Amazon prime day 2019, July 15th and 16th  A mote back we put up our guide to US holidays for the benefit of people from other countries, so you can tell whether your American staff need the day off or not. But one day got left off the calendar because it's such a new concept that has yet to be fully recognized. That day is Amazon Prime Day. It's a new kind of "holiday" being pushed by Amazon as a kind of Internet shopping festival.  This year, they even decided to do a full blowout by having a "Prime Day Concert 2019" hosted from the Hammersmith Ballroom in New York City. It was broadcast on Amazon Prime Video and headlined Taylor Swift, among many celebrity guests.    It's a good time to step back and ask: What's happening here? Can a corporation, with no other cultural anchor point, force a holiday into existence? Well, while this sounds like a portent of cyberpunk mega-corp behavior, the commercial impetus for holidays actually goes back much farther than you'd think.    A Brief History Of…