On July 16, 1995, Amazon officially opened for business as
an online bookseller. Within a month, the fledgling retailer
had shipped books to all 50 U.S. states and to 45 countries.

Founder Jeff Bezos’s motto was “get big fast,” and Seattle-
based Amazon eventually morphed into an e-commerce
colossus, selling everything from groceries to furniture to
live ladybugs, and helping to revolutionize the way people
shop.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos, the founder, executive chairman,
and former president and CEO of Amazon.