Richard Branson Fast Facts

Father: Edward Branson, lawyer

Mother: Eve (Huntley-Flindt) Branson, flight attendant

Marriages: Joan (Templeman) Branson (1989-present); Kristen (Tomassi) Branson (1972-1976, divorced)

Children: with Joan (Templeman) Branson: Clare Sarah, born and died in 1979; Holly; Sam

Other Facts:

Struggled in school due to dyslexia.

Signed notable artists such as the Sex Pistols, Culture Club, the Rolling Stones and Genesis to the Virgin Records label.

Some of his possessions include: Necker Island, Moskito Island and Makepeace Island; a super-yacht named the Necker Belle; a submarine named the Necker Nymph and a spacecraft named SpaceShipTwo or the VSS Enterprise.

The Virgin Group brand has spawned more than 400 worldwide companies, in leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, media, finance, conservation and health.

Timeline:

1966 – Starts the magazine “Student” shortly before dropping out of school at the age of 16.

1970 – Founds Virgin, a mail-order record company, and shortly thereafter a record store in London.

1971 – Forms the Virgin Records music label and builds a recording studio.

1973 – Branson’s first signed artist, Mike Oldfield, releases the single “Tubular Bells,” which stays on the UK charts for 247 weeks.

1984 – Forms Virgin Atlantic airlines.

1987 – Branson and Per Lindstrand become the first people to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hot-air balloon.

1992 – Branson sells Virgin Music Group to Thorn EMI. He says that the sale will allow him to concentrate on his airline, Virgin Atlantic.

1999 – Is knighted for his contributions to entrepreneurship.

June 2004 – Branson crosses the English Channel in one hour, 40 minutes and six seconds in an amphibious vehicle, setting a world record.

September 27, 2004 – Branson announces a licensing deal with Mojave Aerospace Ventures (MAV) to ultimately offer commercial space flights through Virgin Galactic.

December 7, 2009 – Branson unveils SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Enterprise, a commercial spacecraft designed to send passengers into orbit for $200,000 a ticket.

January 29, 2010 – Reveals the Necker Nymph, a three-person submarine that can dive more than 100 feet.

August 23, 2011 – Fire, ignited by a lightning strike, destroys Branson’s house on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. Approximately 20 people, including Branson, members of his family and actress Kate Winslet, escape unharmed.

November 22, 2013 – Branson announces that travelers for his commercial space travel flight can pay with the digital currency Bitcoin.

February 19, 2016 – Virgin Galactic unveils a new spaceship. It is a replacement for the one that crashed in 2014.

November 27-December 13, 2018 – Branson joins Fabien Cousteau and submarine pilot, Erika Bergman, on a historic expedition to the bottom of Belize’s Great Blue Hole, the world’s largest sinkhole. Aquatica’s three-person Stingray submarine captured extensive sonar and video footage to help understand and protect the world’s oceans. Part of the expedition, the first ever submersive dive, was available via live-stream on the Discovery Channel.

May 10, 2019 – Virgin Galactic announces that it will move its spacecraft and 100 of its workers to a building called Spaceport America in New Mexico. They will join about 50 other employees already working there.