Super Mario Bros, Microsoft, YouTube and the most notable anniversaries of 2025

On July 16, 1995, Jeff Bezos launched amazon.com as an online bookstore from his home in Bellevue, Washington. The company initially called “Cadabra” sold books on-line at a time when e-commerce was still in its infancy and many were skeptical about the future of online shopping.

From that modest online bookstore, Amazon has become one of the greatest commercial powers in history, revolutionizing not only the way we shop, but also cloud computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS), digital entertainment with Prime video and home technology with Alexa. Bezos chose the name “Amazon” thinking about the largest river in the world, anticipating his vision of creating the largest store on-line of the planet. A vision that became a reality, making the company one of the most important examples of how the Internet has transformed the world economy.

The atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Photograph: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

August 6 and 9, 1945

The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, followed three days later by Nagasaki. These tragic events not only marked the end of World War II in the Pacific, but also the beginning of the atomic age. The immediate consequences were devastating: more than 200,000 people lost their lives in direct bombardment and the effects of radiation over the following months.

The recent award of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese Confederation of Atomic Bomb Victims’ Organizations, takes on even deeper meaning in light of current events: the change in Russian nuclear doctrine, which allows The use of weapons in response to conventional attacks supported by nuclear powers dramatically brings back to the fore the risks of an atomic escalation. The hibakushasurvivors of those tragic events, continue to remind the world of the importance of nuclear disarmament and peace.

Windows 95 released

Photograph: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/Getty Images