2015 Event Amazon.com joins eBay and others in removing Confederate flag items from its site after last week's shooting of nine African American church members; though part of U.S. Civil War history, the flag is also seen by many as a symbol of racism 2015 Event Amazon is again exempted from Federal Aviation Administration commercial drone flight prohibitions, allowing it to test delivery drones; the company had to reapply for exemption, as its drone fleet grew outdated while waiting for initial approval 2014 Event Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange; its pre-IPO market valuation of almost $168 billion exceeds that of American e-commerce giant Amazon by over $17 billion 2014 Event Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announces second-quarter earnings of over $1.1 billion , more than twice the combined income of U.S e-commerce giants Amazon and Ebay; Alibaba will issue its U.S. IPO in mid-September 2014 Event Amazon Inc. reports a $126 million loss for the second quarter, its second-highest loss on record; the company has been investing in new services to attract and retain more customers 2014 Event Amazon announces its new Kindle Unlimited program, a subscription service providing borrowing rights to a large selection of books for a monthly fee; the service is drawing comparisons to movie rental company Netflix 2014 Event Internet retailer Amazon, Inc. releases its own 'Fire' smart phone; the phone will allow users to connect directly to Amazon.com to shop for items they scan or identify in video and audio clips on the device 2014 Event Greenpeace releases its annual energy efficiency report praising several Internet companies, including Apple, which scored poorly a couple of years ago; Amazon was noted as lagging behind in use of renewable energy for its data centers 2013 Event Columbia's Chiribiquete National Park expands to 3 million hectares from 1.2 million hectares, becoming one of the Amazon's largest protected zones 2013 Event Footage of the previously unseen Kawahiva tribe is released; the Kawahiva is an indigenous tribe living in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, and is thought to have had very little contact with the outside world 2013 Event 'The Washington Post', a privately held newspaper, is purchased by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos 2012 Event In Illinois, a Cook County Circuit Court rules that the tax Amazon.com levied on Internet businesses by the U.S. state of Illinois is unconstitutional 2003 Death Lana Clarkson, actress, Amazon Women on the Moon, dies at 40 1983 Death D Mack Reynolds, U.S. writer (Amazon Planet, Once Departed), dies 1971 Event Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later 1964 Birthday Jeff Bezos, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, founder, President of Amazon.com, previously a financial analyst for D.E. Shaw & Co. 1963 Event Amazon carries 190,000 m3/sec (record) 1859 Birthday J Arthur S Berson, Austria meteorologist, Balloon flights, Amazon
