In April 1995, a (then still) small company was about to take a big step, while life went on in the wider world too. Let’s look back at a few interesting events:
• The US government ends its funding of NSFNET, placing the development of the internet in the hands of private companies.
• New York bans smoking in restaurants with more than 35 seats.
• In Kitchener, Ontario, the world’s longest sausage (46.3 km long) is made. The record stood until 2014, when it was broken in Romania.
• Madonna’s hit Take A Bow tops the charts.
• The winner of the M&M’s Color Campaign is announced, in which shoppers voted on whether the new M&M’s colour should be purple, blue or pink. The winning colour was blue. In honour of the winner, the Empire State Building was also lit up in blue.
• Rock for the Rainforest – a charity concert is held at Carnegie Hall in New York, with performers including Sting, Elton John, James Taylor, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jessye Norman and Geoffrey Oryema.
• The ERS-2 weather observation satellite is placed in orbit around the Earth, collecting important data on the land surface, the oceans, the polar ice caps and the atmosphere. Instead of the planned three years, the satellite operated for 16 years.
Don’t miss the May events either!