When America stood still: The O.J. verdicts, 20 years after
The watershed year 1995 produced two flashbulb events in America — moments so powerful and memorable that for years afterward people remembered where they were, and what they were doing, … Continue reading
Defying critics to publish the Unabomber ‘Manifesto’
It may not have been courageous necessarily, but the joint decision by the Washington Post and New York Times 20 years ago to publish the Unabomber “Manifesto” certainly cut against the … Continue reading
20 years on: Remembering the senator who quit in disgrace
After a three-year ethics investigation into his unwanted sexual advances on women, many of whom were dependent on him for their jobs, Bob Packwood of Oregon abruptly announced the resignation … Continue reading
When war in Bosnia reached the beginning of its end
One of the deadliest attacks of Bosnia’s savage civil war came 20 years ago yesterday, when Bosnian Serb gunners lobbed five mortar rounds near an open-air market in Sarajevo, the … Continue reading
Contrived ballyhoo: Recalling Microsoft’s rollout of Windows 95
No prominent event of 1995 — a watershed year in ways serious and significant — was more hyped or contrived than Microsoft’s official release of the Windows 95 computer operating … Continue reading
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
Dilemma on the Merc’s front page: Lead with Netscape? Jerry Garcia death?
As a postscript to the recent coverage revisiting Netscape’s eye-popping IPO of August 1995, it’s worth recalling how the leading newspaper of Silicon Valley carried the news — and what … 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
Late summer 1995, and the spate of media mergers
Twenty years ago this week, Disney Company revealed it was buying the parent corporation of ABC for $19 billion in what then was the second most-lucrative corporate merger ever in … Continue reading
The 1995 Blog 