Amazon, the Everything Store, on This Day in History

 

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This Day In History: Amazon, the largest and best-known e-commerce site today opened its website for the first time on this day (July 15) in 1995. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, a year prior in 1994. Though originally starting out as a bookstore, Amazon is now one of the Big Five companies in the U.S. information technology industry, along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook. The company has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", as well as the world's most valuable brand.

Amazon is known for its disruption of well-established industries through technological innovation and mass scale. It is the world's largest online marketplace, AI assistant provider, live-streaming platform and cloud computing platform. Amazon is the largest Internet company by revenue (Amazon is one of the few trillion-dollar companies in the world). It is the second largest private employer in the United States (Walmart is number one). 

Amazon has a valuation of $1.6 trillion, which means it earns more money than 92% of countries of the world. Amazingly, Amazon had not made a profit for most of its history. Amazon's government contracts may have a lot to do with their wealth. There were years when Amazon paid no taxes. 

Did you know: Amazon wasn't the original name Jeff Bezos came up with for his new company in the 90's. He originally wanted to name it Cadabra (like abracadabra) but it sounded too much like CADAVER when said out loud. 

Amazon makes billions with AWS. Amazon Web Services is a cloud service operated by Amazon. It provides web hosting for businesses, including data storage, power, and IT resources. Many sites and apps we use every day run on AWS, including Lyft, Airbnb, Netflix and Spotify. 

There are things you CANNOT buy on Amazon, like homes, cigarettes, live animals, and books that Amazon deems harmful (though Mein Kampf is still available on its site).

Amazon is a pet-friendly company. There are currently 6000 dogs working at their campus in Seattle.

The Amazon Prime streaming service has about 24,000 movies and over 2,100 shows to choose from. You can also rent or buy additional movies and TV episodes not included with your Prime subscription.

Wikipedia has a list of 108 companies that Amazon owns.

Jeff Bezos, as the richest man in the world, has a serious security detail. When he had a cameo in Star Trek Beyond, he had about nine bodyguards and three limos. "Bezos spends around $1.6 million a year on personal security. This amount may seem like a lot of money, but it is on the low end compared to what other tech CEOs spend on their security. There is evidence that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, spends up to $23 million a year on security. It has increased in recent years due to Zuckerberg’s continued unpopularity with the public."~Richard Martin

A suspected serial killer in South Carolina left some creepy reviews on Amazon. Todd Kohlhepp, who is linked to seven deaths, often left eerie reviews on Amazon, including one review for a shovel in which he wrote,“Keep in car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full size shovel at home.”

Amazon's intelligent personal assistant, Alexa, via Amazon's home Echo speaker, has witnessed several murders, and recordings have been handed over the law enforcement in the past.

See also: Amazon faces a lawsuit over missed lunch breaks.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/27/22353929/lawsuit-alleges-amazon-failed-breaks-overtime-wages

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The Storming of the Bastille (and the Reign of Terror) on This Day in History

This Day In History: The storming of the Bastille happened on this day in 1789, a day which is now celebrated as "Quatorze Juillet" (Fourteenth of July in French), or simply Bastille Day. This is an important moment in the French Revolution.

The medieval armory, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power; its fall was the starting point of the French Revolution.

But should Bastille Day and the French Revolution be celebrated?

"The popular image of Bastille Day, indeed of the French Revolution itself, is that the liberty-loving French folk in Paris spontaneously rose up against a tyrannical king and his haughty wife, and heroically stormed the symbol of the Old Regime — the prison fortress known as the Bastille — liberating hundreds of political prisoners. This led to an abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a government dedicated to liberty for all the people of France...Nothing could be further from the truth."~Steve Byas

Around half a million people had been imprisoned across France, and 10,000 may have died in prison without trial. Many others were lynched. The symbol of the American Revolution was the Declaration of Independence, the symbol of the French Revolution was the guillotine.

