Forget King Solomon, American businessman Jeff Bezos is now the richest person in history

The 53-year-old surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates to gain the title of richest person in history. He had previously passed Gates briefly in July and again in October both times earning the title of richest person in the world.

A jump in Amazon stock on Monday, January 8, 2018, helped Bezos gain the prestigious title. However, he hasn’t always been the billionaire titan he is today.

He was born on January 12, 1964. He is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, the world's largest online shopping retailer.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (Image courtesy Google)

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According to Wikipedia, the company began as an internet merchant of books and expanded to a wide variety of products and services, most recently video and audio streaming. It is also the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services, which is available through its Amazon Web Services arm.He is the founder of space company Blue Origin (founded in 2000) and The Washington Post newspaper. A number of other business investments are managed through his company Bezos Expeditions.

But, there are some who do not agree that Bezos is the richest person of all time. An article on Forbes says “On an inflation-adjusted basis, Bill Gates has previously been worth far more. In April 1999, for instance, Gates’ net worth eclipsed $100 billion for the first time when Microsoft shares topped out at the apex of the dot-com bubble. That fortune would be worth roughly $150 billion in today’s dollars.

Bill Gates was formerly the world's richest man (Image courtesy Google)

Gates, who is now worth an estimated $92 billion, would also be far richer if he had not given about $36 billion of Microsoft stock to charity over time, mostly to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the planet’s largest private philanthropic foundation.”

Others also point to the biblical wealth of King Solomon. The bible states that King Solomon held a fortune that dwarfed any and every person who lived before him. This made him the richest person to have ever lived in the world. King Solomon reigned for 40 years. Each year, he received 25 tons of gold.

1 ton of gold is worth $64.3 million at $2000/oz. Therefore, 25 tone times 40 years of his reign amounts to $64,300,800,000 according to wealthresult.com.

This did not include income derived from business, trade, nor the annual tribute paid to him by all of the kings and governors of Arabia. King Solomon’s throne was coated in pure gold and inlaid with ivory.

A painting of King Solomon welcoming the Queen of Sheba to his palace (Image courtesy Google)

All of the goblets and household articles in Solomon’s palace were pure gold. He was reportedly so rich, that during the years of his reign over Jerusalem, the immense wealth caused silver to be considered of little value and as common as rocks

But since none of his reported wealth has been proven, the title of richest person in history currently belongs to Jeff Bezos.