father’s apartments for $700m.

Age 59 – Trump marries model Melania Knauss. He opens Trump University to offer courses in real estate, asset management, and wealth creation. The “University” is notified by New York State authorities that the word “university” in the business violates state law. 

Age 60 – His fifth child, Barron William Trump is born. 

Age 63 – Trump Entertainment Resorts declares bankruptcy again but Trump International Tower in Chicago is doing well. Trump gets on Twitter but his tweets are mostly written by his staff.

Age 64 – Trump Organization takes over the management of the Central Park Carousel. Trump University is renamed Trump Entrepreneurial Institute after authorities alert them of the violation of the word “university” again. 

Age 65 – Trump buys a winery in Charlottesville, Virginia. He starts using Twitter more, writing more tweets of his own. He joins the “birther” movement questioning whether Barack Obama was born in the U.S. Civil lawsuits related to Trump University are filed in court claiming that Donald Trump and his companies made false claims and defrauded consumers.

Age 69 – Trump runs for president again, this time as a Republican. After he makes anti-immigrant remarks, NBCUniversal, NBC and Univision severe their contracts with him, bringing an end to The Apprentice and forcing him to sell his beauty pageants. 

Age 70 – During the campaign, it is discovered that Trump’s real estate empire is $650m in debt. Trump defeats Hillary Clinton in the elections and is elected President of the United States. He hands the running of Trump Organization to his sons Donald Jr and Eric but keeps a stake. His lawsuits related to Trump University are finally settled. 

Age 71 – Trump is sworn in as president of the United States. 

2020 – Trump is presently 74 and is still the president of the United States.

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As a child, Muhammad Ali put boxing before school and ended up as a professional athlete. As an adult, he put religion before patriotism and ended up with a prison sentence. This is the timeline of the life of the man celebrated as one of the greatest boxers of all time. 

1942 – Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. is born in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A. to a sign painter and a housewife who sometimes worked as a cleaning lady for extra money.

Age 1 – His brother is born. 

Age 12 – His bicycle is stolen. The policeman he makes the report to gives boxing lessons at the local youth centre and asks him to join. He begins boxing and wins his first amateur boxing fight. He begins devoting all his time to boxing and his grades at school suffer. 

Age 14 – The policeman gets Cassius on the TV show, ‘Tomorrow’s Champions’. Cassius begins training under a trainer who teaches him the science of boxing. He wins the Golden Gloves tournament in the lightheavyweight class. 

Age 17 – He wins the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions and the Amateur Athletic Union’s national title. 

Age 18 – He competes in the Olympic games and wins the gold medal in the lightheavyweight division. He gets a contract with the Louisville Sponsors Group for this—the biggest contract ever signed by a professional boxer.

After – He wins more boxing matches, using a style that combines speed with punching power.

Age 22 – He competes in and wins the heavyweight championship of the world. In the same year, Cassius begins to follow the Black Muslim faith after being inspired by Malcolm X and changes his name to Cassius X. The Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad then gives him the name Muhammad Ali which means “beloved of Allah”. He marries Sonji Roi. 

Age 23 – Muhammad Ali defends his world champion title with a first round knockout. He would go on to defend his title 8 more times. He divorces his wife because she refuses to adopt Muslim customs. 

Age 25 – He marries his second wife, 17-year-old Belinda Boyd. Ali is drafted to fight the Vietnam War. He refuses to go, claiming his religion does not allow him to serve. Because of this, the New York State Athletic Commission and World Boxing Association suspends his boxing license and strips him of his titles. He is also sentenced to 5 years in prison for violating Selective Service laws but appeals and remains free while the appeal is going on.

Age 27 – His first child, Maryum is born.

Age 28 – He goes back to the ring where he wins again but loses the next championship to Joe Frazier who had replaced him as heavyweight champion. His conviction is finally overturned by the courts. His second wife gives birth to twins, Jamillah and Liban. 

Age 30 – His 4th child, Muhammad Ali Jr is born. 

Age 32 – Ali regains his title of heavyweight champion at last after beating the guy who had defeated Joe Frazier for the title. He then defeats Joe Frazier in another 2 fights. 

Age 33 – Sports Illustrated names Ali ‘Sportsman of the Year’. He will go on to defend his title 10 more times. 

Age 34 – He divorces his second wife. 

Age 35 – Ali marries Veronica Porche who he had already been travelling with while married to his second wife. They would go on to have 2 daughters.

Age 36 – He loses his title when defeated by Leon Spinks but regains it 7 months later by defeating Spinks—making him the first boxer in history to win the heavyweight championship 3 times. 

Age 39 – Ali fights his 61st and last fight, which he loses. He spends the rest of his life working on social causes and politics. 

Age 42 – He is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. 

Age 43 – He tries to win the release of 4 kidnapped Americans in Lebanon. 

Age 44 – Ali divorces his third wife and marries his fourth and final wife, Yolanda who is the daughter of his mother’s friend. They would go on to have a son together. 

Age 54 – He is chosen to light the Olympic torch during the opening ceremonies. 

