The First World Trade Center Bombing On Friday, February 26, 1993, thousands of New Yorkers went about their daily routines, unaware that a devastating attack was about to unfold beneath one of America's most recognizable landmarks. The World Trade Center's Twin Towers stood 110 stories tall, towering over Manhattan as symbols of American commerce and economic power. Office workers attended meetings, tourists admired the skyline, and shoppers visited the stores below. But sho

My Name is Boutros Boutros-Ghali: The Diplomat Who Faced a World in Crisis I was born on November 14, 1922, in Cairo, Egypt, into a prominent Coptic Christian family. My grandfather had served as Egypt's prime minister before his assassination in 1910. Politics, international relations, and public service were part of my family's heritage. As a young man, I witnessed a world struggling through colonialism, nationalism, and global war. I studied law at Cairo University before

1991–1992 — Somalia Collapses: Civil War, Warlords, and Famine In January 1991, the East African nation of Somalia descended into a nightmare. After more than two decades in power, President Mohamed Siad Barre was driven from the capital, Mogadishu, by armed opposition forces. Barre had ruled Somalia since 1969, using military authority, political repression, and alliances with powerful clans to maintain control. During the Cold War, his government had received foreign milita

My Name is Paul Allen: I Saw Possibilities Before They Had Names I was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1953. I was the sort of kid who could disappear into science-fiction books and then spend hours wondering whether the machines in those stories might someday be possible. At Lakeside School, I met another student who shared my fascination with computers: Bill Gates. Computers were enormous, expensive machines in those days, and getting access to one felt almost like being al

The Netscape IPO and the Beginning of Dot-Com Mania — 1995 On August 9, 1995, something extraordinary happened on Wall Street. Netscape Communications, a young company built around software for exploring the rapidly growing World Wide Web, began selling its stock to the public. Netscape was only about a year old, the Internet was still unfamiliar to millions of Americans, and the company had never produced the kind of long-term profits normally expected from a major corporati

My Name is Paul Baran: Building a Network Without a Center I was born in Grodno, Poland, in 1926, and came to the United States with my family when I was two years old. I grew up in Philadelphia during a period when radio, electronics, and computing were changing rapidly. I was interested less in what a machine looked like than in why it worked—and, perhaps more importantly, why it sometimes failed. That question would follow me throughout my career. Learning to Think Like

RAND, MIT, and the Search for a Network That Could Survive The Internet did not suddenly appear in the 1990s, nor was it the invention of a single person or organization. Its earliest foundations came from researchers trying to solve different pieces of an enormous puzzle—how computers and communications systems could exchange information quickly, efficiently, and reliably even when parts of a network failed. A Network Without a Vulnerable Center Around 1960, RAND Corporation

My Name is Masayuki Uemura: The Engineer Behind Nintendo's Home Consoles When people look back at Nintendo, they often remember Mario, colorful cartridges, controllers, and families gathered around televisions. I usually saw something different. I saw circuits, processors, wires, manufacturing costs, and a long series of engineering problems that had to be solved before any of those games could appear on the screen. Learning to Think Like an Engineer I was born in Tokyo in

Nintendo and the Video Game Industry at the Beginning of the 1990s Nintendo entered the 1990s as one of the most powerful names in home entertainment. Just a few years earlier, the American video game industry had been recovering from a major market crash, but Nintendo had helped rebuild consumer confidence with the Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly called the NES. By 1990, millions of families recognized characters such as Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong, and video games

My Name is Whitney Houston: The Voice That Reached the World I was born August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. Music was already waiting for me when I arrived. My mother, Cissy Houston, was a remarkable gospel and soul singer, and singers like Dionne Warwick were part of my family. I grew up hearing gospel music in church, and that is where I first learned what singing really meant. It wasn't just about hitting a note. You had to feel what you were singing. You had to believe