August 24, 2026: Missing The Start Of Something

Those startup sounds probably still mean something to you. Here's the story of the day they first played for the world.

On August 24, 1995, Microsoft launched Windows 95 with a roughly $300 million promotional campaign, licensing the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" for its commercials, lighting the Empire State Building in the software's logo colors, and giving away 1.5 million free copies of The London Times, the paper's first free issue in 307 years. Seven million copies sold in the first five weeks. What the celebration didn't show was that Bill Gates had already warned his own executives, three months earlier, that the internet was about to change everything, and Microsoft's flagship product still couldn't fully act on that warning in time.

This is bsnsHistory, the daily podcast about the moments when business quietly reshaped the world.

Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.

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