Age 56 – He is chosen to be a United Nations Messenger of Peace. 

Age 57 – Ali appears on a Wheaties cereal box.

Age 59 – After 9/11, he appears in announcements to Muslim countries to inform them that the U.S. remains friendly to those of the Muslim faith. A film about his life is released. 

Age 63 – Ali wins the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President George W. Bush. The Muhammad Ali Center opens in his hometown. 

Age 73 – He contracts pneumonia and is hospitalised for severe UTI. 

Age 74 – Ali is hospitalised for a respiratory problem and dies in hospital. His family throws him a 3-day memorial service in his hometown which he planned himself. Tens of thousands of people attend the service. His pallbearers are Will Smith and former heavyweight champions Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. He is buried at Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville. 

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After training to be a lawyer, the man who would come to be known as Gandhi ended up spending the rest of his life encouraging others to break laws in order to attain the rights they deserve. This is the timeline of how he fought against injustice and changed the lives of Indians all around the world. 

1869 – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born to a wealthy family in Porbandar, India—a British colony. His father is a political leader. His mother is a religious woman who believes in Hinduism. He has 2 half sisters, 2 older brothers and 1 older sister. They live in a 3-storey house with servants. They are vegetarians.

Age 7 – Gandhi and his family move to the city of Rajkot. His parents arrange a marriage for him with a girl his age—Kasturbai—who is the daughter of a good friend of his father. 

Age 13 – Gandhi and Kasturbai marry. They have a big wedding. He takes a year off to learn how to be a husband. 

 Age 14 onwards – Gandhi returns to school. He and Kasturbai have a son. 

Age 18 – Gandhi completes high school. He attends college but after 1 semester returns home. He decides to study law in England instead. 

Age 19 – The leaders of the Modh Bania caste Gandhi belongs to reminds him that travelling overseas is against the caste’s rules and that he might be kicked out and become an untouchable if he goes. Gandhi goes anyway. He attends University College and becomes a member of the London Vegetarian Society.

Age 22 – He graduates and returns to India to find that his mother had died while he was away. His caste has disowned him and he has to bathe in the sacred Godavari River in order to be a part of them again. He gets a job but realises he is too shy to be a lawyer. 

Age 24 – Gandhi and his wife have another son. He gets a job as a lawyer for a merchant in South Africa and leaves his wife and sons under his brother’s care to go work there. There, he is discriminated for his race and gathers the Indian community to push for fair treatment of Indians in South Africa.

Age 25 – Despite having finished his case in South Africa, Gandhi remains there and sets up the Natal Indian Congress so that Indians can be involved in government in South Africa because they presently have limited rights. 

Age 27 onwards – He returns to India and brings his wife, sons and a nephew back to South Africa with him. He and his wife have 2 more sons. 

Age 30 – During the Boer War, Gandhi puts together an Indian ambulance corps with over 1000 volunteers to help South Africans but the Indians in South Africa continue to have limited rights. 

Age 34 – He starts a weekly journal called the Indian Opinion, writing about what is happening in the government, how to treat sickness with natural medicines and also the benefits of a vegetarian diet. 

Age 35 – He develops a philosophy of life he calls satyagraha, meaning—truth force—which includes ideas about using non-violent ways of breaking the law if the law is unfair, loving others instead of fighting them and living a simple life with very few possessions. He sets up a settlement called Phoenix Settlement for those who follow satyagraha to live together.  

Age 37 – The South African government passes a law that requires Indians to register with the government and allows police to stop Indians to prove they had been registered or search their homes. Gandhi sees hatred of Indians in this and pushes his followers to break the law. They are sent to jail but they believe it to be the honourable thing to do. 

Age 40 – Gandhi founds an even bigger settlement called Tolstoy Farm.

Age 45 – The government of South Africa finally passes the Indian Relief Act which ends the unfair taxes Indians have to pay in South Africa and allows Hindu marriages to be recognised by law at last. His work done in South Africa, Gandhi returns to India to work on allowing India to govern itself.

Age 46 – He creates a settlement similar to the ones he had created in South Africa and calls it the Satyagraha Ashram. He allows those from the untouchable caste to join this settlement, even when some of Satyagraha Ashram’s members object. 

Age 50 – The British pass the Rowlatt Acts, making it illegal for any group to organise against the government. Gandhi calls for a strike to protest against it and Indians across India refuse to go to work for one day. When the British government fire on a crowd of people who had gathered to celebrate Vaisakhi Day (a new year’s day for many Indians) and hadn’t heard about the ban on gatherings, Gandhi decides to actively fight back against British rule. 

Age 51 – Gandhi becomes leader of the Indian National Congress and encourages Indians to make and buy their own cloth instead of British ones. This becomes a national symbol for India’s independence. Gandhi leaves his settlement and family to spread the message through the rest of India wearing Indian-spun cloth and sandals. 

Age 53 – He is arrested for sedition and is sentenced to 6 years in prison. There, he reads and studies and continues to spin cloth daily. 