The French Revolution was also very anti-Christian, so much so that they would abandon anything that resembled Christianity, including the calendar. The new “French Calendar” the Revolutionaries used in place of the old Gregorian calendar deliberately left out the Sabbath as well as religious holidays. Year One was 1792, and this calendar had twelve months of 30 days, and each month had 3 ten day weeks. The calendar would be abandoned later on by Napoleon.

Statues were torn down, libraries and manuscripts were burned. "The damage done by the French Revolution to southern French history in particular is incalculable."~Thomas Lecaque

One of the best known figures of the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre, stated, “We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with them…Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.” 

"The French Revolution marks a stain in history, notorious for one of the bloodiest periods in modern civilization." [Mallary A. Silva] 

It came on the heels of the American Revolution, but unlike the colonies it ultimately (arguably) failed and degenerated into senseless violence and gave the world the guillotine. “...more men and women were slaughtered in a couple of weeks of the terror of the atheistic French Revolution than in a century of the Inquisition.”~Michael Coren

Is it any wonder that future tyrants such as Lenin, Karl Marx, Ho Chi Minh would go on to praise the French Revolution

"All the great political woes of the modern era — Communism, Fascism, and its German bier and swastika variant, Nazism — have their tangled, bitter beginnings in the storming of the Bastille."~John Lewis-Stempel

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The 1863 New York City Draft Riots on This Day in History

Gangs of New York - Draft Riots

This Day In History: The New York City draft riots happened on this day in 1863. Opponents of conscription began three days of rioting which ended up in 120 deaths and will be later regarded as the worst riot in United States history. 

Conscription in the United States, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the federal government of the United States in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. 

After the Vietnam War, President Gerald Ford abolished the draft entirely in 1975, however President Carter established the draft system in place today as a response to the potential threat posed by the Soviets.

There were ways to avoid the draft. If you had children you had a lower draft priority. If you were clergy you were exempt from the draft. Mitt Romney avoided the draft because he was on a 2 year Mormon mission. You can also claim a sickness. During the Vietnam draft, people would stay awake for days ahead of their medical screening by doing drugs, or otherwise make themselves appear generally unhealthy to avoid military service. In the 60's and 70's being gay kept you out of the military. Between 1965 to 1975 40,000 American dodged the draft by fleeing to Canada. Student deferments were very common ways of beating the draft and Joe Biden had 5 such deferments. Having an "essential" job kept you from being drafted. Some went into business selling forged National Guard or National Reserve paper for $5000. 

There are 64 countries still have the draft such as Russia, Austria, Israel, Greece, Switzerland and Norway.

Ayn Rand had harsh words for the draft: "Of all the statist violations of individual rights in a mixed economy, the military draft is the worst. It is an abrogation of rights. It negates man’s fundamental right—the right to life—and establishes the fundamental principle of statism: that a man’s life belongs to the state, and the state may claim it by compelling him to sacrifice it in battle. Once that principle is accepted, the rest is only a matter of time. If the state may force a man to risk death or hideous maiming and crippling, in a war declared at the state’s discretion, for a cause he may neither approve of nor even understand, if his consent is not required to send him into unspeakable martyrdom—then, in principle, all rights are negated in that state, and its government is not man’s protector any longer. What else is there left to protect?...Politically, the draft is clearly unconstitutional. No amount of rationalization, neither by the Supreme Court nor by private individuals, can alter the fact that it represents 'involuntary servitude.'"

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You may also be interested in 220 Books on the American Civil War on DVDrom 1861-1865

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The Day Disco Died on This Day in History

 

Disco Demolition Night, a Major League Baseball promotion happened on this day (July 12) in 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois. At the climax of the event, a bin filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of a doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Many of those in attendance had come to see the explosion rather than the games and rushed onto the field after the detonation. The playing field was so damaged by the explosion and by the fans that the White Sox were required to forfeit the game to the Tigers.

Disco music at the time was a very popular and a very danceable genre of music that eventually created a backlash among Rock fans, especially as many radio stations were switching from Rock to Disco. Disco music was everywhere as Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees dominated the air waves.

