Richard Branson is a prominent English business magnate best known for co-founding the Virgin Group in 1970. He is known for his adventurous spirit, risk-taking approach to business, and diverse portfolio of ventures. Branson's Virgin Group encompasses various sectors, including airlines, telecommunications, media, and even space tourism with Virgin Galactic. He is also a well-known philanthropist, involved in various charitable initiatives. His personality is also tied to his success, given he is charismatic and a media personality. As of 2016, he controlled five companies within Virgin Group.
In 1918, Edward James Branson, Richard Branson's father, was born.
In 1924, Evette Huntley Flindt, later Evette Huntley Branson, Richard Branson's mother, was born.
On July 18, 1950, Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born in Blackheath, London to Edward James Branson and Evette Huntley Branson.
In 1966, Richard Branson launched a magazine named Student with Nik Powell after failed attempts to grow and sell Christmas trees and budgerigars.
From 1967 to 1968, Richard Branson started squatting in London.
The first issue of Student magazine appeared in January 1968.
In 1968, Richard Branson was squatting in London.
In 1970, Richard Branson co-founded the Virgin Group.
In 1970, Richard Branson established a mail-order record business.
In 1971, Richard Branson was questioned in connection with selling records declared as export stock, leading to a settlement involving unpaid purchase tax and a fine.
In 1972, Richard Branson launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell, using money earned from his record store.
In 1973, Virgin Records released Mike Oldfield's debut album, Tubular Bells, which became a chart-topping best-seller.
In 1979, Richard Branson made brief appearances in the documentary Derek and Clive Get the Horn, which documented Peter Cook and Dudley Moore recording their final comedy album.
In 1979, Richard Branson's net worth was estimated at £5 million.
In 1982, Virgin purchased the gay bar Heaven in London.
In 1983, Now That's What I Call Music! emerged from Virgin Records offices as a compilation series.
In 1984, Richard Branson formed Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo.
In 1985, Richard Branson attempted the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing by ship in the Virgin Atlantic Challenger, but the boat capsized in British waters, requiring a Royal Navy helicopter rescue.
In 1985, Richard Branson formed Virgin Holidays.
In 1986, Richard Branson successfully broke the record for the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing by ship in the Virgin Atlantic Challenger II, beating the previous record by two hours.
In 1991, Richard Branson, in a consortium with David Frost, made an unsuccessful bid for three ITV franchises under the CPV-TV name.
In 1992, Richard Branson sold the Virgin label to EMI for £500 million to keep his airline company afloat.
In 1995, Richard Branson began several attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon, in collaboration with Per Lindstrand, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Larry Newman and Steve Fossett.
In 1996, Richard Branson created V2 Records to re-enter the music business, owning 5% himself.
In March 1997, Virgin Rail Group began operations for the InterCity West Coast franchises.
In 1997, Richard Branson founded the Virgin Rail Group to bid for passenger rail franchises during the privatization of British Rail. The Virgin Trains brand subsequently operated several franchises.
In 1998, Richard Branson released his autobiography, Losing My Virginity, which became an international best-seller.
In March 1999, Richard Branson failed to circumnavigate the globe by balloon before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter 3.
In 1999, Richard Branson became a founding sponsor of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), supporting the organization's mission to find missing children and prevent child exploitation; his mother Eve became a founding member of ICMEC's board of directors.
In 1999, Richard Branson launched Virgin Mobile.
In March 2000, Richard Branson was knighted for "services to entrepreneurship".
In 2000, Richard Branson launched the airline Virgin Blue in Australia.
In 2000, Richard Branson was parodied as a supervillain in the 2000 AD series Zenith, reflecting the competition between the comic's publisher/distributor and the Virgin Group at the time.
In March 2004, Richard Branson set a record for the fastest crossing of the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle, traveling from Dover to Calais in a Gibbs Aquada in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 6 seconds.
On September 25, 2004, Richard Branson announced a deal under which Virgin Galactic would license the technology behind SpaceShipOne to take paying passengers into suborbital outer space.
In 2004, Richard Branson founded the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, based at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, United States.
In 2004, Richard Branson made a cameo appearance in the film Around the World in 80 Days, playing a hot-air balloon operator.
In 2004, Richard Branson starred in the reality television show The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best on Fox, a competition testing entrepreneurship and adventure among sixteen contestants that lasted only one season.
In 2004, Yen May Woen was executed in Singapore. Richard Branson spoke out against capital punishment.