Age 55 – He is released 2 years early and goes right back to work, this time trying to solve the disputes between Hindus and Muslims in India. To get them to listen to each other, he begins a 3-week fast. The religious leaders agree to try to live with each other peacefully to get him to break his fast. 

Age 61 – Gandhi and some of the dwellers at his settlement begin a march from the settlement to the sea to defy the Salt Acts—which basically says all Indians have to buy salt from the British and will not be allowed to make their own using seawater. Along the way, he acquires hundreds of followers. A week later, tens of thousands of Indians living along the coastline defy the Salt Acts by making and selling their own salt. They are soon arrested and jailed and Gandhi is too. This time however, the British receive criticism from the rest of the world for doing so. In exchange for Gandhi calling off the civil-disobedience campaign, the British release all prisoners and allow Indians to make their own salt at last. 

Age 62 – Gandhi travels to London with a few supporters to speak for an independent India. Instead of putting on a suit like everybody else, he remains in his Indian cloth and sandals and makes the front page of world news. Upon returning to India however, he is arrested again for starting another non-cooperation campaign, this time against the British’s decision to keep the untouchables class separate from the rest of Indians. In prison, he refuses to eat unless the government gives up their plans for that and they eventually agree. 

Age 73 – During World War 2, he starts the “Quit India” movement telling British forces that Indians will support them in the war if they agree to leave India at the end of it. He, his wife and followers are arrested again when riots break out around India because of this campaign.

Age 75 – His wife dies from bronchitis in prison. Gandhi contracts malaria and is released early to recuperate. 

Age 76 – World War II ends. Great Britain, broke from the war, finally agrees to give India its independence. Gandhi and other Indian leaders meet to work out their new form of government. 

Age 78 – India becomes independent but Hindus and Muslims continue to clash, killing hundreds of thousands of people in the process. 

Age 79 – Gandhi begins a fast to get the religious groups to stop fighting. After 5 days of fasting, the religious leaders agree again at last. A few days later, a lone Hindu extremist shoots Gandhi 3 times in the chest when he steps onto a platform to lead a prayer meeting. Gandhi dies that evening and is mourned by the prime minister of India. 

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Llamo Thondup was identified as the spiritual leader of Tibet at age 2 but ended up losing his entire country to China barely 2 decades later. This is the story of the 14th Dalai Lama, and his lifelong struggle to return his country to independence.

1933 – The 13th Dalai Lama passes away. A search mission to find the next Dalai Lama—the spiritual leader of Tibet believed to be the reincarnation of Buddha who will be reborn as a child once the previous Dalai Lama dies—begins.  

1935 – Llamo Thondup is born in the Amdo region of Tibet to a farming family.

Age 2 – Reting Rinpoche who works in the search mission has a vision of 3 letters on a lake suggesting the Amdo region of Tibet, a monastery, a path and a small house. Monks visit the location and upon meeting Llhamo, declare Llhamo to be the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama. They take him and his parents back to the Norbulinkga Palace in Lhasa and recognise him as the 14th Dalai Lama. His name is changed to Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso. His parents become noble aristocrats. 

Age 5 – He moves to the Potala Palace without his parents and formally sits on the throne as the spiritual leader of Tibet. He begins training in religious austerity, which he will do until age 18. In the meantime, Reting Rinpoche will deal with politics on his behalf, while other Rinpoches simultaneously act as his private tutors. He is not allowed to play outside. Soon after, Reting Rinpoche resigns from his role to get into politics for his own benefit and breaks his vow of celibacy. The 14th Dalai Lama appoints Tathag Rinpoche to deal with politics. 

Age 12 – Reting Rinpoche attempts to murder Tathag Rinpoche while trying to regain political power. Lives are lost, people are injured and monastries are destroyed. Reting Rinpoche is sent to jail.

Age 14 – Mao Zedong takes over China and turns it into a communist country. His party then declares Tibet to be a part of China and sends troops to march in to “liberate Tibet from the hands of foreign imperialists”. As there are no foreign imperialists in Tibet, Tibet officials send missions to foreign countries to ask for help in defending themselves against China.

Age 15 – The Chinese army attacks Tibet. The Tibetian army is no match for them. The monks in regions overtaken by the Chinese army are no longer able to practice their religion, instead they are forced to accept communism and accept that Tibet is a part of China. The Tibetian people begin to demand the 14th Dalai Lama come into power earlier than age 18. The Chinese army plan to kill the 14th Dalai Lama if he doesn’t submit to China and communism. The 14th Dalai Lama decides to come into power. He retreats from Llasa to evade approaching Chinese forces and takes refuge in Dromo, southern Tibet while waiting for foreign nations to send help.

Age 16 – No foreign countries send help. China claim that they have signed an agreement with Tibet for Tibet to return to its Motherland, China, and their troops take over Tibet. The 14th Dalai Lama is forced by China to return to Llasa where he becomes aware of food shortages caused by the large volume of Chinese troops (numbering 20,000) now fighting for food with the common people of Llasa (numbering 70,000). Land and property belonging to civilians are confiscated and Tibetians are made to construct Chinese projects while being treated like slave labour. The youth of Tibet are also brainwashed into preferring communism over Tibetian culture. 

