Mark Zuckerberg's dad is a dentist—but he originally wanted to work with computers

At 12 years old, Mark Zuckerberg built a messaging platform for his family called 'ZuckNet'

Mark's family used "ZuckNet" to communicate with each other in different rooms and Mark's dad's dental office, which was connected to their family home. ZuckNet ultimately didn't go anywhere, as AOL's instant messaging platform soon replaced it.

Mark Zuckerberg owns a cattle ranch in Hawaii

Zuckerberg owns a cattle ranch on Kauai, where he says his goal is to raise the best beef in the world. Zuckerberg has said that he raises Wagyu and Angus and feeds them macadamia meal and beer, both of which are produced on the cattle ranch. In January 2024, Zuckerberg said his daughter thought his full-time job was cattle ranching.

Mark Zuckerberg credits some of Facebook's success to constant evolution

Before becoming the head of OpenAI, Sam Altman was the president of Y Combinator—a startup accelerator company that supported companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, and Coinbase. In 2016, Altman interviewed Zuckerberg about creating Facebook and its growth over time. Zuckerberg said that, unlike other companies (think: CourseMatch), Facebook kept growing and adding new features, which prevented the app from becoming obsolete.

Randi Zuckerberg, Mark's sister, was Meta's first marketing director

Randi is two years older than Mark and also attended Harvard before working in advertising. Before joining Facebook, Randi worked in digital advertising at Ogilvy & Mather. In 2018, Randi attracted criticism for saying Holocaust deniers shouldn't be banned on Facebook. She's also previously been criticized for her own seemingly contradictory sentiments on Facebook's privacy rules.

Read Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg's $45B letter to their daughter

After giving birth to their daughter, the Zuckerbergs launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2015. The pair announced the charitable organization's creation in a letter addressed to their daughter. The Zuckerbergs pledged 99% of their earnings from Facebook over the course of their lives to advance education, cure disease, and transform public policy, something the letter says is a commitment to their daughter's future. The organization has since shifted its focus to artificial intelligence and science.

In high school, Mark Zuckerberg rejected Microsoft's proposal to buy his music suggestion software for $950K

Mark Zuckerberg and Adam D'Angleo built a website called "Synapse," which created playlists for users based on their listening preferences and an algorithm to suggest new songs, in September 2002.

Before 'The Facebook', Mark Zuckerberg made 'Facemash.com'

During Mark Zuckerberg's sophomore year at Harvard, he built a website that allowed users to rank and rate people's pictures from the school's online "facebooks" called Facemash.com, which quickly went viral. He was placed on academic probation for violating the school's rules around data, privacy, and computer usage. Zuckerberg says the website was a prank and he never intended for so many people to see it. FaceMash is credited with being the predecessor to Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg's 2024 rebrand was dubbed the 'Zuckassaince'

Zuckerberg, like Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, wore the same, simple T-shirts and outfits for most of his early career to decrease the decisions he'd have to make on a daily basis. In 2024, Zuckerberg started wearing chunky gold chains around his neck and oversized T-shirts with slogans on them. Some say the "Zuckassaince" is an effort to rebrand Meta as a futuristic company, not just an old social media company for millennials.

Harvard awarded Mark Zuckerberg an honorary degree in 2017

Mark Zuckerberg received an honorary degree from Harvard when he returned to the university to give a commencement speech. In his speech, he talked about wealth, racial inequality, political instability, and creating a sense of purpose.

Mark Zuckerberg was nearly fired from his own company after refusing to sell Facebook to Yahoo for $1B

In 2006, Yahoo tried to buy Facebook for $1B. Despite enthusiasm from nearly all of Facebook's management team and board (which included PayPal cofounder and famed investor Peter Thiel at the time), then 22-year-old Zuckerberg turned down the offer, insisting that Yahoo undervalued the company and didn't have a clear vision for the future. Zuckerberg has since said he regrets not being clear about his intentions to grow the company with his team before the Yahoo bid, as almost all of the company's management team left after he turned down the offer.

Mark Zuckerberg and Jesse Eisenberg met during Eisenberg's 'Saturday Night Live' monologue

When Jesse Eisenberg hosted "SNL" in 2011 ahead of an Academy Awards appearance for his portrayal of Zuckerberg in "The Social Network," Zuckerberg actually came on stage. That was the first time the two met, and many viewers said the interaction was awkward. Eisenberg tried to meet Zuckerberg before filming "The Social Network," but his producers told him he couldn't for legal reasons.