In 2005, the Branson School of Entrepreneurship was established in South Africa as a partnership between Virgin Unite and Taddy Blecher's CIDA City Campus, aiming to improve economic growth by supporting start-ups and micro-enterprises.
In June 2006, a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic led British and American competition authorities to investigate price-fixing attempts between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways.
On July 4, 2006, Richard Branson sold his Virgin Mobile company to the British cable, television, broadband, and telephone company NTL:Telewest for £900 million.
On September 21, 2006, Richard Branson pledged to invest the profits of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains in research for environmentally-friendly fuels. The investment was estimated to be worth US$3 billion.
In 2006, Richard Branson formed Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience.
In 2006, Richard Branson reportedly offered actor William Shatner a ride on the inaugural space launch of Virgin Galactic spaceplane VSS Enterprise named in honor of the Star Trek spaceships.
In 2006, Virgin Airlines formed Brussels Airlines through a merger with SN Brussels Airlines, while retaining its separate listing.
Richard Branson was ninth in The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 of the wealthiest people or families in the UK, with a worth of slightly more than £3 billion.
On February 1, 2007, Richard Branson launched the Virgin Health Bank, offering expecting parents the opportunity to store their babies' umbilical cord blood stem cells.
On February 9, 2007, Richard Branson announced the setting up of a new global science and technology prize—The Virgin Earth Challenge—to encourage technological advancements for the good of mankind, awarding US$25 million for commercially viable designs that remove atmospheric greenhouse gases.
In July 2007, Richard Branson purchased his Australian home, Makepeace Island, in Noosa.
On July 18, 2007, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of The Elders in Johannesburg, South Africa, a group conceived by Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel to address global conflicts, with funding from various donors including Branson and Gabriel.
In August 2007, British Airways was fined £271 million following a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic regarding price-fixing allegations. Virgin Atlantic received immunity for providing the tip-off.
In August 2007, Richard Branson announced that he had bought a 20 per cent stake in the Malaysian airline AirAsia X.
In August 2007, Richard Branson appeared on The Colbert Report, announcing a new aircraft named Air Colbert and engaging in a water fight with host Stephen Colbert. He later made a cameo on The Soup.
In August 2007, Virgin America began flying out of San Francisco International Airport.
In September 2007, Richard Branson wrote an article titled "My Friend, Steve Fossett" for Time magazine, expressing his sadness over the disappearance of his fellow-adventurer Steve Fossett.
In October 2007, Richard Branson's Virgin Group made an offer to acquire Northern Rock, proposing to rename it Virgin Money with Branson personally owning 30% of the company. The bid faced opposition, partly due to Branson's past tax evasion conviction.
From 1997 to 2007, the Virgin Trains brand operated the InterCity CrossCountry franchise.
In 2007, Richard Branson was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine.
In January 2008, Virgin Healthcare announced plans to launch a chain of healthcare clinics, offering conventional medical care alongside homeopathic and complementary therapies.
In March 2008, Richard Branson hosted an environmental gathering on his private island, Necker Island, with entrepreneurs, celebrities, and world leaders, including Tony Blair, Jimmy Wales, and Larry Page, to discuss global warming issues.
In March 2008, Richard Branson launched Virgin Mobile in India and made a cameo appearance in the Bollywood film London Dreams.
In June 2008, plans were abandoned where GPs could be paid for referring National Health Service (NHS) patients to private Virgin services after the BMA warned the plan would "damage clinical objectivity".
In September 2008, Richard Branson and his children attempted an eastbound record crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the sloop Virgin Money. The attempt was unsuccessful due to severe weather conditions, including a 'monster wave' that damaged the boat.
In late September 2008, plans for Virgin to take over a National Health Service (NHS) practice in Swindon were abandoned.
In December 2008, Richard Branson became a signatory of the Global Zero campaign, a non-profit international initiative focused on eliminating all nuclear weapons worldwide.
In February 2009, it was reported that Richard Branson's Virgin organization was bidding to buy the former Honda Formula One team. Branson expressed interest in Formula One but emphasized the need for economic efficiency and environmental responsibility.
On May 8, 2009, Richard Branson took over Mia Farrow's hunger strike for three days to protest the Sudanese government's expulsion of aid groups from the Darfur region.
In August 2009, William Shatner claimed in a Time magazine interview that Richard Branson inquired about how much Shatner would pay for a journey on the Virgin Galactic spaceplane, leading to a negotiation about payment.
In 2009, Richard Branson founded the Carbon War Room to address global warming and the energy crisis, focusing on sustainable alternatives in shipping, energy efficiency, aviation, and renewable jet fuels.