Age 17 – 2 Prime Ministers of Tibet resign. The 14th Dalai Lama attempts to negotiate with the Chinese for Tibet’s autonomy but fails to convince them. 

Age 19 – The 14th Dalai Lama is invited to visit Beijing and meets with Chairman Mao to discuss the care of Tibetian people. He soon realises that the meeting was just for China to show the world that they are not aggressors at all. He also finds out later that the Chinese troops are using the photographs he and Mao took together to convince Tibetians that he is in agreement with the reforms China is forcing upon them. 

Age 21 – Civilian Tibetians form a rebellion called The Freedom Fighters’ Alliance Movement. Chinese troops bomb thousands of towns and temples in response to them. The 14th Dalai Lama complains to Chairman Mao but gets no response. He goes to India to attend the 2500th birth anniversary of Lord Buddha and when he returns, finds out that even more atrocities have been committed against the Tibetian people in his absence, and also that the rebellion in Tibet is gaining strength. 

Age 22 – In response to the likelihood of worse violence, he decides to finish his doctorate of Buddhist studies earlier, in order to be officially a monk and a true spiritual leader of Tibet.   

Age 23 – He receives his doctoral degree. The Chinese troops in Tibet invite him and his brother to a Chinese dance performance but news soon gets out that it could be a plot on his life and civilians soon gather outside his palace to prevent him from going to the event. The 14th Dalai Lama agrees to stay away from the performance to prevent the Chinese army from attacking the protesters but the crowd of protestors doesn’t disperse for days. When Chinese troops threaten to bomb the crowd outside the palace, the 14th Dalai Lama decides to evacuate in secret disguised as one of the Tibetan army. He seeks asylum in India but the Chinese troops bomb the crowd outside the palace anyway, killing thousands. He promises Tibetan refugees in India that he will continue to fight in a non-violent way for the freedom of Tibetan people and culture from there. 

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Age 25 – In leaving Tibet, he officially loses control of Tibet. The 14th Dalai Lama relocates to Dharamsala in India with his administration and builds orphanages in India, funded by the Indian government. The town soon develops into a prosperous Tibetan community, full of temples with rituals held in accordance to the traditional Tibetan calendar. He begins meeting with other world leaders to preach for the autonomy of Tibet. 

Up to Age 44 – Rebels supported by the US CIA who are determined to stop the spread of communism manage to kill some groups of Chinese troops but it only gives China an excuse to send in more troops and attack with more ferocity. Millions of Tibetans die and temples and monasteries are destroyed.  

Age 54 – The 14th Dalai Lama receives the Nobel Prize for peace, having been in exile for 29 years. He takes the opportunity to mourn the extinction of Tibetan people and cultures and the damage done to its land caused by industrialisation and radioactive waste disposal sent over by the Chinese government, and urges the Tibetan people to continue their non-violent struggle for autonomy. 

Age 84 – The 14th Dalai Lama says he might be reincarnated as either a man or woman, adult or child, or appear in the bodies of several people simultaneously. He says his rebirth will either occur in a “free country” or not at all.

2020 – The 14th Dalai Lama is presently 85 years old.  

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Steve Jobs was given up by his American and Syrian parents at birth, said to smell bad and spent ten years of his life struggling to make multiple failing business ventures succeed. Today, however, he is a legend who is greatly missed. This is the story of the man who changed telecommunications and music for our generation. 

1955 – A baby boy is born to a young graduate student from the University of Wisconsin who had fallen in love with a teaching assistant from Syria. Because his parents have no money, they decide to put him up for adoption. Paul and Clara Jobs who live in Mountain View, California, USA (which will later come to be known as Silicon Valley) adopt their baby and name him Steven Paul Jobs. 

Age 3 – The Jobs adopt a little girl they call Patti. Steve now has a sister. 

Age 5 – Steve’s dad makes him a workbench and teaches him to use a hammer and saw. A neighbour gives Steve his first Heathkit and Steve starts to make radio transistors with it. 

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Age 13 – Steve joins the Hewlett-Packard Explorer Club which offers lectures to kids interested in electronics. Steve sees a computer for the first time at one of these lectures.

Teenage years – Steve gets a girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan and joins the computer club. At the club, he meets Steve Wozniak (Woz) who is a few years older and designs computers as a hobby. 

Age 17 – Steve graduates from high school but can’t afford to go to college. He asks the Dean of Reed College to be allowed to live in the dorms and sit in on classes for free. The Dean agrees, however, he does not allow Steve to get a degree from doing so. 

In college – Steve goes to lectures on Eastern Religions and Calligraphy. He sleeps on the floor of his friends’ dorms. He collects Coke bottles for money and depends on local charities for food. 

Age 19 – After 18 months in college, Steve takes a job at Atari which makes computer games. His friend Woz is already working there. He takes a trip to India when he has enough money saved and continues working at Atari when he returns. 

