Once-dominant and much-loathed, IE turns 20
Internet Explorer, the buggy, disliked, yet once-dominant Web browser, this weekend reaches the 20th anniversary of its initial release. It’s an important occasion in Internet history that probably will go … Continue reading
Predator drone down — over Bosnia, 20 years ago
That 1995 was a year of multiple watersheds is beyond dispute. As I discuss in my latest book, 1995: The Year the Future Began, it was the year the Internet … Continue reading
The ‘Netscape Moment,’ 20 years on
We’re in the runup to the 20th anniversary of the “Netscape Moment” of 1995, the day when a California startup’s eye-popping market debut illuminated the World Wide Web for millions … Continue reading
20 years after its launch, Amazon showing an unlikable side
Twenty years after it opened for business online, Amazon.com is showing a meaner side that has become pretty obvious. The world’s largest online retailer delivers an enormous variety of products … Continue reading
Of space shuttles and love-sick woodpeckers, 1995
For NASA, 1995 was quite the robust year. The space agency in 1995 launched its 100th human mission, sending a crew of five Americans and two Russians into Earth orbit … Continue reading
1995 as tipping point: Recalling Smith Corona’s bankruptcy
Even as 1995 unfolded, it became clear that the year would be regarded as a hinge moment, as an important transitory time near the end of the millennium. As I … Continue reading
‘Cyberporn’ scare of 1995 demonstrates the early Web’s corrective power
The demotion last month of Brian Williams, the former NBC News lead anchor, was testimony, at least in part, to the power of social media to expose and debunk. The … Continue reading
Microsoft warns Netscape in prelude to the ‘browser war’ of 1995-98
Before they were locked in a death struggle known as the “browser war,” the software giant Microsoft and Web upstart Netscape made nice, at least for a while. Representatives of … Continue reading
When Secret Service officers wore rubber gloves to greet gay officials
Is it “different enough”? One of the tests for conducting research into the recent past is whether the period under scrutiny is “different enough” from the present. With the passage … Continue reading
Downed pilot eludes Serbs; Americans take notice of Bosnia
The war that tore apart Bosnia in 1992-95 was Europe’s deadliest and most vicious since the time of the Nazis. It was a war that returned “ethnic cleansing” to the … Continue reading
The 1995 Blog 