In 2009, Virgin Nigeria, a national airline based in Nigeria, ceased operations.
In 2009, fundraising activity at The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 event, sponsored by Virgin Group, helped raise £150,000 for the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, auctioning off opportunities to join Richard Branson on trips to South Africa for student coaching and mentoring.
In July 2010, Richard Branson narrated the Australian sailor Jessica Watson's documentary about her solo sailing trip around the world.
In 2010, Richard Branson and Tony Fernandes had a bet regarding the F1 season, with the loser having to work on the winner's airline as a stewardess. Fernandes won the bet.
In 2010, Richard Branson became the patron of the UK's Gordon Bennett 2010 gas balloon race, which featured 16 hydrogen balloons flying across Europe.
In 2010, Richard Branson, in collaboration with the Nduna Foundation and Humanity United, co-founded Enterprise Zimbabwe.
In 2010, Virgin Hotels was launched under the Virgin Group.
Since 2010, Richard Branson has served as a Commissioner on the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a United Nations initiative that promotes universal access to broadband services.
In April 2011, Richard Branson appeared on CNN's Mainsail with Kate Winslet, re-enacting a scene from the 1997 film Titanic.
On August 17, 2011, Richard Branson was featured in the premiere episode of Hulu's first long-form original production, A Day in the Life.
In 2011, Edward James Branson, Richard Branson's father, passed away.
In 2011, Richard Branson served on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, joining former political and cultural leaders to advocate for more humane drug laws.
In a 2011 interview with Piers Morgan, Richard Branson stated that he is an atheist and believes in the importance of humanitarian efforts, not in the existence of God.
In April 2012, Virgin Care began a five-year contract to provide various health services previously managed by NHS Surrey.
In July 2012, Richard Branson announced plans to develop an orbital space launch system called LauncherOne, securing contracts with four commercial customers and inspiring the development of standardized satellite buses.
In August 2012, the InterCity West Coast franchise was awarded to FirstGroup, leading Richard Branson to express concerns about the tender process and question FirstGroup's business plan.
In 2012, at the Pride of Britain Awards on ITV, Richard Branson, along with others, recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympics athletes.
On May 12, 2013, Richard Branson honored a bet lost to Tony Fernandes by serving as a stewardess on an Air Asia flight between Perth and Kuala Lumpur. The bet was related to the 2010 F1 season, where the losing team's boss would work on the winner's airline during a charity flight.
In December 2013, Richard Branson urged companies to boycott Uganda in response to its "anti-homosexuality bill," stating his opposition to supporting countries with such discriminatory laws.
In 2013, Richard Branson stated his plans to take his two children on a trip to outer space on SpaceShipTwo's first public flight, then planned for 2014.
In September 2014, Richard Branson announced his investment in the drone company 3D Robotics, praising the potential of drones for providing affordable aerial perspectives.
In 2013, Richard Branson planned to take his two children on a trip to outer space on SpaceShipTwo's first public flight, planned for 2014.
In 2014, Richard Branson joined forces with the African Wildlife Foundation and WildAid for the "Say No" Campaign, an initiative designed to raise public awareness about wildlife poaching and trafficking.
In 2014, Richard Branson launched the "Foodpreneur" competition, aimed at food and drink start-ups. Winners received mentorship, legal support, and brand counseling.
By March 2015, Virgin Care was responsible for managing more than 230 health services nationwide.
In March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC), a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%), began operating the InterCity East Coast franchise.
In November 2015, Richard Branson announced the inclusion of Moskito Island to the Virgin Limited Edition portfolio, featuring The Branson Estate, a resort with 11 bedrooms for 22 guests.
From 2015 to 2018, the Virgin Trains brand operated the InterCity East Coast franchise.
In 2015, Richard Branson released a letter supporting American prisoner Richard Glossip on the day he was scheduled to be executed, expressing his opposition to the death penalty.
In 2015, the "Foodpreneur" competition expanded into the Virgin StartUp's Foodpreneur Festival, offering winners the chance to pitch to Target Corporation buyers.
As of 2016, Richard Branson controlled five companies within the Virgin Group.
In December 2017, Richard Branson became the chairman of Hyperloop One after Virgin Group invested in the company and formed a strategic partnership.
In February 2018, Richard Branson announced that the first Virgin hotel in the UK would open in Edinburgh.
In May 2018, it was announced that Richard Branson would become a partner in a private equity fund co-managed by Metric Capital, targeting investments in consumer goods firms.
In May 2018, it was announced that the contract for Virgin Trains East Coast would be terminated early due to the line's underperformance.