Age 21 – Woz creates a circuit board for an easy-to-use computer that can execute commands on TV screens. Steve suggests they leave Atari to start their own company selling that board to people who want to build their own computers, and on April Fool’s Day 1976, Apple Computers is born. It operates out of Steve’s parents’ garage. They build a sample computer to show how the circuit board works and end up getting a deal to sell 50 such computers to a local electronics store for $2500. They don’t have the money to make those computers (each cost $200 to make) so Steve persuades a local electronics supply store to give him the parts first and promises to pay later. They make a big profit when the deal is completed, and decide to work on making a better computer that can be used out of the box—the Apple II. Their computers are called Apples because Steve thinks apples to be the perfect fruit and wants his computers to be the same.

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Age 22 – Steve finds an investor who gives them money to create the Apple II. Woz is in charge of tech and Steve is in charge of design. He gets a logo designer to create a logo for their computer—a rainbow coloured apple that has a bite taken out of it. They finish in time for a computer fair in San Francisco and their product—with colour, good graphics and sound—stands out.

Age 23 – Apple Computers is growing. Steve now has employees but is difficult to work for, partly because he seldom showers and smells bad. His girlfriend, Chrisann, now an artist, has his baby, Lisa. Steve refuses to have anything to do with the baby because he is 100% focused on his company. 

Age 24 – Apple now employs thousands of employees. They make a home computer with a mouse.

Age 25 – Steve is a millionaire and becomes the youngest person in history to make Fortune magazine’s list of top Americans in business.

Age 26 – Woz is injured in a plane crash and never returns to work at Apple full-time. Steve handpicks a team of engineers to build a new computer called the Macintosh—a type of Apple. He hires John Sculley, head of the Pepsi-Cola company to run the business for him.

Age 29 – The Macintosh is released. The computer “for the rest of us” in Steve’s words. The first advertisement for it runs during the Super Bowl and soon many people want to buy it but it remains far from being a big hit.

Age 30 – Due to disappointing sales of the Macintosh, Sculley wants to make computers for businesses instead of home users. Steve refuses and tries to get the board of directors to fire Sculley. The board of directors remove Steve instead and move him to a new office across the street, away from other employees. 5 months later, Steve leaves Apple to start a new company called NeXT—a company that would make the next perfect computer.

Age 31 – Steve’s adoptive mother dies. He tracks down his birth mother and meets her and his sister, Mona. From then on he would be close to Mona. He collaborates with George Lucas, who he is a big fan of, and becomes owner of Lucas’ computer graphics company, Pixar. 

Age 33 – NeXT has lost $10million, much of which is Steve’s own money. Nobody wants to buy NeXT computers because at $6500, they are too expensive for the average user.

Age 35 – While giving a lecture at Stanford University, Steve meets graduate student, Laurene Powell who is like himself not a meat eater. They exchange phone numbers. 

Age 36 – Steve marries Laurene and their son, Reed Paul Jobs is born. He lays off most of Pixar’s staff because he had put in $50million and Pixar was still losing money. He signs a deal to make 3 animated movies for Disney, which wouldn’t make Pixar much money but would allow Pixar to get movies made.

Age 38 – Steve’s adoptive father dies. His teenage daughter Lisa goes to live with him. He lays off most of the workers at NeXT and stops going in to work. He spends most of his time with his son, Reed.

Age 40 – Pixar’s first movie—Toy Story—opens and becomes the most popular movie of the year. Pixar goes on to make many more hit movies in a row. His second daughter, Erin Sienna, is born. 

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Age 41 – At last, Steve Jobs is a success again. He is a billionaire now. Apple, on the other hand, is now struggling because their computers have failed to change with the times and are slow. They are nearly bankrupt. Apple, who had removed Scully 3 years prior, now wants Steve back. Steve agrees to be its head, but only for a while. He gives himself a salary of $1 per year. 

Age 42 – Steve announces that Apple is going to team up with Microsoft—all of Apple’s computers will use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser—to produce iMacs (Internet Macintoshes). He gets rid of products that aren’t selling. He lays off workers. He runs an ad campaign that brands Apple products with the words, ‘Think Different’, and makes his iMacs brightly coloured. 

Age 43 – The iMac becomes the best-selling computer in the world. Steve has a third daughter, Eve. 

Age 45 – Despite only wanting to stay in Apple for a few months, Steve becomes Apple’s permanent head. He has too many new ideas to want to leave now. 

Age 46 – Apple opens its first stores. Just like Apple’s computers, they too look different, more like works of art than IT stores. Steve then releases the iPod and iTunes for Mac computers only.

Age 47 – The iPod is now compatible with Microsoft’s Windows computers. Sales skyrocket. This however sets in motion the era of music piracy. 

Age 48 – Steve opens the iTunes music store for record companies to sell music on. This begins the era of online music buying. A medical check up, however, reveals Steve has pancreatic cancer.

Age 49 – Steve has surgery to remove the tumour. 3 months later, he returns to work but looks thin and pale. 

Age 50 – He gives a speech to the graduating class at Stamford University, telling them that “time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” He decides to improve cell phones with his time left. 