Mark Zuckerberg attended one of the most prestigious prep schools in America

Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire is one of the most prestigious private preparatory schools in the US. Zuckerberg attended the academy from 2000 to 2002 and was captain of the fencing team.

Meta disclosed Mark Zuckerberg's interest in martial arts as an investment risk

During the pandemic, Zuckerberg began practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu and even won gold and silver medals at his first tournament in 2023. His interest in martial arts and water sports, like wakesurfing and hydrofoiling, prompted the company to disclose those hobbies as risks for potential investors, given they pose a threat to Zuckerberg's health and he retains a significant amount of control over Meta.

Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress eight times between 2018 and 2024

Zuckerberg testified in Congress for the first time in 2018 over Facebook's privacy violations and its failure to detect Russian interference on the app during the 2016 election. Since then, Zuckerberg has appeared a total of eight times to defend Meta against privacy violations, child safety, and more. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Ray Dalio grew up in New York City, and his dad was a jazz musician

Dalio grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens—though his family moved to the city's suburbs when he was eight-years-old. His father played music in famous Manhattan nightclubs like the Copacabana, while his mother stayed home.

Jeff Bezos’ biological father and mother married as teenagers—and had Jeff a year later

His biological father, Ted Jorgensen, was a circus performer at the time. He later gave up custody of Jeff and became a bicycle repairman in Phoenix, Arizona. Ironically, the last time Jorgensen saw Jeff as a child was in a Walmart where Jorgensen worked. This video dives into the relationship between Jeff Bezos and his estranged biological father, who passed away in 2015.

America’s richest families

You could probably name a few of America's richest people, like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, for instance. But could you name the richest families in America, like the Waltons or the Mars family? Explore the list of 2024's richest families in America—and find out how they made their money—here.

Meet Frederick Terman: Stanford University professor and the 'Father of Silicon Valley'

Stanford University professor Frederick Terman used to encourage his students to start their own tech companies. His advice led to the creation of Hewlett-Packard. He also established the Stanford Research Park, which helped develop many successful tech companies today. Terman is often called the "Father of Silicon Valley," because his ideology directly shaped the region's development.

A timeline of the Rockefeller family

The Rockefeller family timeline (as it relates to the business world, at least) starts in 1839 with John D. Rockefeller’s birth. In the nearly 200 years since, his offspring have gotten involved in everything from the Watergate scandal to the McCormick & Company spice business.

Some Gen Z men are obsessed with ‘American Psycho’

If you’ve ever spent any time on finance-themed meme pages, you’re likely already aware that today’s young men have a fascination with the serial killer main character of the movie "American Psycho." Find out what it is about the satirical representation of the late-1980s Wall Street investment banker-type that resonates with Gen Z men.

Born to a well-off family in South Africa, Elon Musk left for Canada in 1989 before heading to the US

Musk was bullied as a child in South Africa, and even recalled being punched in the face, per a recent Walter Isaacson biography on the entrepreneur.

A New York farmer established the first cheese factory and revolutionized the industry

Jesse Williams, a farmer in New York state, had a passion for cheese but didn’t have the resources to produce it at the scale he desired. So, in 1851, Jesse and his son opened the first cheese factory, sourcing milk from multiple local farms and producing 100,000 pounds of cheddar—in their first season. Soon, Williams had hundreds of factories and created the prototype for cheesemaking as we know it today.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Before his final answer, the first US ‘Millionaire’ winner called his dad to tell him he’d won

John Carpenter was the first US contestant on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” to win the top prize. Impressively, he did it without using any of his “lifelines,” which could provide hints. Well, that’s not exactly true: Carpenter did use his “Phone a Friend” lifeline, but it was just to let his father know that he’d be winning a million bucks.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

As technology evolved, so did Wall Street

Before the telephone was invented in the mid 1800s, people had to trade stocks in person. But once office telephones and computers became commonplace, banks and other financial institutions didn't necessarily need to have their headquarters near exchanges like Wall Street's New York Stock Exchange.

Aurea's father came upon polygenic risk scores after reading a news article about it

Rafal Smigrodzki, a neurologist with a PhD in genetics, first heard of the polygenic risk score offering after reading about it in a 2017 MIT Technology Review feature that focused on the company they eventually used, Genomic Prediction.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic content)

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Marburg virus, related to Ebola, is also extremely deadly, and has no available vaccine.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.