Mark Zuckerberg began programming at a young age--when he was 12 he created a messaging program that his father used in his dental office, allowing the receptionist to notify him of new patients without yelling across the office.
Zuckerberg took a computer graduate class at the nearby Mercy College while still in high school.
His parents even hired a computer tutor to work with the young Zuckerberg, but the tutor admitted that it quickly became difficult to stay ahead of his pupil, referring to him as a "prodigy."
Mark Zuckerberg attended high school at Phillips Exeter Academy, a private school in New Hampshire.
He was approached by several companies with job offers (including AOL and Microsoft) before he even graduated high school, but Zuckerberg turned them all down.
Zuckerberg first launched Facebook from his dormitory at Harvard University.
He dropped out of Harvard University after his sophomore year to continue working on Facebook.
A movie was made about Zuckerberg and the birth of Facebook, called The Social Network.
Before Facebook, Zuckerberg created CourseMatch for Harvard students, helping students pick out classes based on which classes their friends were enrolled in.
He also created the infamous Facemash program, which compared pictures of two Harvard students and allowed users to vote on who was more attractive. Harvard administration shut down the program, deeming it inappropriate.
Zuckerberg's next project involved teaming up with three other Harvard Students, Divya Narendra and the Winklevoss twins (who are infamously portrayed in The Social Network). They aimed to create a social networking site called Harvard Connection, which would serve as a matchmaking site for students. Zuckerberg soon left this project to work on Facebook with his friends.
Zuckerberg was close friends with Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, who also became a founding president of Facebook.
Early on, many companies like Yahoo! and MTV Networks approached Zuckerberg in hopes of advertising on Facebook, but Zuckerberg turned them down, not wanting to sell out.
In 2006, the Harvard Connection team sued Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their concept and requesting compensation of their business losses. While Zuckerberg asserted that the ideas were completely different, incriminating messages revealed that Zuckerberg may have intentionally ripped off intellectual property from the Harvard Connection.
A settlement of 1.2 million Facebook stock shares and $20 million in cash was eventually reached.
Zuckerberg wasn't the only one irritated with the Winklevoss twins. Former Harvard President Larry Summers had no love for the pair either, saying, "One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they're looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an asshole. This was the latter case."
Zuckerberg was not a fan of The Social Network, arguing that many of the film's details were inaccurate.
Zuckerberg notes that the film took huge liberties with some events, while staying oddly true to others. He observed that while he never had any interest in joining the finals clubs (an element that plays a major role in the film), every shirt and fleece depicted in the movie was an actual piece of clothing that he has owned.
The Social Network is based off of the book, The Accidental Billionaires, by Ben Mezrich. The book has been known to deviate quite a bit from actual events, as even the book's publicist referred to it as "big juicy fun" rather than "reportage."
The Social Network's screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, confessed to New York magazine that, "I don't want my fidelity to be the truth; I want it to be storytelling...what is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy's sake?"
Mark Zuckerberg was one of the early adopters of Google+, saying that it validated his vision of mainstream social networking. In 2011, Zuckerberg was the most followed user on Google+, with even more followers than Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Zuckerberg has supported numerous philanthropic causes, most famously donating $100 million to rescue the struggling Newark Public Schools system of New Jersey.
Zuckerberg has signed the "Giving Pledge" commitment, promising to donate at least 50% of his wealth over the course of his lifetime.
In 2014, Zuckerberg donated $25 million to combat the ebola virus epidemic in West Africa.
Zuckerberg's marriage to longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan was quite the surprise for friends and family--guests were told they were being invited over to celebrate Chan's medical school graduation, but in reality they ended up attending the pair's wedding.
Similar to Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg has a $1 annual salary as CEO of Facebook.
Zuckerberg was Time magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2010 and in 2013, Facebook made the Fortune 500 list for the first time--making Zuckerberg, at the age of 28, the youngest CEO on the list.
Zuckerberg is currently #10 on Forbe's list of the 400 richest Americans.
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