Age 52 – Steve introduces the iPhone—a personal computer that fits into your pocket, and can also be used as a phone. It is imperfect but popular. 

Age 54 – Steve begins taking time off and gets in touch with a biographer to get his biography told. Soon after, he has a liver transplant and returns to work a few months later. 

Age 55 – Steve introduces the iPad—Apple’s new tablet computer, smaller, thinner and lighter than the ones that had been in the market for the past few decades. 

Age 56 – Apple is now the most successful company in the world. Steve steps down as CEO, no longer well enough to continue working. He spends his time with friends and family instead, and dies just 2 months later. He is mourned by people all over the world. 

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Born to a poor family in communist China, Jack Ma endured numerous failures in school and entrepreneurship before finally setting up Alibaba—a company which revolutionised trading in China and earned him billions of dollars. This is the timeline of the downs and ups across his life…

1964 – Ma Yun is born in Hangzhou, China. His mother is a factory worker. His father is a photography for the Hangzhou Photography Agency. At the time of his birth, there is almost no private enterprise in China. 90% of industry is run by the state. 

Age 2 – Chairman Mao comes into power and the Cultural Revolution happens, resulting in 10 years of turmoil, bloodshed and stagnation. 

Childhood – Yun is a fan of the author Jin Yong, whose writing is infused with traditional Chinese culture and arts, as well as Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. He learns tai chi.

Age 14 – Deng Xiaoping launches China’s ‘open-door policy’—leaving self-sufficiency behind to allow Chinese citizens to participate actively in global markets. Tourists begin coming to Hangzhou. For the next 9 years, Jack would offer tourists a free tour of the West Lake if they taught him English. One of the tourists has a father and husband both named Jack. She suggests Yun be called Jack too and he becomes known henceforth as Jack.

Age 15 – The Morleys from Australia visit Hangzhou and Jack befriends them to practice English. They begin a penpal correspondence that helps Jack improve his written English.  

Age 16 – Jack fails the higher education entrance exam badly, scoring only 1/120 in math. He becomes a menial labourer with his father’s connections, delivering bundles of magazines from printers to train stations. He is rejected from numerous other jobs. 

Age 18 – Jack tries the higher education entrance exam again but still fails to qualify for higher education. He applies for 11 jobs and is rejected by all. He starts going to the library of Zhejiang University every Sunday to memorise formulas and equations. 

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Age 19 – He attempts the entrance exam for a third time and finally raises his math score enough to be accepted into a local university, the Hangzhou Teachers College—not a prestigious college in the city.

Age 21 – He is elected president of the student union and president of the Hangzhou Students Federation. The Morleys, his Australian pen pals, invite him to stay at their home in New Lambton, Australia. He goes to stay there for a month and returns suddenly aware that China is not the richest country in the world, unlike what he’s been taught. He realises he has to use his own mind to make judgements. Jack invites the Morleys back to his family home in return, securing the use of a pickup truck for their trip and arranging a banquet with local officials and VIPs for them too. The Morleys start funding Jack’s compulsory live-in fees at college because Jack’s family can’t afford it. 

Later at college – Jack falls in love with a fellow student from Zhejiang, called Zhang Ying, Cathy. They marry and the Morleys once again step in and give them 22,000 Australian dollars to help them finance the purchase of their first home.  

Age 24 – Jack graduates with a degree in English and gets a 2-year contract to become a lecturer in English and international trade at the Hangzhou Institute of Electronic Engineering. After his day job at the institute, he teaches English at the Hangzhou YMCA. 

Age 28 – Deng Xiaoping pronounces that “to get rich is glorious”, inviting entrepreneurs across the country to return to action. Jack decides to launch his own business before turning 30. He starts a company called ‘Hope’ and works on it part-time after class. Jack’s first child is born. He is named Jerry. 2 more children will follow in the years ahead.

Age 29 – Jack founds the Hangzhou Haibo (meaning ‘hope’) Translation Agency to help local companies find customers overseas. He employs 5 retired teachers from the institute. He gets students from his English night school to help publicise the business and find his first clients but he experiences cash flow issues from the start. To support his business, he starts peddling goods on the streets, effectively turning his translation company into a trading company that sells gifts, flowers, books, plastic carpet, etc.

Age 30 – His translation company is hired by the government of Tonglu County to translate a dispute with an American company. For this he travels to Hong Kong, and later to the United States, ending up in Seattle in a twist of fate where he uses a computer and the internet for the very first time at the home of his colleague’s son-in-law. There is no data on China on the internet then so he creates China’s very first page, advertising his translation agency in there and gets 5 emails enquiring about his services within hours. He decides to set up a business helping Chinese companies find export channels online and partners with his colleague’s son-in-law, Stuart Trusty. Stuart wants a deposit of $200,000 but since Jack is penniless, they agree that Jack just needs to pay up as soon as possible. He brings a computer home with him, the most advanced in China at that time, quits his teaching job and starts his second business—China Pages. He ropes a former colleague, He Yibing, who was a computer science teacher at the same school, and they register the company Hangzhou Haibo Network Consulting. 