On June 23, 2018, Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) ceased operations, with the services taken over by the government-owned London North Eastern Railway.
In September 2018, Richard Branson participated in his fourth Virgin Strive Challenge, traveling over 2,000 km from Cagliari to Mont Blanc using human and sail power to raise funds for Big Change.
In 2018, Virgin Trains stopped operating the Intercity East Coast franchise.
In February 2019, Richard Branson helped organize Venezuela Aid Live, an international benefit concert to raise awareness and funds for humanitarian aid during the Venezuelan crisis, held in Cúcuta, Colombia.
In October 2019, Richard Branson inaugurated Virgin's new route between London Heathrow and Tel Aviv, praising Israel's entrepreneurs. He was photographed kissing the ground upon arrival, a traditional gesture in the Holy Land.
On December 7, 2019, Virgin Rail's operation of the West Coast line ended, replaced by Avanti West Coast.
In 2019, Virgin Trains stopped operating the Intercity West Coast franchise, which they had run since 1997.
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Richard Branson and Virgin faced criticism for asking staff to take eight weeks' unpaid leave amidst a dramatic decline in international air travel.
On May 5, 2020, Virgin Atlantic announced it would lay off 3000 staff, reduce the fleet size to 35 by summer 2022, retire the Boeing 747-400s, and cease operations from Gatwick Airport due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On July 11, 2021, Richard Branson traveled as a passenger on board Virgin Galactic Unity 22 to the edge of space. The suborbital test flight lasted approximately one hour and reached a peak altitude of 53.5 miles (86.1 km).
On July 11, 2021, Richard Branson, along with Beth Moses, Sirisha Bandla, and Colin Bennett, flew to the edge of space (86 km) on the Virgin Galactic spacecraft VSS Unity, making him the first billionaire founder of a space company to achieve this feat.
In 2021, Evette Huntley Branson, Richard Branson's mother, passed away.
In 2021, Richard Branson joined other public figures in calling on Singapore to halt the execution of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, a Malaysian drug trafficker sentenced to death for heroin trafficking.
In October 2022, Richard Branson rejected an invitation from the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs for a live televised debate on Singapore's approach to drugs and the death penalty.
By the summer of 2022, Virgin Atlantic completed its fleet reduction to 35 aircraft as announced in May 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2023, Richard Branson protested against the upcoming execution of Tangaraju Suppiah, a Singaporean man found guilty of trafficking cannabis.
In June 2023, Forbes magazine listed Richard Branson's estimated net worth at US$3 billion.
Before the execution of Saridewi Djamani on July 28, 2023, Richard Branson appealed for mercy on her behalf, marking the first female offender executed in Singapore in 19 years.
In September 2023, Richard Branson announced that he would not invest additional funds into Virgin Galactic due to the company's financial losses and the limited financial resources of his business empire.
In 1969, Branson's net worth was estimated at £50,000 which is equivalent to £1,040,000 in 2023.
In October 2024, Virgin Money UK was sold to Nationwide Building Society, resulting in Richard Branson making £724 million from the deal.
In 2025, Richard Branson announced plans to compete with Eurostar on rail lines connecting London to Paris and Brussels by 2029.
Richard Branson plans to compete with Eurostar on rail lines connecting London to Paris and Brussels by 2029.
Sir Elton John is a highly successful British singer songwriter...
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician lawyer and...
Nigeria is a West African nation the most populous in...
Larry Page is an American entrepreneur and computer scientist who...
Venezuela officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a country...
Saudi Arabia officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia KSA is...
7 days ago Josh Hart shines with increased workload, making a case to stay in lineup.
6 months ago Terry Crews Celebrates 36 Years of Marriage; Ranks Worst Brooklyn Nine-Nine Episodes
7 months ago Warren Buffett's Successor Approved; Berkshire Hathaway Stock Affected; Omaha Reacts to Leadership Change
Tony Danza is an American actor and former professional boxer best known for his roles in the popular television sitcoms...
16 days ago Scott Bessent Predicts Oil Price Drop Contingent on Venezuelan Events; Gas Prices Impacted.
6 days ago Andrew Wiggins shines as Heat realize Warriors' insight; masters portion control.
Matt and Ross Duffer known as the Duffer Brothers are...
Candace Owens is an American conservative political commentator and author...
Ilhan Omar is an American politician currently serving as the...
XXXTentacion born Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy was a controversial yet...
Tom Cotton is an American politician and Army veteran currently...
Harriet Tubman was a pivotal American abolitionist and social activist...