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 2014 Event Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is seeking to buy U.S. online rebate service Ebates Shopping.com Inc. for $950 million; in recent years, Rakuten has been making acquisitions to expand its interests outside of Japan 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 German design company Art+Com sues Google, claiming the Internet company infringed on its patented spatial mapping technology by incorporating its features into Google Earth; Art+Com offered to sell the patent to Google in 2006 but wasn't satisfied with Google's offer 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 2010 Event Yahoo! sells HotJobs to Monster.com for a reported $225 million 2006 Event Google buys YouTube.com for $1.6 billion 1997 Event ABC News and Starwave Corp launch ABCNEWS.com 1990 Event Senate Judiciary Com opens hearing on confirmation of David Souter 1984 Death Neil Hamilton, actor (Com Gordon-Batman), dies of asthma at 85 1974 Death Mohammed SA al-Hoesseini, Mufti of Jerusalem/president Com Palestine, dies 1970 Event Com Bowie Kuhn reprimands Astro Jim Bouton for writing "Ball Four" 1964 Birthday Jeff Bezos, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, founder, President of Amazon.com, previously a financial analyst for D.E. Shaw & Co. 1920 Event Joint Rules Com bans foreign substances and alterations to baseballs 1911 Birthday Nobutaka Shikanai, Japans media CEO, Fujisankei Com Group 1906 Event International Radio Telecommunications Com adopts "SOS" as new call for help 1820 Death Stephen Decatur, killed in a duel with Com James Barron at 41