Disco was criticized as mindless, consumerist, overproduced and escapist. The slogans "Disco sucks" and "Death to disco" became common. Rock artists such as Rod Stewart and David Bowie who added disco elements to their music were accused of selling out. 

Even Kiss had a disco song.

Anti-disco sentiment was expressed in some television shows and films. A recurring theme on the show WKRP in Cincinnati was a hostile attitude towards disco music. In one scene of the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, a wayward airplane slices a radio tower with its wing, knocking out an all-disco radio station. July 12, 1979, became known as "the day disco died" because of the Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco demonstration in a baseball double-header at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Rock station DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, along with Michael Veeck, son of Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, staged the promotional event for disgruntled rock fans between the games of a White Sox doubleheader which involved exploding disco records in centerfield. As the second game was about to begin, the rowdy crowd stormed onto the field and started setting fires, tearing out seats and pieces of turf, as well as other damages. The Chicago Police Department made numerous arrests, and the extensive damage to the field forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game to the Detroit Tigers, who had won the first game.

Disco's decline in popularity after Disco Demolition Night was swift. On July 21, 1979, the top six records on the U.S. music charts were disco songs. By September 22, there were no disco songs in the US Top 10 chart, with the exception of Herb Alpert's instrumental "Rise," a smooth jazz composition with some disco overtones. Some in the media, in celebratory tones, declared disco "dead" and rock revived. The Bee Gees were even getting bomb threats. Karen Mixon Cook, the first female disco DJ, stated that people still pause every July 12 for a moment of silence in honor of disco. Dahl stated in a 2004 interview that disco was "probably on its way out [at the time]. But I think it [Disco Demolition Night] hastened its demise".

Disco may have died, but it was instrumental in the development of electronic dance music genres like house, techno, eurodance.

The Dee Gees (Foo Fighters) do You Should Be Dancing

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The Aaron Burr- Alexander Hamilton Duel on This Day in History

This Day In History: The famous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton happened on this day in 1804 (Hamilton would go on to die from his wounds). Andrew Jackson would also be involved in several duels and Lincoln was once called out for a duel, but cooler heads eventually prevailed. The French were especially creative when it came to dueling. In 1808, two Frenchmen fought in balloons over Paris, each attempting to shoot and puncture the other's balloon, and in 1843, two other Frenchmen fought a duel by means of throwing billiard balls at each other. 

There was even a famous duel between two women: "A certain Mrs. Elphinstone expected no more than a cup of tea when she paid a social call to Lady Almeria Braddock’s London home in 1792. But the visit veered off into decidedly unladylike territory when the hostess, evidently enraged by a casual comment Mrs. Elphinstone made about her age, challenged her guest to a duel in Hyde Park. According to reports, Mrs. Elphinstone fired her pistol first, knocking Lady Braddock’s hat to the ground. The women then took up swords, and Lady Braddock got her revenge by wounding her opponent in the arm. The 'Petticoat Duel,' as it came to be known, ended without further incident when Mrs. Elphinstone agreed to write a letter of apology."~Jennie Cohen

Dueling eventually fell out favor in the mid-1800's.

“The career of dueling showcases a puzzling phenomenon we will often encounter: a category of violence can be embedded in a civilization for centuries and then vanish into thin air. When gentlemen agreed to a duel, they were fighting not for money or land or even women but for honor, the strange commodity that exists because everyone believes that everyone else believes that it exists. Honor is a bubble that can be inflated by some parts of human nature, such as the drive for prestige and the entrenchment of norms, and popped by others, such as a sense of humor.” ― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

See also The Bloody History of Dueling
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-bloody-history-of-duelling.html

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Dueling Documentary

G. W. Taylor and his Women's Hemline Index Theory on This Day in History

This Day in History: Industrial Relations professor George W. Taylor was born on this day in 1901. He came up with what is known as the Hemline Index theory. The theory suggests that hemlines on women's dresses rise along with stock prices. In good economies, we get such results as miniskirts (as seen in the 1920s and the 1960s), or in poor economic times, as shown by the 1929 Wall Street Crash, hems can drop almost overnight. Of course this index is almost useless now that many women wear pants.

