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Warren Buffett Fast Facts

By CNN

(CNN) — Here’s a look at the life of Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Personal

Birth date: August 30, 1930

Birth place: Omaha, Nebraska

Birth name: Warren Edward Buffett

Father: Howard Buffett, politician and businessman

Mother: Leila (Stahl) Buffett

Marriages: Astrid Menks (August 30, 2006-present); Susan (Thompson) Buffett (April 19, 1952-July 29, 2004, her death)

Children: with Susan (Thompson) Buffett: Peter, Howard and Susan

Education: University of Nebraska, B.S., 1950; Columbia University, M.S. in Economics, 1951

Other Facts

Nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha.”

At the age of 13, Buffett filed his first tax return for income from newspaper routes.

Lives in the same home in Omaha that he purchased in 1958 for $31,500.

Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company which lists GEICO, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, Duracell and numerous other companies as subsidiaries.

Timeline

1951-1954 – Investment salesman for Buffett, Falk, & Co., his father’s investment firm.

1954-1956 – Security analyst for Graham-Newman Corp. in New York.

1956-1969 – General partner in Buffett Partnership, Ltd., an investment firm he started.

1962 – Begins buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway, a textile manufacturer in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

1965 – Buys controlling stock in Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

1969 – Dissolves Buffett Partnership. Berkshire Hathaway becomes his investment vehicle.

1970 – Becomes chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

1974-1986 and 1996-2011 – Member of the board of directors at the Washington Post Company.

1982 – Appears on the first annual Forbes list of the 400 richest people in America.

1989-2003 – Director of the Gillette Company.

1989-2006 – Director of the Coca-Cola Company.

2003 – Joins Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California gubernatorial campaign as an adviser.

May 2004 – Buffett announces he has agreed to serve as an economic adviser to John Kerry’s presidential campaign.

2006 – Announces plans to gradually donate all his Berkshire Hathaway shares to philanthropic foundations.

September 2008 – Invests $5 billion in Goldman Sachs and $3 billion in General Electric.

2010 – Launches The Giving Pledge with Bill Gates. The initiative encourages the world’s billionaires to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

February 15, 2011 – Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

August 2011 – Invests $5 billion in Bank of America.

August 14, 2011 – The New York Times publishes an op-ed written by Buffett, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.” He calls on Congress to increase taxes on Americans making more than $1 million. This becomes known as the Buffett Rule.

April 17, 2012 – Buffett confirms through a press release that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

May 4, 2018 – Announces that Berkshire Hathaway bought approximately 75 million additional shares of Apple stock during the first quarter of 2018 – the company now owns more than 230 million shares.

May 3, 2021 – Buffett announces that Greg Abel, the head of Berkshire Hathaway’s non-insurance business, will be his successor.

June 23, 2021 – Buffett resigns from his trustee position at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a statement, Buffett notes he has already resigned from all corporate boards other than Berkshire Hathaway’s.

June 28, 2024 – Buffett tells the Wall Street Journal that he has adjusted his will. He will place his wealth in a new charitable trust overseen by his three children, instead of giving any charitable funds to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

May 3, 2025 – At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting Buffett announces he will step down as CEO at the end of the year.

June 27, 2025 – Buffett donates $6 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to five foundations, with the largest amount going to the Gates Foundation. This is his biggest annual donation since he began giving away his fortune in 2006.

November 10, 2025 – In his annual message as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway to shareholders – a tradition dating back to 1965 – Buffett says that he will be “going quiet” after he steps down at the end of this year.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

YouTube hotel reviewer claims new luxury resort canceled his reservation and called the police on him

By CNN
(CNN) — A new luxury resort in Mexico that costs thousands of dollars a night is off to a rocky start after a reviewer with a reservation alleges he was turned away at the property’s gates.Ryan Walker, a luxury hotel reviewer on YouTube with more than 140K subscribers, posted a video the first week of August showing an interaction outside the brand-new Amanvari Mexico by Aman Resorts. The property, where stays for August 6 were listed on Aman’s site for more than $6,000 a night, is located about a two-hour drive from San José del Cabo on the Baja California peninsula.Walker’s driver was told he could not enter the property, the video shows, although Walker said he booked the hotel stay weeks ago. The video, viewed more than 500K times the first week, showed a screenshot of an email exchange discussing his stay.Conversations with workers outside the resort quickly escalated with one person captured on video saying she needed to speak with the police. Walker claims they did call the police.“We were stopped by an unmarked armed patrol truck with 5-6 armed officers,” Walker told CNN Travel via email on August 6. “They did not speak to us, however the driver had us roll the windows down and keep them down. We were able to keep driving.”Walker told CNN he had not heard from Aman about the incident as of August 6.Aman and a public relations firm promoting the resort’s opening did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment. Several days after CNN first published Walker’s account of the incident, a spokesperson for Aman Resorts provided the following statement:“The deceptively edited video created by someone unauthorized to be on our property does not reflect the circumstances of the incident accurately. The privacy and security of our on-property guests is paramount, and maintaining a peaceful environment for our guests and staff is a top priority at all times. This commitment is why Aman’s properties are the leading destinations worldwide for privacy and exclusivity.”In Walker’s YouTube video, a man on site suggested that Walker check his email for a new message. Walker said he found a message from the resort sent the night before his arrival saying that the property was “still in the earliest phase of settling the resort into full operation, and we have taken the difficult decision to reduce arrivals over the coming days while we complete this work.”The email canceled Walker’s stay and apologized for the disruption and short notice.Walker shared a reservation confirmation number with CNN and said he paid the rack rate for his room, totaling $4,662.86. He noted that the rate has gone up online since he booked.Walker speculated in his YouTube video that the resort’s first day of operations went poorly.“So this is how Amanvari is treating their new guests because they’re not ready to accept reservations at their property?” Walker said in the video.He went on to make his case for “why this is such a big deal.”“Independent reviewers protect the customer,” he said.“It is absolutely unacceptable and not OK to me to quiet someone who is trying to create a review during the opening week of your property,” Walker said, noting that he has reviewed other Aman properties in the past and has been a fan of the brand.Walker argues in the video that the hotel should have called him and had conversations with him directly if the property wasn’t ready for reviewers. He said he checked his call logs and had no missed calls from the resort.Walker called the incident “one of the most disappointing and embarrassing hotel experiences you could possibly have.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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