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Age 31 – China Pages opens its first office, funded by money borrowed from his family. His wife is his first employee. During the day, they go out and find clients. In the evening, they teach a course about the “information superhighway”. This course helps them get some of their earliest customers. Jack also calls in family and former students to spread the word but this is difficult because Hangzhou itself is not connected to the internet, relying only on Stuart in the USA to upload the information and send over screenshots to prove that the information is indeed online. Until at last, in the fall of 1995, Zhejiang Telecom provides internet services to Hangzhou. Jack is one of the first 200 users of the internet. He steps up his efforts to promote his business and gains some success when the Zhejiang provincial government hires China Pages to build its website, bringing the Chinese government online for the first time. Soon, the papers are featuring his story. Jack travels to Beijing to promote China Pages there and gets more publicity. But even then business is poor. 

Age 32 – Jack is almost bankrupt. He enters a join venture with a bigger company, Hangzhou Dife, his competitor and with only 30% of the company in his ownership, soon loses control of China Pages.

Age 33 – Jack gives up his stake in China Pages and moves to Beijing. He takes a job at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Corporation and is asked to receive Jerry Yang (founder of Yahoo and a billionaire by age 30) and take him on a tour around Beijing.

Age 35 – Jack founds Alibaba with a few friends, all regular people, none of who come from privileged backgrounds. The China internet market was now dominated by others. He decides to focus on small businesses instead. Over the next year, the number of internet users in China grow from 2 million to 17 million. Jack meets Joe Tsai, a Taiwanese-born investor living in Hong Kong, and gets him to help incorporate his company and find investors around the world. Jack lists all the friends who helped start the company as shareholders, and starts promoting the company in the media. Towards the end of the year, Goldman Sachs invests $5m for a 50% stake in the company.

Age 36 – Alibaba moves into a bigger office in Hangzhou. They start to host gatherings of SMEs in hotel ballrooms, arranging tables to group companies from similar industries. Japanese investment firm SoftBank invests $20 million. Jack travels to Silicon Valley to hire John Wu, a yahoo executive. He allows him to work from Fremont, California. By this time, there are 150,000 members on Alibaba from 188 countries. The company goes on a hiring spree in mainland China, Hong Kong, and California, and steps up advertising. Jack is featured everywhere, including Forbes, but Alibaba is making less than $1 million from web building and hosting for its users.

Age 37 – The tech downturn continues. Jack and Joe bring in COO from GE, Savio Kwan to help turn Alibaba into a proper business. At this point, all Jack wants is to remain standing. 

Age 38 – Alibaba is slowly edging towards profitability. eBay enters China and gains 90% share of the consumer e-commerce market. Jack decides to enter the consumer market to protect Alibaba from eBay with a new venture called Taobao. SoftBank invests $80 million to support this new venture. 

Age 39 – Alibaba launches Taobao in May, during the SARS epidemic and advertises by posting on free bulletin board systems and online forums. He gets each of his employees to find 4 items to list for sale. They only announce their association with Alibaba later in July. New investors start investing in Alibaba and Taobao. 

Age 40 – Ken Morley, the man who had financed Jack many times in his youth, dies at 78. His obituary mentions that he had befriended a poor, young Chinese boy who now heads a successful company in China. Goldman Sachs sells off its stake in Alibaba for $3.3million (this stake would rise in value to more than $12.5 billion later on). Taobao launches Aliwangwang, a chat window for buyers and sellers to communicate. Later that year, they launch Alipay. eBay begins to fail in China.  

Age 41 – Taobao overtakes eBay in market share. Alibaba partners with Yahoo and takes over operations of Yahoo China. 

Age 42 – eBay exits China for good. There are now 30 million users on Taobao. 

Age 43 – Alibaba.com is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, selling 19% of the company for $1.7 billion. Its handle is ‘1688’ which sounds like prospering along the way in Mandarin. 

Age 44 – Tmall is introduced to complement Taobao. 

Age 45 – Jack sells some of his shares for $35 million and buys prime real estate in Hong Kong. Alibaba launches cloud computing subsidiary, Aliyun and acquires HiChina, a leading China infrastructure service provider. 

Age 46 – Alibaba launches Juhuasuan and acquires more companies. 

Age 48 – Alibaba buys back half of Yahoo’s stake in the company and delists Alibaba from the Hong Kong stock exchange. 

Age 49 – Alibaba goes into logistics, TV OS and networking apps. 

Age 50 – Alibaba expands into more digital services and goes public on the New York Stock exchange. Its handle is ‘BABA’. Jack and Joe create the Alibaba philanthropic trust to care for China’s environment and health care. Alibaba Pictures is launched. 

Age 51 – Alibaba expands their digital services and collaborations and acquires more companies. Jack buys Brandon Park estate in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains for $23 million. Alibaba purchases the South China Morning Post, the main English daily newspaper in Hong Kong. They also launch the Alibaba Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation. 

Age 53 – Jack makes his acting debut in a kung fu short film Gong Shou Dou. 

Age 53-54 – He is given an honorary doctorate degrees from universities in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Israel. 

