Mark Zuckerberg is an American businessman best known as the co-founder, chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). He launched Facebook, a social media service, which grew to become a global phenomenon. Zuckerberg's career has been marked by both immense success and controversy, including lawsuits concerning the website's creation and ownership, as well as debates surrounding user privacy and data handling practices. Despite these challenges, he remains a prominent figure in the technology industry and a driving force behind Meta's ventures.
On May 14, 1984, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born. He is an American businessman who co-founded Facebook and Meta Platforms.
In 1984, Steven Levy wrote the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution.
In 2002, Mark Zuckerberg registered to vote in Westchester County, New York, where he grew up. However, he did not cast his first ballot until November 2008.
In 2002, Zuckerberg began classes at Harvard and had already achieved a "reputation as a programming prodigy".
In 2002, Zuckerberg graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, a prep school that may have inspired Facebook.
In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg met fellow Harvard student Priscilla Chan at a frat party during his sophomore year, and they began dating.
In January 2004, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website that would become Thefacebook.
On February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com, in partnership with his roommates.
In February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, along with his roommates, launched Facebook while attending Harvard College.
In August 2004, Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Adam D'Angelo, and Sean Parker launched a competing peer-to-peer file sharing service called Wirehog.
In 2004, Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally making them believe he would help them build a social network and filed a lawsuit.
In 2004, Zuckerberg, Moskovitz, and other co-founders moved to Palo Alto, California, where they leased a small house that served as an office and Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel, who invested in the company.
On March 28, 2007, the lawsuit between Zuckerberg and the Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra was dismissed on a technicality.
In November 2007, confidential court documents related to Zuckerberg were posted on the website of 02138, a magazine that catered to Harvard alumni, which included sensitive personal information.
In 2007, Zuckerberg explained his reasoning for turning down offers to sell Facebook, stating that creating an open information flow for people was the most important thing.
In 2007, Zuckerberg was added to MIT Technology Review's TR35 list as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
On June 25, 2008, the lawsuit between Zuckerberg and the Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra was settled, with Facebook agreeing to transfer over 1.2 million common shares and pay $20 million in cash.
In November 2008, Mark Zuckerberg cast his first ballot. Despite registering to vote in Westchester County, New York, in 2002, he had not voted until this election. Bloomberg reported that Zuckerberg was listed as "no preference" on voter rolls and had voted in at least two of the past three general elections, including 2008.
In 2008, Time named Mark Zuckerberg one of the most influential people in the world.
In 2008, at the age of 23, Zuckerberg became the world's youngest self-made billionaire.
In April 2009, Zuckerberg sought the advice of former Netscape CFO Peter Currie regarding financing strategies for Facebook.
In 2009, Zuckerberg ranked number 23 on the Vanity Fair 100 list.
On July 21, 2010, Zuckerberg reported that Facebook had reached the 500-million-user mark.
In September 2010, Priscilla Chan, then a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco, moved into Mark Zuckerberg's rented house in Palo Alto, California.
In September 2010, with the support of Governor Chris Christie, Cory Booker obtained a $100 million pledge from Mark Zuckerberg for Newark Public Schools.
In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg was named the Time Person of the Year, coinciding with Facebook reaching over half a billion users.
In 2010, Steven Levy wrote that Zuckerberg "clearly thinks of himself as a hacker" and Zuckerberg said that "it's OK to break things" "to make them better".
In 2010, Vanity Fair magazine named Zuckerberg number 1 on its list of the Top 100 "most influential people of the Information Age".
In 2010, a film depicting Zuckerberg's early career, legal troubles, and initial success with Facebook, called "The Social Network," was released and won multiple Academy Awards.
In 2011, Facebook first participated in the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration, with 70 employees.
In 2011, Time named Mark Zuckerberg one of the most influential people in the world.
In 2011, shortly after Steve Jobs' death, Zuckerberg said that Jobs had advised him on how to create a management team at Facebook.
On May 19, 2012, Mark Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan on the grounds of his mansion in an event that also celebrated her graduation from medical school.
In December 2012, Mark Zuckerberg donated 18 million shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a community organization that includes education in its grant-making areas.
In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg voted in a general election. Bloomberg reported that Zuckerberg was listed as "no preference" on voter rolls and had voted in at least two of the past three general elections, including 2012.
In February 2013, Mark Zuckerberg hosted his first fundraising event for then New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Zuckerberg's interest was in education reform, particularly Christie's work on teachers unions and charter schools.
On April 6, 2013, Rebecca Van Dyck, Facebook's head of consumer marketing, said that 85 million American Facebook users were exposed to the first day of the Home promotional campaign.
On April 11, 2013, Mark Zuckerberg launched FWD.us, a 501(c)(4) lobbying group. The founders and contributors were primarily Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors, with Joe Green as president. The group aimed to address immigration reform, education improvement, and technological breakthroughs. However, it was criticized for financing ads supporting oil and gas development initiatives, leading to protests and boycotts of Facebook ads by liberal and progressive groups.
In June 2013, Mark Zuckerberg joined Facebook employees in a company float at the annual San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration. Approximately 700 employees participated following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that deemed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.
On June 20, 2013, Mark Zuckerberg actively engaged with Facebook users on his profile page after the online publication of a FWD.us video. He responded to claims about FWD.us's goals, emphasizing the importance of treating undocumented individuals fairly.
On August 19, 2013, The Washington Post reported that Zuckerberg's Facebook profile was hacked by an unemployed web developer.
In September 2013, at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Mark Zuckerberg commented on the mid-2013 PRISM scandal, stating that the U.S. government "blew it" in terms of protecting citizens' freedoms, the economy, and companies.
