Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on May 14 th, 1984, in White Plains, New York. Both of his parents are professionals. His father, Edward Zuckerberg, DDS, is a dentist; and his mother, Karen Kempner, is a psychiatrist. He has three sisters: Randi Zuckerberg — the eldest of all of the Zuckerberg children, Donna, and Arielle.
Mark grew up in a small village, Dobbs Ferry, located in Westchester County, New York State. In 1996, they hired a software developer named David Newman, who tutored him in the use of computers. Mark’s father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the later years, and Mark had made a software program so that his father’s office was able to keep and organize the patient records of the office. His Bar Mitzvah at age 12 had the theme: “Star Wars.”
Early Interest in Computers
It all started for Mark Zuckerberg when he was in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the mid-1990s, and after that, he hired a private tutor, software developer David Newman. As a programmer, Mark Zuckerberg quickly distinguished himself. This was where the path to the future opened up for him.
High School and Early Projects
Phillips Exeter Academy issued him a diploma. Mark Zuckerberg attended Ardsley High School for his freshman and sophomore years. While they don’t appear on his final transcript, some of his classmates at Ardsley want to be sure Zuckerberg gets credit for the statistics courses he took.
Mark was a prodigy. He won prizes in physics, math, astronomy, and classical studies. He became captain of the fencing team. During high school, he also took a graduate-level course in BASIC programing at nearby Mercy College.
One of Mark’s early projects was “ZuckNet,” a communication program that linked all the computers within Turner’s home to those in his father’s dental office; it worked similarly to AOL’s Instant Messenger, which was launched the following year.
He also created the Synapse Media Player, a music player that interpreted a user’s listening habits. Both Nexis and Microsoft tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Mark, but he declined their offers and enrolled at Harvard University in 2002.
Personal Life
Mark Zuckerberg is a polyglot. He specified in his college applications that he could read and write in French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek. Zuck met Priscilla Chan, a student of the same university, at a fraternity party, in the middle of his sophomore year, and a year later began dating in 2003.
In September 2010, Chan moved to rent a house in Palo Alto, California. Mark Zuckerberg married Chan on Saturday, May 19, 2012, at Mr. Zuckerberg’s house, around the backyard.
Incidentally, on that day, Chan graduated in medical school. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have three daughters; Maxima Chan Zuckerberg “Max” was born on December 1, 2015, the first daughter. August was the second, born in August 2017, and the third, Aurelia, was born in March 2023.
Zuckerberg and Chan are philanthropists, mainly through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and members of The Giving Pledge. They have promised to give 99% of their Facebook shares to their foundation.
Zuckerberg began training in Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2022 and won a silver and gold medal in a BJJ tournament in May 2023. He is also rumored to be preparing for a pilot’s license.
Harvard and the Birth of Facebook
At Harvard, Before founding Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg had already earned a reputation as a programming prodigy. He began learning Greek and Roman classics in addition to ancient programming languages. Mark studied psychology with computer science, combining his talents and interests on the way to becoming a programmers-psychologist.
Zuckerberg was a member of Yale’s Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and lived in Kirkland House. In his second year at Harvard, Mark developed CourseMatch, a program that allowed students to select classes on the basis of other users’ choices and form groups for studying.
Having limited access to photographs of the university’s students, Mark Zuckerberg made a site for comparing the attractiveness of the female students, called Facemash. This service was so popular that it crashed Harvard’s servers, but a few days after the start of the new social network, the university closed it.
So Mark began programming a new website and on February 4, 2004, he released “TheFacebook” from his dorm room with his classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin. Mark dropped out from Harvard in his sophomore year. In 2017, he was awarded an honorary degree by his Alma mater.
The Growth of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and his friends moved to Palo Alto, California in spring 2004, where they leased a small house as the first office of Facebook . In the summer of that year, Peter Thiel became an investor of the company.
They originally planned to return to Harvard after the summer in California but refused to do so, as the West Coast had a greater appeal. They also turned down several offers from Yahoo, MTV Networks, and Viacom to purchase Facebook. As of July 21, 2010, the social networking site had a total of 500 million users.
Nowadays, Facebook is an extensive social network utilized throughout the world, and Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth is immeasurable, making him one of the richest and most influential people.
Legal Issues
Mark Zuckerberg was sued by Harvard students Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss for tricking them into believing he would help them develop their social network, HarvardConnection.com, known as ConnectU in a lawsuit on March 28, 2007 The case was later settled on June 25, 2008, when the company agreed to pay a payout 1.2 million shares or $20 million in cash. Winklevoss twins later invested millions in bitcoin to become billionaires.
In April 2018, he testified before congress after an investigation by the federal trade Commission found that the Facebook-Cambridge analytica scandal was a breach of trust.
Mark Zuckerberg Net Worth
Due to his holdings in Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has an estimated net worth of $169 billion. He holds nearly 400 million shares across several class of voting shares, which allow him to have 53% of the company’s voting rights. He is the youngest and most successful individual in what 1 of the worlds largest industry.