Age 54 – Jack steps down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holdings.

2020 – Ma is 56 and China’s richest man with a net worth of $44.3 billion.

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Photographs: JD Lasica, World Economic Forum. Compiler: Sy
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In the 1960s, 33-year-old Charles Kao was researching fibre optics when he discovered how they could be used for high-speed data transmission. That research of his would go on to pave the way for the information age and revolutionise telecommunications for future generations. Here is a summary of how he lived his life and changed others’…

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1933 – Charles Kao Kuen is born in Shanghai, China to a lawyer who had become a university professor.

Childhood – He studies Chinese classics until he enters an international school where he then masters English and French. Plays with chemicals as a child.

Age 14 – Charles’ family moves to Hong Kong to get away from political instability.

Age 19 – He graduates from St. Joseph’s College—a prestigious school.

University – He studies electrical engineering at the University of Greenwich and obtains his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London. He meets his future wife, Gwen Wong May-wan, who is a Fortran programmer.

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After graduation – He gets a job at Standard Telecommunications Laboratories in Harlow, England and begins his groundbreaking scientific research: investigating how fibres of very pure glass can transport light over distances longer than traditional fibres, laying the groundwork for high-speed data communication.

Age 32 – He receives his Ph.D. from University College, London.

Age 33 – He writes a paper on how glass fibre can be used for high-speed transmission of information.

Age 37 – He gets a job that the Chinese University of Hong Kong and founds the Department of Electronics.

Age 41 – He emigrates to the U.S.A. and begins working for I.T.T. Corporation in Roanoke, Virginia.

Age 43-81 – He wins numerous awards all around the world and donates most of his prize medals to the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Age 46-69 – He receives numerous professorships and fellowships from various universities and societies around the world.

Age 49 – He is the first Executive Scientist at I.T.T. and is also now serving as adjunct professor and Fellow of Trumbull College at Yale University.

Age 52-78 – He receives honorary degrees from universities all over the world.

Age 54-63 – He becomes Vice Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Age 63 – He retires and becomes visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A wing at the Chinese University is named after him.

Age 67 – He founds the Independent Schools Foundation Academy in Hong Kong and serves as its chairman till 2008. During this time, he also serves as Chairman of Transtech Service Ltd and I.T.X. Services Ltd.

Age 71 – Charles’ is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and eventually no longer recognises his family. He goes to live in Mountain View, California, U.S.A., close to his children and grandchildren.

Age 76 – He wins the Nobel Prize in Physics and his wife says in an interview that the money will be used to pay for his medical expenses. An auditorium at the Hong Kong Science Park is named after him.

Age 77 – A stamp honouring Charles K. Kao is issued in Hong Kong. He is given the honour of becoming a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and receives the Grand Bauhinia Medal in Hong Kong.

Age 78 – A Blue Plaque is dedicated to him in Harlow, Essex, England.

Age 84 – He passes away in hospice care in Hong Kong. He is survived by his wife, children and 3 grandchildren.

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Photographs: Public Domain. Compiler: Sy
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At age 32, Peyton Rous discovers that cancer might be transmissible, like a virus. His inability to reproduce this theory in other experiments results in no one believing him and him abandoning his research. Decades later however, he finally finds a way to get his theory proven and wins the Nobel Prize. This is a summary of how he did it…

1879 – Peyton is born in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

University – In medical school, while dissecting a tuberculous bone, he accidentally scratches his finger on it. The scratch causes an infection that results in his axillary glands being removed. He misses one year of medical school because of this. While recovering, he goes to Texas and his uncle gets him a job on a ranch. When he returns to his studies, he decides he is unfit to be a practicing physician. He obtains a Bachelor’s degree from John Hopkins University and continues his studies.

Age 26 – He receives a Master’s degree from John Hopkins Medical School. Becomes an instructor in pathology at the University of Michigan for insufficient salary.

Age 28 – His boss tells him to learn German and study physical anatomy at a hospital in Dresden, Germany, for the same salary. He does.

Age 36 – He marries Marion deKay. They will go on to have 3 daughters.

Age 30 – Peyton returns to the U.S. and gets a job at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. A few months later, he becomes responsible for the cancer research laboratory.

Age 32 – Peyton turns his attention to pathological problems, including cancer. He begins researching tumours, discovering that extracting material from a cancer tumour in a hen and injecting it into a healthy chicken would give the healthy chicken cancer, proving that the cancer tumour contains a virus. Nobody believes him because the experiments cannot be recreated in mammals and he abandons his research.

Age 55 – A friend and colleague asks Peyton to study a virus that is responsible for giant warts in wild rabbits. Peyton agrees and soon proves the warts to be benign tumours that often turn cancerous, reviving his virus-cancer theory.

Later – Scientists accept that viruses can be one cause of cancer. Peyton would also research blood transfusions and produce work that would lead to the launch of the world’s first blood bank in Belgium.

Age 79 – He wins the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

Age 86 – He wins the National Medal of Science.

Age 87 – He wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research in cancer causing viruses.

Age 91 – Peyton dies.

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