In September 2013, at the TechCrunch conference, Zuckerberg discussed his goal of expanding Internet coverage into developing countries.
In 2013, Zuckerberg launched Internet.org, an initiative to provide Internet access to the five billion people without it as of the launch date.
On October 23, 2014, Zuckerberg participated in a Q&A session at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, where he conversed in Mandarin Chinese.
On December 8, 2014, Zuckerberg hosted visiting Chinese politician Lu Wei, at Facebook's headquarters.
On December 11, 2014, Zuckerberg fielded questions during a live Q&A session at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, explaining that he does not believe Facebook is a waste of time.
In July 2015, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he and Priscilla Chan were expecting a baby girl. He also shared that Chan had previously experienced three miscarriages.
The aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks influenced Zuckerberg to state that he wants "to add my voice in support of Muslims in our community and around the world".
On December 9, 2015, Mark Zuckerberg posted a statement on his Facebook wall in response to the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2015 San Bernardino attack, expressing his support for Muslims and emphasizing that they are "always welcome" on Facebook. He also stated that as a Jew, his parents taught him to stand against attacks on all communities.
In December 2015, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's first daughter was born. They later announced her Chinese name, Chen Mingyu, in a Chinese New Year video.
In 2015, a shooting took place at Mother Emanuel; Zuckerberg would later speak at the site in 2017.
On February 24, 2016, Mark Zuckerberg sent a company-wide memo to Facebook employees formally rebuking those who crossed out "Black Lives Matter" phrases on company walls and replaced them with "All Lives Matter." Zuckerberg condemned this practice, considering it not only disrespectful but "malicious." He emphasized that "Black Lives Matter doesn't mean other lives don't" and launched investigations into the incidents.
In June 2016, Business Insider named Zuckerberg one of the "Top 10 Business Visionaries Creating Value for the World" due to his pledge with his wife to give away 99% of their wealth.
In December 2016, Mark Zuckerberg was ranked tenth on the Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People.
In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg, who was raised in a Reform Jewish household and later identified as an atheist, stated that he now believes religion is very important after a period of questioning.
In 2016, Zuckerberg became a board member of the solar sail spacecraft development project Breakthrough Starshot, which he co-founded.
In 2016, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) donated $600 million to establish the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a collaborative research center in San Francisco. The Biohub aims to foster collaboration between scientists at UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. Unlike other foundations, Biohub retains the right to commercialize its funded research, while inventors have the option to make discoveries open-source. The CZ Biohub also mandates that investigators publish their manuscripts and data on preprint servers to increase access to scientific research. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Zuckerberg announced $25 million in grants to support local journalism impacted by the pandemic and $75 million in advertisement purchases in local newspapers by Facebook, Inc., where Facebook would market itself.
In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg criticized Donald Trump's executive order that severely limited immigrants and refugees from some countries.
On May 25, 2017, Zuckerberg received an honorary degree from Harvard after giving a commencement speech at Harvard's 366th commencement day.
In August 2017, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's second daughter was born.
In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife began a nationwide tour to visit every state in the union and learn more about the people who use Facebook. They met with farmers and business owners and spoke at Mother Emanuel, where a shooting had taken place in 2015.
In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg called for action to stop global warming in a commencement speech at Harvard University. Seven years later, he purchased the mega-yacht Launchpad (formerly Project 1010) for $300 million. That same year, he put the yacht into operation; it emits 40 tons of carbon dioxide per hour.
In 2019, Time named Mark Zuckerberg one of the most influential people in the world.
In 2020, Mark Zuckerberg funded a state-level ballot initiative for the general election that would raise taxes by altering California's Proposition 13, requiring the tax assessment of commercial and industrial properties at market rate.
In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg began training in both mixed martial arts (MMA) and Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), publicly expressing his enthusiasm for these sports.
In March 2023, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan welcomed their third daughter and announced the news on social media.
On May 6, 2023, Mark Zuckerberg competed in a BJJ tournament and secured both a silver and a gold medal in gi and no gi, competing at the white belt level.
In July 2023, Mark Zuckerberg was promoted to blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu by Dave Camarillo, marking an advancement in his training.
In 2023, Mark Zuckerberg was ranked eighth on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, with a personal wealth of $106 billion.
In August 2024, Mark Zuckerberg stated in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that he regretted not doing more to resist pressure from the Biden administration to censor content related to COVID-19. He also noted he no longer intends to donate towards election infrastructure.
In September 2024, Donald Trump's book 'Save America' featured a description of Zuckerberg's White House visits, along with a warning about potential legal consequences for illegal actions in the 2024 Presidential Election.
In October 2024, Mark Zuckerberg became the second richest person in the world.
As of December 2024, Mark Zuckerberg's net worth was estimated at $219 billion by Forbes, making him the fourth richest person in the world.
In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg commissioned visual artist Daniel Arsham to build a 7-foot-tall sculpture of his wife, Priscilla Chan, which was then unveiled.
In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg shifted his style from wearing the same gray shirt and jeans to wearing gold chains and trendier streetwear. Some suggested this was a "MAGA rebrand", but Zuckerberg denied hiring a stylist.
In January 2025, Mark Zuckerberg voiced his support for the U.S. administration, stating, "We now have a U.S. administration that is proud of our leading companies, prioritizes American technology winning and that will defend our values and interests abroad." He was also prominently positioned at Trump's inauguration.
In March 2025, Mark Zuckerberg attempted to leverage his relationship with the Trump administration to secure a favorable settlement in an antitrust case where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was requesting $30 billion.
According to Forbes, in May 2025, Zuckerberg's estimated net worth was US$221.2 billion, making him the second-richest individual in the world.
In 2025, Time named Mark Zuckerberg one of the most influential people in the world.
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