Ebay floats as a public company, Google leaves beta stage and Kevin Mitnick is released. All on today’s On This Day from TEST Huddle.
1998 – eBay goes Public
On this day in 1998, eBay is floated as a public company. This occurs just over three years after its founding in September 1995. The founder of the company (Pierre Omidyar) and current president, Jeffrey Skolll became instant billionaires when the company’s stock price closes at $53.50 per share on the first day of trading.
1999 – Google leaves beta
After almost a year in ongoing development, on this day in 1999 Google takes the web search engine out of beta.
2000 – Kevin Mitnick is released
On This day in 2000, Kevin Mitnick is released after spending almost five years in jail. Kevin was featured on the blog before when he was sentenced. Upon his release Mitnick makes a statement where he lambastes the prosecutors responsible for his sentence and The New York Times reporter John Markoff for his gross misrepresentation of the case. He served a large part of his sentence in solitary confinement as the prosecutor claimed he was so dangerous that he could start a nuclear war by whistling down a phone.
If you would like to add anything to these events, or know of other significant technology events that happened on this day in history, feel free to comment below.
Images: Wikipedia