There is also a Men's Underwear Index, which is an economic index that can supposedly detect the beginnings of a recovery during an economic slump. The premise is that men's underwear are a necessity in normal economic times when sales remain stable. During a severe downturn, demand for these goods changes as new purchases are suspended. Ergo, men's purchasing habits for underwear is thought to be a good indicator of discretionary spending for economic turnaround periods.

See also: How your undies track the recession

Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan actually followed this index.

There is also a Big Mac Index. "The Big Mac index is a survey created by The Economist magazine in 1986 to measure purchasing power parity (PPP) between nations, using the price of a McDonald's Big Mac as the benchmark."~Investopedia

"McDonald's has stores in 118 countries. This means its Big Mac burger can provide a useful control variable.

In theory, the price of a Big Mac is the result of many local economic factors. This could be the price of the ingredients, local wages, or how much it costs to put up billboards and buy TV ads.

These variables are what make the Big Mac Index so valuable. Many economists find that the PPP metric you can get from comparing the prices of Big Macs around the world is a reasonable measure of real-world purchasing power." ~The Balance

The Big Mac Index is much like the Starbucks Index

See also The History & Mystery of Money & Economics-250 Books on DVDrom

The Food Poisoning Death of President Taylor on This Day in History

 

https://amzn.to/2V7Z82u

This day in history: The 12th President of the United States, Zachary Taylor, died on this day (July 9) in 1850. At a fundraising event in Washington, Taylor consumed copious amounts of iced milk and cherries, which were believed to be contaminated by an open and primitive sewage system combined with the July heat at the time.

Zachary Taylor is not the only person of note in history to die after eating. Themistocles (459 BC), the Athenian general who won the Battle of Salamis, was widely rumored to have committed suicide by drinking bull's blood, which was believed to be poisonous.

While visiting relatives, Henry I of England (1135) ate too many lampreys (an eel-like fish) against his doctor's advice, which caused a pain in his gut and ultimately his death.

British composer Henry Purcell is rumored to have died from chocolate poisoning, "a result of consuming the impure drink at one of London’s new chocolate houses."

Actor Marty Feldman (Igor on Young Frankenstein) may have died of shellfish poisoning in Mexico in 1982.

Basil Brown (1974), a 48-year-old health food advocate from Croydon, England, died from liver damage after he consumed 70 million units of Vitamin A and around 10 gallons of carrot juice over ten days, turning his skin bright yellow.

Tina Christopherson (1977) died when she fanatically drank 4 gallons of water a day to combat stomach cancer.

New Zealand mother, Natasha Harris, in 2010, died of a sudden cardiac arrest because she drank over 2.5 gallons of Coca-Cola every day. 

Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach, Florida, entered a bug-eating contest in 2012. Archbold ate about two ounces of meal worms, 35 horn worms and a considerable amount of roaches. He won the contest, but collapsed due to "asphyxia due to choking and aspiration of gastric contents."

Kurt Gödel (1978), an Austrian-American logician and mathematician, developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned and refused to eat food prepared by anyone but his wife. When she became ill and was hospitalized, he starved.

There are also delicacies that are known to be quite dangerous, even fatal, such as Pufferfish. Blood clams are available to eat in China, and it is consumed quickly once boiled. However, they are known to carry several viruses that lead to deadly diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis A, and dysentery. A Jamaican favorite fruit, Ackee, must only be eaten when it is fully ripe, properly prepared and without the toxic seeds. The seeds contain poisonous substances that cause vomiting. In Africa and South America there is a certain variety of cassava called manioc which must be eaten properly cooked and prepared. If eaten raw it becomes cyanide. Live octopus is eaten raw in Korea, but care must be taken so that the suction doesn't grip your throat and cause choking and suffocation.